Thursday
Now that we had our truck back, we finalized our lists and spent some time running errands in Shelbyville. First errand was laundry. It was a huge job, but we are getting more efficient in our methods. Next, we decided to visit our truck bed. JW and Mike were working on it when we arrived and we talked about a few decisions that needed to be made. Trey got a chance to use the plasma cutter to trim a piece of the bed frame to size. Here is JW attaching the side skin to the frame that Trey just cut.
We then visited three grocery stores (one was quite expensive and had limited selection, so we left) and headed home.
Friday
Friday we ran errands in Murfreesboro (a bit larger than Shelbyville.) The thirteen year cicadas are out in full force in middle Tennessee. Everywhere you look, you see them flying, throwing themselves with gusto toward cars and trucks on the road. The sound is deafening (okay, maybe not deafening, but really loud and a bit annoying.) While at Tractor Supply, I got a video of them on a tree in the parking lot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgejGk4kQkQ
If you have the volume on, you can hear the cicadas and the traffic from the road nearby. It is pretty simple to distinguish which is which. If you want more info on this brood, here is an interesting article. They emerged shortly after we arrived and will continue after we leave. They fly fast and it is difficult to see from where they come or to where they go. Occasionally, they decide to reside indefinitely on our windshield.
Saturday
Trey hopped on the tractor and mowed a couple of acres for JW. A few days earlier Susan had mowed the front field (smaller and lower grass) with the riding lawn mower. The remainder of the time, we spent doing chores around the trailer. Everything from making sunshades for the truck, to rearranging EVERYTHING, to trying to figure out the wiring system in closed walls and ceilings - not an easy task. The list was long and somewhat boring, so I'll spare you the details.
Saturday evening was the Spring Fun Show in Shelbyville. JW's fiance, Joanne, (getting married 6/11) owns and rides a Tennessee Walking Horse. She was in the competition, so we went to watch her. Here is a sample of her on her horse, Jose Cuervo, at the competition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLaWJ_6NkMM
She won first place in her group (owner/rider lite shod) A little later she and JW came and sat with us a bit.
The evening was quite educational and we learned so much about Walking horse competitions. Each round (there were almost 20) we would try to guess the top three horses. Most of the time our guesses would end up the last three places. It was difficult to figure out what the judges were looking for. In Joanne's group, however, she was the clear winner!
The light shod horses were graceful and easy to watch. Most of the other groups were "enhanced" to put it mildly. Here is an example of what some of the hard core walking horses look like in competition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lELH3CWXYoo
They have these huge shoes on the horses which they wear at all times. See front hooves below.
There is much controversy surrounding this sport and they are trying to clean themselves up, but as with anything, change is slow. Shelbyville is in the heart of Walking Horse country so it is a big part of life around here.
Sunday
Trey found out that a high school classmate was a pastor in a nearby town. We drove to Franklin, TN this morning to attend his church. He was the first person to greet us when we walked in the door and immediately recognized Trey. A beloved chemistry teacher died during their time at Crocket HS and they both received a character scholarship given in his name. It was good to catch up with an old classmate and interesting to attend church in another denomination. The message this morning: Religiosity.
After church, more errands (Franklin has an Academy and a Whole Foods) and then home.
We had been prevented from cleaning and painting the rails until now. This evening, we got out JW's hot water pressure washer (pretty cool!) and Trey sprayed the truck down to remove large portions of flaking paint, then Susan took a putty knife and scraped off the remaining paint, then Trey washed that mess off.
Afterwards it was leftover pizza and TV.
Tomorrow is paint day. We have 7 cans of paint to cover exposed parts. It doesn't have to look pretty since it will be covered by the bed, but we want the underside protected.