Last leg...

    We cruised around Nashville early on a Sunday morning, which was good timing in terms of traffic and taking photos. There isn't a lot to see, mind you; some pretty good museums, and concerts if you can afford the tickets, but it's a C&W town (it has a good symphony, though). 

    The interesting part for me was what I might call "the shrine" - the short two blocks of clubs where famous musicians played, and eventually ended up owning their own bars or having bars named after them. It's a wide street and is for cars (possibly Cadillacs), unlike Memphis, so it isn't as cool, but I added a few photos of the street to the photo album in the Memphis post.

    Rather than drive fourteen hours back to Toronto, I put out requests for hosts in Cincinnati, and got three positive responses, but the first one came from Jeff and Julie, so we stayed with them. They are a super nice couple who also have a love affair with Africa. Jeff is a retired chef, now working in a related field, and Julie has a new job with a company that does translations and interpreter services. Their daughter Alexis, who is in grade eight, continued the musical theme of this final leg of travel by telling us about the World Choir Games to be held in Cincinnati this summer. I'm going to keep an eye out for news and footage of that event.     Jeff and Julie had planned a Sunday evening turkey dinner, to which we were immediately invited...love those CouchSurfing hosts...we had a great dinner, shared photos and details of our lives and travels, and slept soundly in a lower level apartment that they have in their home. 

    This was welcome, because the previous Saturday night at Howard Johnson's in Nashville hadn't been as restful: we'd had a room next to the ice machine alcove, and there was drinking going on in a nearby room. After I got woken up for the second time at 3:40 a.m. by loud laughter and calling and kicking of empty glass bottles across the pavement, I phoned the manager and he threatened to kick them out.  After a while they took the party indoors, at least. 

    The drive north was interesting, because the seasons were going in reverse: It was summer in Memphis, although not as hot as it will get; almost summer in Nashville; by Cincinnati the buds and youngest leaves were already out in their hopeful spring glory, and in southern Ontario the snow is gone but most of the trees haven't got the confidence to bud out yet. Some have, but they're still pretty little. 

    Our tulips are up, icicle pansies are in full glory, and some of our other plants are growing well. The lawn is already luxuriously thick and long. Mind you, the temperature was in the twenties today, but it'll drop to 4 degrees celcius overnight (about 40 degrees to you Fahrenheiters) and only get up to 12 degrees tomorrow, so one can forgive the trees for being a bit hesitant. 

    So, that was it - four and a half months, door to door, our longest time away so far. Now we force ourselves back into the swing of life in Toronto - taxes, garden, sailboat, volunteer duties at the yacht club and tennis club, and for the AMSF charity; choir and band, bridge club, all that sort of thing. 

    The last and most important thing to do is to say Thank You to all the family, near and far, and the Helpx and Couchsurfing Hosts who helped us have such a wonderful trip and whose company and easy friendships we enjoyed so thoroughly along the way.  Our spare room and cheerful hospitality are here for you now...just don't arrive all at once!