_17 April ‘09 Friday

Following a quick breakfast, we drove over to tour the Gaylord Opryland Resort.  Our campground is just a mile down the road, but with all the walking we did the last couple of days and the walking we will be doing tonight, we decided to drive to the resort.  Boy it was a good thing too…  Once inside of the resort we knew that we just had to take in every inch of this magnificent building, and it was a couple of inches too.

_Fact is, it covers over four acres and most of the four acres is covered in glass.  The roof spreads out over some of the most beautiful gardens we have ever seen.  Flowers of every imaginable type,

_flowering trees and not flowering trees, palm trees of all shape and size, and the waterfalls...

_AMAZING!!!  Even tho we had just finished our coffee at home, we had to have another to sit, relax, and enjoy the sights and sounds of the resort.  I must say this too, it is a good thing that they have “you are here” maps everywhere…we could have gotten lost many times.  After a couple of hours at the resort, we headed back out to the car.  With the Ole Opry House just next door, we wanted to scope out our best option for parking for tonight’s performance.  Also right across the large parking area is the shopping mall I mentioned a couple of days ago.  Well with the opportunity to look things over, we struck a plan.  We would go over to the Opry House at 5:30 for our 7:pm performance, find a great parking spot, walk over the mall, have a slow relaxing dinner at one of their nice restaurants, and then walk across the street, pass our tickets to the young lady, stroll down the aisle to our seat, sit back and enjoy the show.   The Grand Ole Opry stage show is still a live radio program, and it has commercials…  We weren’t aware of this until one of our neighbor campers told us after going to the show the night before.  I must admit, it does kind of break into the flow of things a little, but it still allows a good time.  For the 2 hour show we had 4 host (or is it host’s, or hosttest…?)  The first host was Mike Snider and the guests were Jeannie Seely, and Dean Brody.  Dean Brody was appearing for the first time at the Ole Opry and was quite a hit.  He introduced himself as being from Vancouver, BC.  Louise and I thought he was pretty damn good too.  The second host was “Little” Jimmy Dickens

_with Bobby Osborne and The Rocky Top X-Press, and Darius Rucker.  Darius Rucker was the best contemporary entertainer we had all night, and I could listen to one of his CD’s anytime.  Then last but not least, we had Rick Skaggs as the host and Jimmy C. Newman and The Whites.  We didn’t mind the “commercials” and the entertainment was very good.  Are we glad we did it? Yes, would we do it again…I think so.

_16 April ‘09

Thursday

9am and we were on “Tommy’s” Sightseeing Tour and heading downtown Nashville.  We were but 2 on a bus of 22 which made for almost a full bus (2 short).  It was comfortable but not like riding around in our own “bus”.  This is a one man operation all the way, but he does it pretty well.  Even while giving us some details about this or that, he was able to take phone calls from those that want to tour with him tomorrow or sometime in the near future.  As I mentioned in yesterdays blog, Tommy is a charming guy, a non-stop talker, and quite a comedian, but we found out today that he is killing himself with heavy smoking, stress, and being overweight.  Fortunately he didn’t smoke on the bus, but when we stopped…

Nashville is not only big in music, but one of the largest printing cities in the country, and is huge in higher education fields as well.  Tommy didn’t give us the “Normal” tour that we’ve had through other tour companies, but much more personal.  We spent at least 2 hours in Nashville touring the blocks on blocks of amazing architecture,

_history, and entertainment establishments.  One of our stops was at the “Train Station”.  The train station was in need of a lot of work or they could take the easy way out and destroy it seeing as how they didn’t have a need for the station anymore.  The passenger trains quit coming into Nashville quite a few years ago so taking the station down seemed to be the answer.  Well a hotel chain took another look at this ole building and decided to take on a huge project and what a project they completed.  Tommy wanted us to take a close-up look at this one, so he pulled up to the front door and told us to head inside. 

_These people did an amazing job of bring this incredible building up to the jewel it is today. 

_Following our time in town, Tommy took us out into the neighborhoods of the stars. 

_This wasn’t my thing, but we did see one home that I’m glad we saw.  It sat on about 30 acres, had 3 guest homes, a small personal chapel, and the main house.  All were painted white and had red roofs, and didn’t match the size of some of the others we saw, but it still belonged to Dolly Parton.  Arriving back at the campground, Louise and I decided to head back to Nashville and get a closer look.  The first stop was head on down to “Music Row”, order a couple of beers, and listen to the up-and-coming music stars of tomorrow.  Seeing as how we drove into town we decided to just visit 3 establishments, have a total of a beer each, and yell “YeeHaa” a lot…we had a great time. 

_In between “establishments”, we walked some of the streets looking in to see what was going on, but at 4 in the afternoon, not much except back up on Broadway.  We did stop by “ Fort Nashborough”.  Fort Nashborough was established in 1779 just a few hundred yards further West on the banks of the Cumberland River. 

_The fort is much smaller today but it sure makes a statement sitting between the Cumberland River and all the towering skyscrapers of the city.  Stop two was about 4 miles further out of the city at the park where they have constructed a full size copy of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.

_For some reason this wasn’t part of Tommy’s tour and I’ll be darned if I can figure way not…it is very well done. 

_Unfortunately the original shows it’s age but is going through some major repair, while here in Nashville the Acropolis is just like new.  They even have an amazing statue of Athena in the middle of the structure which in the original it was missing. 

_The one thing that was missing here in Nashville was the Acropolis sitting high on the hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea far below… Stop 3 was one that I wanted to make.  We had passed by the State Capital building earlier with Tommy and I had noticed a location that I thought would make a good picture so back into town we went.  The Capital Building does sit at the top of a hill and sprawling down below is a wonderful stretch of park land. 

_The green grass, the monuments of the Civil War, WWI, and WWII, a beautiful sounding Carillion and lots and lots of fountains completed the landscape.

_Well with time getting moving on, and the sun dipping below the horizon, Louise had 2 more stops she wanted to make…Trader Joe’s and Costco. 

_15 April ‘09

Wednesday

This morning we drove to the end of the Natchez Trace on our drive up to Nashville.  That Parkway is really something special.  As we approached the last 10 miles, the speed limit dropped from 50 to 40 and the roadway became one turn after another as we rambled up and over the hills of Tennessee.  I had set our GPS for a particular Wal-Mart in Hermitage but once we got there we were informed that we couldn’t stay overnight…  What a bummer…  Sooo, we grabbed a little lunch, checked out a couple of campgrounds through the phone book, and set out for our new site…Two Rivers Campground.  We had looked at Two Rivers before but really didn’t want to pay the fee but here we are…  I don’t know why I feel I have to go the cheap way but when in an area like Disneyland or “Nashville” you bite the bullet. 

Two Rivers is about a mile from The Grand Ole Opry and right next door to Camping World so I can not only get entertained at the Opry I can spend spend at Camping World.  We’ve already signed up for a couple of interesting things here in Nashville.  In the morning we are going out with “Tommy” of Tommy’s Sightseeing Tours.  We’re going out to see Nashville, a trip through downtown to see the State Capital, Painters Alley, the Hall of Fame and, and, and,….and then onto see the “Celebrity” homes, like Brooks & Dunn, dolly Parton, Alan Jackson, and, and, and…  Tommy sells himself as “taking a tour with comedian and charmin “Tommy Garmon.

Right across the parking lot from The Grand Ole Opry is a huge Outlet Mall.  Now if other “Outlet Malls” were to market their goods in a mall of this grandeur, there would be happier customers to come by with monies to spend.  I happened to find 2 pairs of shoes.  For those of you who know how hard it is for me to find shoes know that I would most likely buy any shoe I could find, and that I did. 

_14 April ‘09 Tuesday

The Sunday afternoon that we drove into Columbia, Louise got all excited when she saw one of her favorite grocery stores from Europe…”ALDI”.  “Aldi is here !!!”  Unfortunately it took a week before we got back there.  This is one of the stores that in order to get a shopping cart, you have to insert a quarter.  In Europe we had to insert a Euro (approx: $1.35).  One of the advantages for the store is that in order to get your deposit back you have to take your cart back up to the store and not leave it someplace in the parking lot.  We always found good values at Aldi Europe, and again we found values we couldn’t pass here as well. 

_It was a good stop.  By the way, they told us that there are over 1000 Aldi stores on the East coast…who would have guessed?  In the morning we pull out and travel the Natchez Trace to Nashville and then onto Wal-Mart in Hermitage for a couple of days.  After breakfast this morning, Louise started gathering up the laundry as another 10 days have passed and the basket has grown to the max.  I started reading the weather reports and decided to start placing things in the basement while the sun was still shining.  Tonight we are both watching the Biggest Loser, Dancing With The Stars, and American Idol and all the while making and eating dinner and then washing up all the dishes. 

_13 April ‘09 Monday

We’ve been here (in the Hohenwald area) for over a week already.  It’s been long enough for us to fill the gas tank of our car 3 times and only have half a tank left now, we’ve been on the road.  One of our destinations was a drive to Lynchburg so that we could visit the Jack Daniel’s Distillery.  Ole Jack, at the age of 13, was gave the distillery by an adult friend.  His friend was a local pastor and a distiller in a dry county of Tennessee.  His congregation gave him a choice…the distillery or them.  He chose the congregation and Jack got the distillery.  In 1866 Jack was able to license the distillery and become the first “licensed distillery” in the state of Tennessee.  After finding that he (Jack) didn’t have a feel for numbers, he decided to bring his cousin Lem Motlow into the business.  Lem had a head for numbers and soon was doing all the distillery’s bookkeeping.  In 1907, due to Jacks failing health, he took over the day to day running of the “Jack Daniel’s Distillery”.

_In 1947, Lem gave the business to his children following his death.  Jack Daniels died in 1911 from blood poisoning that resulted from an infection that allegedly began from an injury resulting from kicking the office safe…  It’s an interesting life and story that developed a great whisky that is still one of the favorites around the world today.  Jack did change the location of the original still when he found the underground spring that is used for today’s water source.  This spring flows out of a cave and is “totally pure” all the way into the distillery.

_It was a great find…  the tour we took started at the site where they stack and burn Sugar Maple 2”x2”x4’ stakes to make the charcoal that will be used to filter the pure “moonshine”. 

_Climbing the stairs to the first part of the distillery, we arrived at the “Number 4, 5, 6, and 7” pots.

_From these pots come the pure 140 plus moonshine that will be transferred to the large charcoal vats.  Our guide did lift the top of one of these vats to waif the amazing aroma to our ready nose…what a great smell.  Our next stop was at one of the 17 huge warehouses.  It was interesting to learn that the higher up in the warehouse the deeper color of the whiskey and the more mellow the taste. 

_Now it’s time to hit the “tasting” room.  The only problem is this county is a “DRY COUNTY”…  We were offered lemonade !!!  All kidding aside, we really did enjoy this tour and highly recommend it to all that come close to Lynchburg, Tennessee.  Besides, Lynchburg is a wonderful town to walk around in and mix with the great people of this community.

_They have some fine restaurants, a great museum dedicated to the Tennessee Walking Horse, and lots of stores waiting to honor your visit.  Louise and I didn’t know much about the Tennessee Walking Horse but after a short video and a tour through the museum we found ourselves looking forward to seeing and learning more of them. 

_11 April ‘09

Saturday

Tennessee has really been a “new” state for us in many ways and being around the Amish is just one.  I don’t know that we could find a section set aside for horse and buggy at the local grocery stores in Washington State.   I find it comforting that the Amish have followed a life style that really works for them.  Louise and I have driven out into the farm areas where the Amish and the non-Amish work hard to produce their crops and maintain their livestock for sale and their own use.  As we drove the roads around the farms, we knew we were in Amish territory by the droppings on the road in front of us, the blue laundry on the clothes lines, and the lack of electricity going to their homes.  We did stop by a couple of “Amish Stores”, but we were totally disappointed because of the “Antiques” (JUNK) that the non-Amish were peddling.   We found we could find the Amish goods at their farms and all of that was to be of the Amish quality we would expect. 

_10 April ‘09 Friday

I’ve mentioned it before, but our campground is located just off of the Natchez Trace Parkway and we’ve been able to travel it quite a lot in the last week (at least about 50 miles out  and back of the 444 total).  It’s just like driving through a city park, but it only goes in two directions…north and south.  Driving on the beautiful 2 lane road of wide grass areas, deciduous trees just coming into leaf and bloom, and the local wild life, especially the Tennessee turkeys trolling the grass for food makes for another great journey.  All along the “Trace” they have markers and monuments to turn off to for information about those that traveled before us.  One of these is the monument and grave site of Meriwether Lewis. 

_President Jefferson appointed Meriwether Lewis to the Governorship of the Upper Louisiana Territory in 1808 but that seems to have been a problem.  After being at odds with General James Wilkinson, the top ranking officer in the U.S. Army, and his own Lt. Governor, Frederick Bates, Meriwether decided to travel back to Washington to explain his actions to President Jefferson.  In staying overnight at a camp on the Natchez Trace, a shot rang out in the early morning…on October 11, 1809 Meriwether Lewis was dead.  Was he murdered or did he shoot himself, this is a question that is still being asked today (even when it is well known that Meriwether was shot twice, once in the chest and once in the head)… On one of our trips up the Trace, we were notified over radio that we were just about to have a large thunderstorm converge on us, and it will be bring with it ¾ to 1 inch hail.  Also we were receiving a tornado “warning” for our area so we decided to look for cover…  A little further up the Trace we found an outlet which lead us to an over-pass to duck under…safe again (with 5 other cars).

_5 April ‘09 Sunday

While we were traveling in Florida we received an email from some friends that we had met a couple of years ago in Cabo San Lucas.  Brett and Karen told us in their email that they were now living and working in Tennessee and if we were in the area….  Well here we aarrrre….  All kidding aside, Louise and I were excited to see them again.  They did a lot of searching around the states before they decided Columbia, Tennessee was the perfect spot for them to set up roots, and we can definitely see why.  The moment we drove into Tennessee Louise pointed out that the hills reminded her of the close cut green grass hills of Austria.  We found Austria to be amazing and now Tennessee is fitting the same fine glove.  As we drove the roads out to Brett and Karen’s

_new home we were excited for what we saw.  Finally arriving at the entrance to their property and home, we were met with a welcome, a great smile and hug.  They both look great and their new home is really nice brick two story…  Karen spent a lot of time searching the internet for the right place and then when she found one, two, or three they toured the state checking them out.  Finally she found THE right place to call home.  Just as we were about ready to enter into the house, a rooster crowed…”THEY’VE GOT CHICKENS”…  Yep, they’ve got about a dozen chickens and one rooster that live in their private fenced yard and hen house.

_Louise and I really found ourselves being pampered and well fed over the 5 hours we were there.  Unfortunately time flies when you’re having fun, but we had to head back to the coach before the thunderstorm settled in.  After saying our “Good-bye’s” to Brett and Karen, we headed back home via the Natchez Trace Parkway.  About getting about half way down the Trace, we were caught by the heaviest rainfall I’ve ever been in. Once we got back to the safety? of the coach, we found ourselves right in the middle of a tornado watch… 

_Fortunately the “Watch” was released just before bed time but it didn’t make sleeping any easier.