Well kiss my grits, it's...
day 100
grande ole opry

"Nashville is to country music as Carnegie Hall is to real musicians." -k.
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Best Kept Secret:
Place: Opryland Hotel
Size: "Mall of America" Big
Highlight: Gigantic Atrium
Lowlight: Sweaters

How to find your room: The letter indicates which area of the hotel you are in. The first number indicates your floor. The last three numbers indicate your room number.

An example...
If your room number is C2345, that means you're in the Cascades section, on the 2nd floor, in Room 345.
Now if you could only find the ice machine...

SweaterWatch 2001

Christmas Edition
Sweaters: 45
Vests: 22
Jackets: 19
Nearly 1 in 5 of the shoppers at the mall were wearing seasonal sweaters.

Happy Birthday!
Carl's quickly approaching 30!
Let him know he still looks great!
Sign up now for the Christmas Gift Exchange!

A Centennial, Celebrated in Sweaters
Dec 4 - The day began with a drive through downtown Nashville, Country Music's ol' stomping grounds. We visited the Opryland Hotel, which, in the event of a natural disaster, could easily seal itself off from the world until the air outside was breathable again. We wandered up the block to the Grand Ole Opry, and grand it was. To close, we spent a good portion of the afternoon at the Opry Mills, a grand ole mall right next to the Opry.

That was the day. I could expand, but I have something more important to discuss. I'd like to open the floor. The topic? Seasonal Sweaters.

We noticed an abnormal number of Christmas sweaters during our meal at the Chili's in Opry Mills. My peppercorn burger was complimented nicely by a Coke and hearty game of Count the Sweaters. I had never seen so many!

A brief count of the restaurant totalled 4 out of 9. The sprawling food court produced a healthy 1 in 5 ratio. Our table which opened onto an entranceway gave us a prime vantage point to study this phenomenon, where two minutes was the longest we went without seeing apparel adorned with candy canes, gingerbread men, holly, or (worst of all) kittens wearing santa hats tangled up in garlands.

What is this phenomenon? Or should we call it an affliction? It seemed to predominantly strike white females over the age of 50. We could see three possible causes for the surge in red sweater sales:


These people don't know they're on a hidden camera.

Geography: Perhaps this is always the situation around Christmas in the Southern states. We will continue to monitor this.

Location: It may be that the classification of people who wear seasonal sweaters is simply a subset of those that frequent the mall on a week day. Please let us know if this is true at your local malls.

Cultural: We've noticed a huge overlap between Country Music and Christmas. Could it be that the music dictates the fashion? I am not a country music fan, and perhaps a Merle Haggart record played in reverse hides messages such as "Buy a sweater with a cat, doodah doodah, one with a big ol' santa hat, etc..."

And another question... has this always been the case? Have we just never noticed this before, or is this a new fangled fad for the fogeys and fuddy duddies? Are they gifts from grandchildren, or purchases for personal pleasure? Am I using too many alliterations to make my point?

But we all know the real question on everybody's mind: What does that "no firearms beyond this point" picture have to do with anything?

Well, nothing. It's just damn funny.


Hip Hip Hooray! It's Day 100!
...and we'd like to celebrate our century marker by proudly introducing our first FAN PAGE!

Remember Don Campbell? Maybe you do, maybe you don't, but you should at least recognize that hat. That's the hat from our Washington D.C. contest on Day 41. Don (a proud Canadian) was the winner of that contest, and he's hit us with a doozy... He knew the American landmarks, but do you know the Canadian landmarks?

Test Your Knowledge Of Our Nation's Capital!


only at the opry mall...

The Band, not the State.

Fresh Cider for Everyone.

Not even God can beat our prices!

Dale Earnhart shopped here!
more photos in the archive...

We've got mail...

Dear Amy and Kevin,
I was wondering if you might do me a big favour in the state of Tennessee. If you happen to go to Knoxville to see the life size replica of the Greek Parthenon (and it is really worth it!) could you take some photos for me. I went there once and then accidentally reloaded the same film in my camera and overexposed Michelle's wedding on top of Athena. The Athena statue is shockingly big, and quite impressive. Anyway, if you do make it there, I would be most pleased if you could send some photos. If you do not go to Knoxville that is OK. I will go again myself some day. I am glad to see that you folks are having such a good time.
- Wendy, Toronto ON

(Note: By the time we received this email, Knoxville was long gone, but we were sorry we missed it!)


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Current Location
(get out your push pins)

Nashville, TN

Next Stop: Memphis

see the full map...

Today's Weather:
Perfectly Fine

Daily Stats
Distance:222.6km
Gas: None

Gift Exchange Update:
Canadians: 8
Americans:4
Total Goal: More!
(Isn't it time you signed up?)

Sleeping Quarters
Montgomery Falls S.P.

Site 119. Kev's warm. Aim's cold. We spent the evening working on the site and figuring out which number would come up most often when rolling four dice using fourth dimensional mathematics.

Cost: $14.00

Bkfast: 
Campground
Mammoth Caves
Both:Apples & Cinnamon Oatmeal
Lunch: 
Chili's
Opry Mills
K's Order:Peppercorn Burger
A's Order:Nachos & Queso
Cost:$12.57
Dinner: 
Campground
Montgomery Falls
Attempt #1: Proscuitto Pasta
Failed!Ran out of propane.

Attempt #2: Bagel & Cheese
Failed!Cream cheese bad.

Attempt #3: Oatmeal.

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© 2001. Kevin Beimers and Aimee Lingman. Poke me and die.