Put Another Dime in the Jukebox…

 

August 12, 2021

Put Another Dime in the Jukebox…

It must have been 1980 or so that I first became a fan of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, I was in high school and while I had been vaguely aware of her previous band, the groundbreaking all-female group, the Runaways, it wasn’t until her solo work that I really gravitated to her music. I recall going to see her at the Vogue in Indianapolis, in probably 1983 and just loving the raw energy and ferocity of her performance.  I recall meeting Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler who just happened to be at the show – when rock stars come to another’s show when they aren’t touring together, you know there must be something special about it.

That was years ago, when Jett was at the height of her “I Love Rock n Roll” fame and while I have seen her a couple of times since then, it has been many years ago. When I saw that she was playing at the historic Ryman Theater in Nashville while I was there, I immediately bought a ticket. Even if Jett was somewhat diminished, I would still be seeing a member of the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in a truly historic venue.

The thing is that she wasn’t much diminished, in fact she was pretty damn awesome as she ripped through a long set heavy of recognizable hits as well as awesome covers. It was a great, great show and Jett was in fine form. She is just as much of a badass as ever and her voice is still on point.  One of the coolest things about the show was when Jett invited country music legend Wanda Jackson out on stage.

The next morning, I was back on the road again, first stop was the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere. The Zoo and historical plantation farmhouse that occupies 188 acres and has over 6,000 animals representing 339 different species. Since opening its doors in 1991, Nashville Zoo has grown from a small, private operation located 30 minutes northwest of Nashville to an AZA-accredited facility that welcomes more than one million visitors each year, while being involved with international conservation and research efforts to save threatened species. 

After spending the morning checking out the zoo, I drove up to Cincinnati to visit my friend Henk and his family. Most specifically I wanted to see and meet his newest granddaughter, Joy. Henk’s daughter Brooke has visited Key West on a number of occasions and I was excited to get to meet her new baby as well as to see the rest of Henk’s family including his wife, Julie. I have been friends with Henk for almost 50 years and it was so nice to visit his home in Morrow, Ohio just north of Cincinnati.

He and Julie prepared a wonderful meal and we had a great opportunity to catch up for a wonderful evening with his family. I spent the night in Cincinnati and the next morning I headed to my second zoo visit in as many days, visiting the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. I have been a fairly regular visitor to this zoo since I was a child and it remains one of my favorites.

This is the second oldest zoo in the United States, opening in 1875. The zoo houses over 500 animals and 3,000 plant species. In addition, the zoo also has conducted several breeding programs in its history, and was the first to successfully breed California Sea Lions. In 1986, the Lindner Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW) was created to further the zoo's goal of conservation

My favorite part of the zoo is the World of the Insect building. The largest exhibit in North America dedicated specifically to insects, the exhibit has an awesome array of bugs on display from the massive walking sticks to the word’s largest live ant exhibit, the World of the Insect is incredible. To me this building in itself is worth the price of admission for the zoo.

It was a great day that I capped off by stopping at a nearby Skyline Chili restaurant for a late lunch before driving over to Indianapolis to attend the Indy Car/ NASCAR weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

https://www.nashvillezoo.org/

https://cincinnatizoo.org/