Phannie

Phannie
Photo taken near Monument Valley, Utah

Friday, October 26, 2018

Nashville Abbreviated

At Nashville North KOA, Nashville, Tennessee...

For some reason, we had managed to omit a visit to Nashville in all our travels, so we thought there was no time better than when we were this close. So, after Charleston, we pointed Phannie northwest and made for Music City.

The trip through the Smokies was beautiful, as always, and our arrival in Nashville was not unlike the approach to any large metropolitan area--many miles of freeway travel amid a flood of traffic that didn't seem to diminish regardless of the time of day. Yes, Nashville has become a big city of over a million souls. According to those who should be in the know, each day brings to the city a hundred more new inhabitants seeking fame, fortune--who knows what?

The close-in RV parks were jammed, but we were able to find a spot about 20 miles north of town in Goodlettsville at the Nashville North KOA--quite an adequate park with very nice people in the office.

Our plans for touring Nashville brought a degree of indecision that was quite unusual for us. The reason for this, I suppose, was that we are not exactly fans of what passes for country music today. We rather like the old classic country but, alas, that seems to have gone the way of the dinosaurs--perhaps because the old country stars have, well, died off.  

Our affection for the older songs and their singers never was what you would call rabid, however, so our desire to tour the main attractions--the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditorium and the Country Music Hall of Fame, was tepid, at best. Upon taking a bus tour of the city, we saw these attractions but simply couldn't muster the enthusiasm to go back and get up close and personal. We were also turned off by the throngs of tourists who apparently had mustered the requisite level of interest, so we just decided not to impede their progress by inserting ourselves into the mix surrounding those venues.

The press of touristas was even greater downtown on Broadway, where dozens of bars and food emporiums host countless live, guitar-picking troubadours, serenading too loudly, in our view, the customers while waiting to be discovered. That is just not our scene, so we stayed far away.

So, if you don't like country music, what is left, you may ask?  Well, that's sort of the dilemma we were facing. We decided instead to visit the Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson, which seemed entirely fitting after our history-filled visit to Charleston. The old Jackson mansion, built in the 1820s, sits on about twelve hundred acres and has been masterfully preserved. The docents provided a rich narrative as we walked through the stately old house. We found this tour very interesting and learned a lot we didn't know about our seventh president. Perhaps the most interesting is the common comparison of Jackson with our current president, complete with a marriage scandal and a swashbuckling leadership style. His history is readily accessible on the Net.  

Here's the front view of the Hermitage:


  
Here's the Jackson dining room as an example of the interior:


Jackson's tomb is also on the property:



We thought our bus tour of the city was quite worthwhile. One of its stops included the old train station, which is now a hotel. We find fascinating the grand old train stations, and we've visited quite a number of these:


We were going to visit the Parthenon and some other historic sites, but we cut short our visit to Nashville by one day in order to miss the forecast rain that we would incur on our travel day to Memphis had we not done so.  Normally, we would just have waited it out, but we have doctors' appointments in Dallas and have to maintain a schedule, something we don't particularly enjoy here in our retirement freedom mode. So, anything we missed will have to wait until next time. 

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; 
please forgive me if I don't appreciate it as I should each day.

You don't stop playing when you get old; you get old when you stop playing.



10 comments:

  1. We were very lucky visiting last November. The Traffic as you said continued no matter the time of day or night. Where we were lucky was they reopen the Ryman Auditorium for the winter as the Grand Ole Opry. Remember that this used to be a Church so the seats are far from comfortable, so be certain to bring cushions to sit on. The special stars were the Oakridge Boys. They're as grey as the rest of us but they can still hold a tune and your attention.
    Our doctors always try to tell us when they'll see them but we just tell them we'll see you in the spring when we get back to town. Try it!
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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    1. Hi, y'all! Yeah, we usually tell the docs when we're likely to be in town, but this time Sandy has an issue that needs to be addressed. I wish the Oaks had been performing in Nashville when we were there; we would definitely have attended that one. Happy travels!

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  2. We have been there a few times and enjoyed it, Last time about 15 years ago.,The new tourist stuff is nit what we enjoy thanks for the update . Hope Memphis is a bit better . Goodlucj with the doctors .

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    1. Thanks, George. Sandy is having some hip problems, so I'm a little worried. Thanks for the kind comment.

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  3. We are heading that way soon and are encouraged after our daughter just visited Nashville. Not sure what to expect so anything will be a treat for me. She recommends a few places, Johnny Cash museum for sure and we'll maybe take a trolley ride. We'll see. Also heading to Memphis for my first trip to Graceland. I'm quite excited! Good luck with Sandy's appointment, hoping it isn't anything serious. Be safe in your journey!

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    1. Hi, Patsy! Well, I hope I'm not dampening anyone's enthusiasm by my comments. For fans of country music, Nashville will be nirvana, for sure. And you will enjoy Graceland immensely; say hello to Elvis for me! If you'll search this blog for "Memphis," you can see what we saw.

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  4. Hi, Mike! Alan and I have travel plans that include several days in the Nashville area next year and I was disappointed to hear about the crowds and the traffic. We're both country music fans (more so of artists from the 70's through the 90's) and we're looking forward to visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame - which I know has been renovated since the last time we were there about twenty-five years ago. (Wow! Time flies!) At that time, we enjoyed ourselves immensely and had little difficulty in getting around. Thanks for the heads up - I think we'll temper our enthusiasm with an extra dose of patience when we re-visit Music City. The old train station looks fabulous and I'm definitely going to add that to our itinerary - thanks for the tip and the gorgeous photo!

    Looking forward to your report from Memphis - that's on our itinerary, too!

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    1. I have no doubt that you will enjoy Nashville, Mary. If we had been country music fans, I'm sure we would have been much more enthusiastic. We felt a little out of step, of course, because the tourists around us were rabid fans; to them, we must have seemed a little dimwitted. You will have a great time, I'm sure. In regard to Memphis, we have visited there several times over the years and wrote about it in the blog, so I think I will skip a post this time. I highly recommend Tom Sawyer RV Park located on the west bank of the Mississippi River. I always enjoy watching the tugboats pushing the barges and imagining what it must have been like when the old paddlewheel boats plied their way along. We enjoyed Graceland, and I'm sure that will be on your itinerary. Just search on "Memphis" in this blog and you'll find all of our previous posts. Have fun, y'all!

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  5. We have been to Nashville many times, but visiting Jackson's home was a special treat! Glad you got to see it.

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    1. I think it was our favorite part of the visit, too. We loved the history of the area.

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