WASTECON

a unit for organics that only needs to be collected every 3 weeks

I was lucky to attend this event put on by the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA). The organization includes Canada as well as nearly all of the states. I attended one session on rural recycling by a woman from New Mexico named English Bird. My name is so boring in comparison. Another session was led by a gal from right in Nashvilled named Sherry Smith - I wanted to ask "our grade or theirs?" as in Atlantic there were girls in the classes of 1976 and 77 of that name. We did some more wandering and got literature from products that might be helpful for cities and landfills back home in Iowa.

I felt lucky in that it's very difficult to get permission to travel outside of the state in this economy as a state employee. I did have to jump through several hoops to get permission, but was happy that the governor's office and the director approved the trip. Paul decided since he'd never been to Nashville he'd go along - which was so cool!

Wednesday night was party night for WASTECON. All the people there to take technical courses had taken their exams and were ready to party. Ten busses pulled up to transport us to the Wildhorse Saloon in town. As we walked into the joint, staff rang cowbells and cheered - it was pretty cool! The place has 3 levels and 2 were set up with buffets - pulled pork, chicken breasts, salad, and my fave - black eyed peas. Good food.

Mary and Christine

After we ate we enjoyed drinks with the Iowa clan and a singer from American Idol entertained us. Paul and I checked out all 3 floors. Christine, Mary, Muriel and some consultants sat with us later on the first floor as the staff gave line dancing with their Wild Horse Dancers. Later we shopped a bit along the streets of Nashville - I love neon lights. We caught the bus back to Opryland at 9 and hit the hay as we had a 4 a.m. wake up call for our flight.

They had all the cool stuff on the streets of Nashville!

Honky Tonk

Elvis on top of a building

Tuesday night we got to go to downtown Nashville with Laura - the consultant from Dallas, who had rented a car, and Tom the director at Metro Waste Authority. We went to Rippy's on Broadway and sat upstairs where it was open air and delightfully warm after I froze all day indoors at Opryland. Paul and I each had ribs and they were quite good. Tom and Laura are fun to talk to.

And this is just one portion of 1 wall of this joint!

Across the street on top of a building I spied an Elvis. He musta left the building! After supper we walked across the street and took our photo by this giant guitar, then hit a Honky Tonk. The walls in the joint were covered by album covers and posters - from Michael Jackson, Doris Day, all the C & W faves of course and more. Plus there were some cool instruments. A band played twangy country music while we all sipped cold Coors Lite. We headed back to our "town" Opryland by 8:30 PM, exhausted. Good day.

Nashville

Pablo and I got up at 3:15 a.m. Monday August 22nd to get to the DSM airport for our flight to Minneapolis on the way to Nashville. A minor miracle occurred when everything went smooth as silk - a first for flying this year. In fact I was sound asleep when we took off - something that never happens! We got all situated for our next flight - set for 9:30 or so, when they announced that it was overbooked and they were looking for volunteers to be bumped.

Paul and I looked at each other - hey, we didn't have anything set we had to do that day. So I hot-footed it up there to put our names in, and was told to wait until everyone boarded and they'd let us know if we hit the jackpot or not. The flight boarded, and sure-nuff. We won! When it was all said and done, we ended up with $1,200 in flight coupons, plus $32 in lunch vouchers. We headed to TGI Fridays for lunch, and then awaited our 3:30 flight. Free Florida tickets - here we come!

View from our "handicapped" balcony

We ended up hitting Nashville about 5:30 p.m. and took the fancy shuttle bus to our village. When we checked in we learned that we got an "upgrade". Yeah..to a handicap room - with a view. Two very low queen beds instead of a king bed. A zero entry shower. But hey we had a balcony and a huge ironing room! Vacation Village was really Gaylord's Opryland Hotel - 49 landscaped acres under a dome. Pools, restaurants, various pods of motel rooms with fountains. Little shops and bars with escalators going to them. The convention center was on one end with Opryland beyond that. I only got lost about 10 times, but Paul was even loster (is that a word) than I was! I'm now very worried about him hunting elk in Colorado next month - good thing he has GPS!

Outside the pizza shop - our friends the horses..

When we first got there we hunted up my old pal Christine, who was the engineer for the Union County Landfill when I was the manager. We got to be buddies through all the (insert bad word) we went through. I had a lovely drink in the "Library" lounge. Then Laura a project consultant from Dallas hunted us down and we went to Fuse to get a bite to eat in a sports bar that only had about 52 TVs. Then it was off to find our room...after several false starts we did!

Sara Bixby cuts the ribbon

In the a.m. we found a little shop where I could purchase granola and skim milk, and Paul could get a roll and coffee - all for $16. Then we hit the ribbon-cutting ceremony for WASTECON. I know...awful conference name - but descriptive - no? I had not slept well, nervous for my speaking gig at 2 PM. But I managed to drag myself around the display area where vendors had their wares, and picked up a few cool freebies. I also attended a session on Rural Recycling that was excellent.

We choked down some lousy pizza at lunch and it was time to head for my gig. The others I was talking with were beginning to gather outside our room. Kathy, Mary, and Laura all got to talk before I finished up. Sara - another Iowan, who spent the year as the president of the whole international organization, was scheduled to introduce us.

About twenty people showed up to hear us - not too bad considering we were scheduled in a room off the beaten path. Paul was there for moral support. Our PowerPoint was superb. When it was my turn, I spoke a few words and my mouth turned to the Sahara. Gummy! I struggled along for a while...but had to excuse myself to get a drink. Of tea. Otherwise it went pretty well. Not as well as it did in my kitchen all by myself the Friday before, but oh well...