Spring 2015 June 15 Monday

69  Degrees this morning 

CMA Fest 15 is over, on the way to Memphis to visit friends on the way back home.

First experience with an Uber car was good.  

It is all done by an app. I had two cars to choose from, one a Lexus and it showed their exact location, tag number etc. and estimated arrival time.  (You also get an fee range.)

By the time I finished the app (literally), I got a phone call the driver was at the front door.  The trip from downtown to the Airport was $13.00, usually at least a $25 taxi drive or at least a $15 shuttle ride (for 1) plus lots of hassle waiting, although I don’t know exactly what the fare would be.   I can see why people use Uber. 

In the right situation, I”d simply sell my car and use the Uber car, although I use my car for work, plus the outer fringes of a city may not be as quick as a downtown area.  

CMA Fest 15 seemed to go fast.  It was Thursday and now it is Monday.  I am debating the hotel question, i am concerned I may lose a downtown hotel for next year, but I want to get the same hotel. 

Since the hotel tax for Tennessee is an unbelievable 20% (well, 19.5%), I always try to use points.  You literally pay $20 tax on every $100 of room rate.  Rental cars are the same way, although the fees can be much more, in come cases I have seen fees were more than 100% of the the rental charge.

I don’t care what the reason is, that just isn’t right.  I really don’t  see the relationship between a rental car and a huge subsidy to a football or basketball team etc.  It is called “fleecing the visitors”.

Looking forward to visiting friends in Memphis.  Wish we could have scheduled more than one day, but that is better than nothing.  

Yesterday (Sunday) we saw some great performances and overall wrapped up the CMA Fest.

It was a nice vacation, it was good to get away from moving for awhile, since when we are moving, we feel like we always should be working on moving when we have any spare time.  

We rented a “one way” rental car to go from Nashville to Memphis and then we’ll fly from Memphis.  We actually spent Sunday night in Dickson, Tennessee, which is out from Nashville so we wouldn’t have to deal with early morning rush hour traffic and everyone leaving from the CMA Fest etc.  

I had a slight problem when I turned to go to the hotel in Dickson and turned into the interstate, resulting in a 20 mile trip before I could get back!   Thank goodness I wasn’t in a real hurry, although I was definitely ready to  get to bed and some sleep to prepare for today.

I am going to try to rely on web based news and see how I do.  I thought I would do that this weekend, but the hotel has free copies of USA Today and the Wall Street Journal, so of course I wasn’t able to resist and read the physical newspapers.  

Since my newspaper is delivered too late for me to read in the morning, I will see how I like reading the electronic copies of the newspapers I normally read in the morning.  

A lot of it will depend on my morning routine.  Each time we move, my  routine changes, depending on what is available.  In Lakeland that included about 45 minutes on the stationary bike reading the newspapers, but I never could get that started here, since the newspapers came so late and the exercise place, while open 24 hours and about 1 1/2 miles away (at max) was just too inconveniently located for me to bike to it. 

We’ll see what develops as a good morning exercise routine.  

That’s it for now, Monday, June 15, 2015.