Nashville
I had a great two weeks in
Nashville, for most of my visit the weather was great and there were so many
sights to see.
Another day I took a drive and found the Parthenon; a full scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens. It was built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. It’s in the beautiful 132 acre Centennial Park. It had a sunken garden with lots of flower beds and shrubs, it was such a peaceful area. Another beautiful place turned out to be the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, which was amazing! There were 9 acres lush indoor gardens, winding rivers and pathways, and sparkling waterfalls – all inside this huge glass atrium. There were lots of shops and restaurants overlooking the river.
I heard Toby Keith was going to be on the Highway at Sirius Satellite Radio. Their studio is downtown and they allow visitors in the studio. I showed up at the appointed time only to find out the show had been recorded last week. It was pretty cool though, I got to meet my favorite DJ Storme Warren. There were 6-8 of us in the control room and he asked us where we were from. I said I was a full time RVer and that I travel around doing Habitat builds. He thought that was pretty cool and ended up interviewing me during his show. During the songs, we were chatting and turns out he had been to Iraq as part of a USO tour just after I was there. He was a really nice guy.
I had heard of Comic Con, but had never been to one. I’m a big fan of the Walking Dead and Norman Reedus was there, so I thought why not. As I was standing in line to get in, I noticed many, many people had come in costumes. Some were excellent! There were lots of super heroes I was familiar with like Superman, Batman; Star Trek and Star Wars characters and some cartoon characters. A lot of the people, however were just in really strange getups. I had no idea who they were supposed to by, but they obviously put in a lot of effort. Most of the people there were part of that industry, but they did have celebrities like Dean Cain, Henry Winkler, Norman Reedus, Shawn Patrick Flanery, and others. Of the ones there, I really only wanted to meet Henry Winkler. You are supposed to get in line if you want to pay for an autograph or picture. Me and another guy were discussing whether or now you could get in line just to say hi. We figured the worst that could happen is being told to get out of line. As it turns out, he not only said hi and shook our hands, then I got a genially warm hug. Maybe because I told him he was the only person I really knew anything about. The line to meet Norman Reedus was ridiculously long so I settled for a few pictures taken from behind the ropes. It was kind of fun walking around looking at the people, but I’m glad I didn’t pay a lot.
While I was there, the weather turned really cold and one of my plants died. I’ve been carrying a tomato plant around since NJ and luckily I had brought that one inside, so it avoided the killing frost. Guess it’s time to pack up and head to Florida!
I headed to downtown
Nashville with a long list of things to do.
As I was looking for someplace to park, who should walk in front of my
truck but Trace Atkins! I just stupidly sat
there thinking this can’t really be him, can it? All I can say, if it wasn’t, it was his
twin. After a quick stop at the
visitors center, I had tickets to the Grand Ole Opry, Country Music Hall of
Fame, Studio B and Ryman Auditorium. Of
the 4, I think the most interesting was the Country Music Hall of Fame. I’ve listened to country music all my life,
so I knew who almost all of the people were.
The biggest exhibits were of the old timers, like from the 50’s and
60’s. They did have some cool displays
like Elvis Presley’s gold piano and the car from Smokey and the Bandit. I also took a tour of Studio B - one of the
world's most important and successful recording studios. More than 35,000 songs
were brought to life by the Studio B magic, including more than 1,000 American
hits, 40 million-selling singles and over 200 Elvis Presley recordings (by far
more than any other studio). There was a
piano in the studio that has been used on all recordings since the studio was
opened. Oh the stories it could tell! Every week its tuned up and is still in
excellent condition.
The Ryman Auditorium was fun
in part because Hunter Hayes was performing that evening. His tour bus was outside and there was the
possibility of seeing him. No such luck,
but we got to watch them setting up the stage with all the lights and sound
equipment. I found the behind the scene
look to be kind of interesting. I had no
idea how much work was involved, nor the number of people (at least 20). The Ryman Auditorium is the "Mother
Church of Country Music" and home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to
1974. It reminded me of Fords Theater in
DC, a very small and intimate venue.
Another day I took a drive and found the Parthenon; a full scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens. It was built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. It’s in the beautiful 132 acre Centennial Park. It had a sunken garden with lots of flower beds and shrubs, it was such a peaceful area. Another beautiful place turned out to be the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, which was amazing! There were 9 acres lush indoor gardens, winding rivers and pathways, and sparkling waterfalls – all inside this huge glass atrium. There were lots of shops and restaurants overlooking the river.
I heard Toby Keith was going to be on the Highway at Sirius Satellite Radio. Their studio is downtown and they allow visitors in the studio. I showed up at the appointed time only to find out the show had been recorded last week. It was pretty cool though, I got to meet my favorite DJ Storme Warren. There were 6-8 of us in the control room and he asked us where we were from. I said I was a full time RVer and that I travel around doing Habitat builds. He thought that was pretty cool and ended up interviewing me during his show. During the songs, we were chatting and turns out he had been to Iraq as part of a USO tour just after I was there. He was a really nice guy.
I had heard of Comic Con, but had never been to one. I’m a big fan of the Walking Dead and Norman Reedus was there, so I thought why not. As I was standing in line to get in, I noticed many, many people had come in costumes. Some were excellent! There were lots of super heroes I was familiar with like Superman, Batman; Star Trek and Star Wars characters and some cartoon characters. A lot of the people, however were just in really strange getups. I had no idea who they were supposed to by, but they obviously put in a lot of effort. Most of the people there were part of that industry, but they did have celebrities like Dean Cain, Henry Winkler, Norman Reedus, Shawn Patrick Flanery, and others. Of the ones there, I really only wanted to meet Henry Winkler. You are supposed to get in line if you want to pay for an autograph or picture. Me and another guy were discussing whether or now you could get in line just to say hi. We figured the worst that could happen is being told to get out of line. As it turns out, he not only said hi and shook our hands, then I got a genially warm hug. Maybe because I told him he was the only person I really knew anything about. The line to meet Norman Reedus was ridiculously long so I settled for a few pictures taken from behind the ropes. It was kind of fun walking around looking at the people, but I’m glad I didn’t pay a lot.
While I was there, the weather turned really cold and one of my plants died. I’ve been carrying a tomato plant around since NJ and luckily I had brought that one inside, so it avoided the killing frost. Guess it’s time to pack up and head to Florida!
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