My son Jason lives about 40 miles north of Nashville and about 6 miles from the tiny community of Cedar Hill and about 14 miles north of Springfield. .... out in the country...way out. The Kentucky border is about a minutes drive. Jason and his wife Rhonda relocated to the area about a year ago.....about the same time my other sons left Reno for Virginia and Arizona. Its been over a year since I saw Jason and Rhonda and I was sooo looking forward to seeing them. They live in a little farm house in the middle of corn and tobacco fields...literally! Those are corn fields and newly planted tobacco fields in the back of the house. Needless to say, cell coverage and internet coverage are extremely poor which is why it has taken me so long to post.
Little house in the country
My son Jason and his wife Rhonda enjoying morning coffee on the front porch. It has been in the high 70's every morning before 9:00.
We spent the first day going into Nashville to pick up RV parts and supplies so Joel could keep himself occupied for a few days. He worked on some major projects over the Memorial Day Holidays and got the oil changed, coolant changed, step fixed (its been broken since Bandera), and the rest of the solar system hooked up. We had an old fashion cook out on Memorial Day with family. After staying "home" for several days it was time to explore.
Our first stop in Nashville was the Nashboro Fort on the Cumberland River. It's a half size replica of the original fort built in the 1700's.
I thought the sculpture on the was unfinished was the but it isn't. It is suppose to represent the three industries of Nashville: Music, Heath, and Manufacturing. The building next to it is an extension of the coliseum of the Titans.
Broadway is the main street of old downtown Nashville. There are lots of bars with free music and lots of gifts shops. Cotton Eyed Joe was a store of trashy souvenirs. I expected a little more class.
This is the interior of Legends, a very popular spot on Broadway. The walls are full of record jackets and vinyl records.
There are also old Juke boxes which play old records.
Tootsies is another very popular place. The story is Tootsie gave struggling musicians a place to crash and took IOUs. Willie Nelson got his start here also and the legend is Willie returned when he was successful and paid off his IOU and all of the other outstanding IOU's
Overview of Broadway. The ATT building intrudes on the Nashville skyline at almost every vantage point.
This guy is known as the Silver Cowboy. It had to be at least 90 degrees with the humidity at 76% out side and he had to be hot in that outfit.
We learned that the Convention Bureau offers a "Nashville City Total Access" program that you can purchase for $50.00. You can chose four attractions out of seventeen offered and can save up to 50%. Most admission fees were $20-30, so it was worth the purchase because there were at least four attractions we wanted to go to.
We played tourist and went to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Well worth the admission fee. Our visit to Nashville was a few days before the CMA festival so there was lots of activity.
The tall antennae represents the tall antennae of the country radio station which broadcasts country music. The round "cap" is where the actual hall of fame resides. The rest of the museum is devoted to exhibits and the the history of country music.
Many gold and records on this wall in the hall of fame.
Elvis heavily influenced country music as we know it today. His rock and roll was taking away the country music audience so prominent Nashville stars at the time made a conscious decision to take the "twang" out of country music which evolved in what we know it as today, which why some artists cross genres.
Part of the Country Music Hall of Fame included a tour of Studio B where over 1000 hit records were recorded and many of Elvis Presley's top hits were recorded.
This is an original Steinway Piano which Elvis played. The story is that he would come to the studio early before his recording session and play and sing gospel music on this very piano.
Studio B
This is Elvis Presley's gold Cadillac. The paint gets its pearly finish from diamond and gold dust.
The actual recording studio at Studio B.
The ATT building looms over the city. We went in the lobby to see if we could go to the top but were politely told it was not open to the public. It is the national headquarters of ATT. It is affectionately called the "Batman Building".
Mix of old and new on the Nashville skyline.
The Cumberland river runs through Nashville. Last year the river flooded and many businesses were shut down to the floods including the Grand Ole Opry and the Opry Mills (outlet). We took a river boat trip on the General Jackson, the largest stern wheel in the US. The picture below is of his little sister, the River Queen. We could see the high water marks along the river.
The river boat cruise took us to down town Nashville, with lots of beautiful evening scenery on the way.
Bicentennial park is another attraction within walking distance to downtown. We didn't to explore it too much because severe thunder storms were on the way. See the dark clouds! The structure below lays out the history of Tennessee.
Nice view of the skyline from the Bicentennial Mall
Nashville is also known for its Parthenon which was constructed for Tennessee Centennial. Unfortunately, it was closed the day we we and also it was starting to rain pretty heavily.
Another day we explored the Land Between the Lakes NRA. Its only about 60 miles from Jason's house. It would be a great place to go camping and explore with a kayak at a later time.
The day before we left we went into Nashville and went to the Pancake Pantry. This is not your ordinary pancake place. There are over 20 kinds of pancakes and there usually is a long line and long wait, especially on the weekend. We lucked out and only had to wait about 20 minutes. We talked to one of the locals while waiting in line and she said I had to try the Chef's Grill which includes pancakes and hash browns. I talked Joel into ordering it:
Wow that was a lot of food. Joel ate the whole thing! The local also said the Fresh Toast was the best she had ever tasted she was a chef so I had to try it.
It was a huge serving. I should have ordered the 1/2 size, but Joel helped me eat it. It was delicious!
What's this picture of Hawaii doing here!? No it not Hawaii, its the interior of Opryland. Opryland is a huge convention, hotel, mall down by the river a few minutes from downtown. The atrium is huge... I think I read there is over 20,000 square feet of glass roofing making up the different areas.
The flowers were gorgeous.
The "Dancing Waters" water fountain spouts to the tune of Zorba the Greek. You can see part of the glass roof.
Temperatures seemed to sore during our stay. The picture was taken about 9:00 a.m. and it was already 85 degrees! Needless to say, we had to run the generator to keep cool.
This is one of the tobacco barns just down the street. Those are tobacco stalks which are used to smoke the tobacco leaves in the fall.
We said our good buys and headed down the road, noting the corn had gown at least a foot since we arrived.
You know its hot when all of the cows are in the pond by 9:00 in the morning.
It was so good to see my son and daughter-in-law and explore Nashville. It truly is music city. If you don't like Country Music, you're in the wrong place. It's a friendly, down to earth city, and easy to get around. . a little expensive but very nice. I'd love to return....in cooler times though.
We headed out down the road towards Mammoth Caves as our next major destination about 75 miles away.
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