General Jackson Riverboat Cruise

 In my Xyngular business, I earned a free riverboat cruise during the convention in Nashville April 16-18 so John and I decided to make the long time. We left around 1:30 pm Tuesday afternoon and drove to Burlington, CO. John got a room without asking for a non-smoking room so I quickly put my c-pap on and went to bed. The next morning I quickly showered and waited in the car until he got ready. 

It is a LONG LONG drive through many states to get to Nashville but we did it. 


Here are a few bridges in St. Louis Missouri/Kansas. 

























If you look really close, you can see the St Louis arch in the distance. No time for sightseeing on our crazy fast trip.







The Gaylord Opryland Convention Center is HUGE - like 5 football fields going in every direction. Even with maps everybody got lost on a constant basis. There were 5 different hotels. Many little shops and restaurants. 

An center atrium with a hotel and 2 or 3 restaurants plus shops and a river tour around. 
















Our motel on the other hand was a dump. After getting home, I read the reviews and it said he was in the rough part of touwn (yep) and was frequented by hookers. Not clean (yep, the view of the tub when we arrived explains that) and the maid service replaced the towels every day. That was it. No clean sheets. No vacuuming. No emptying garbage. Obviously, no cleaning of the bathroom. So we didn't necessarily enjoy our motel experience.








The riverboat cruise was amaXyng. Lots of music. We were assigned table 4 right next the stage in front - best seats in the house. This shows the fiddling war with the devil down in Georgia. Great show. Good food. Didn't notice we were moving until the lead singer mentioned it. Woohoo! 






This is before loading.

 John's first selfie while riding the bus. It took about a dozen tries to get both of us in the picture, centered and smiling.

 Pausing long enough to get a picture while scurrying back and forth in the convention center.

 Another selfie on the bus headed to the General Jackson riverboat cruise.











The boat is waiting for us.

It was huge.

Before the performance and dinner started, we got a shot at our VIP-like seats. We were treated so well.  

More of the performance during lunch.

After lunch while the second half of the guests had their main performance and lunch, we strolled throughout the boat. It is huge. The little gift shop was wonderful. We purchased a few gifts for the grandkids and a postcard that we sent to Marcie's family.

The boat traveled down the river had 7 knots until we got to a bridge we could not pass under. The river was 12 feet higher than usual because of spring rains so we had to literally turn around to head back to the dock. Usually the cruise goes around the downtown area. 

This bridge was passable. It was a great time and John did not get sick. Woohoo!

 Xyngular had the whole riverboat to ourselves that day with nearly 500 guests. 

So many great people who loved talking to each other - complete strangers - and asked about their health and wellness stories. 

Everyone championed each other. 

 

Everyone befriended each other. 

Almost like a family reunion of unknown cousins. It was lots of fun.

We purchased two very large cowboy boot cups/banks for the Melanie and Autumn. You could get them filled with drinks. There was a lot of alcohol on the trip but ours has fruit juices in it. I thought they had wayyyyyyy too much sugar but John enjoyed them.


I always wondered what it would be like to be surrounded with people drinking alcohol and wondering what I would do. When we were seated, we were offered sweet tea and drinks but we asked for water. 

Water was much harder to come by than anything. We continually were asking for more. There was a pitcher of sweet tea on the water but not water. We were so thirsty for water that it naturally asked for promptly.



After our riverboat cruise/lunch on Thursday, we had free time to ourselves. We got lost for quite a while but decided to go to the Grand Ole Opry for a concert that evening. After walking around and around, we discovered there was no concert that night. Bummer! So we were back to the motel.

Friday and Saturday were filled with meetings and classes that opened up and different perspective on an incredible company. There is so much integrity within the corporate staff and corporation. Unbelievable!

Leaders in the business that are so down-to-earth people. No one is elevated to a don't-touch-me attitude. They all attended the break out classes like everyone else. New people and $1 million earners sitting next to each other in a class. I was blown away.

Corporate staff so approachable. Humble little me was able to talk directly to the product development guy to ask about the safety of the products for my mom with aspirin allergies. He reassured me that it was okay except the new generation 3 Xyng.  


Quickly after the closing remarks from Marc Walker, president of the company, we headed out to make the 20 hour trip back.

It rained on us everyday. We drove through snow in the Rocky west of Denver. We experienced super high winds both ways. 

The drive was long but John and I were able to talk together about the business. About what we could do together. Future plans.......

Great trip.