So here's the short of it,
I'm in Nashville and so far it's been a good trip. 

And here's the long

I'm here in Nashville at the Fairfield Inn near the airport.  We waited too late to get a room in the hotel where the conference is, so we had to get a room just down the road.  It's really close and it's a pretty nice room.  I'm rooming with Tara again.  We are pretty good roommates - we've traveled together and roomed together for so many years, that we kind of know how to go along and get along.

We joined several other Hamilton County employees for a nice, but late dinner at Ellendale's.  It's a favorite place to go when we come to Nashville. 

I realized today that I haven't been out of Hamilton County since May last year when I had surgery.  It felt pretty exhilarating to get out on the freeway and head out. 

It was a really nice drive.  In the past I've usually been the designated driver when we go somewhere within driving distance.  It was pretty nice to just sit back and relax and leave the driving to Tara. 

There was snow predicted for Nashville.  We didn't have any snow at all as  we left Chattanooga, but when we crested Monteagle Mountain and just began the descent there was this beautiful snow shower -  We could see the spot where the weather changed and the snow just flurried down around the car. We had flurries all the way to Nashville, and it's considerably colder here than it was when we left home.

Shortly after we headed down, we saw an accident in the Eastbound lane.  Because of the high concrete wall divider that goes down the West side of the mountain to separate the traffic lanes, we didn't really see the actual accident, just the damaged steel on top of the wall and the traffic at a standstill.  The traffic was backed up all the way to the bottom of the mountain!

I've already gotten to see two people that I really wanted to make a contact with this afternoon.  One of them is a woman from the state department that we've worked with for many years.  She has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer.  She has decided to have the most radical treatment - she'll have a bi-lateral mastectomy which means she won't have to have radiation.  She won't know until after surgery and the sentinel node biopsy whether or not she will have to have chemotherapy.  We had a good long hug.