A DAY IN NASHVILLE

Woke up to more rain this morning...Grrrrr!!  We think it's been 2 weeks since we've seen the sun.  Definitely none on this trip yet.

While we were eating breakfast, the rain stopped and we decided to find a grocery store and get some food and beer to tide us over till we get to Florida.  While shopping, Roger said, "...lets find a tour of Nashville for this afternoon".  Sounded great to me, so we went into the KOA office to get their recommendations.  Lo and behold, they have a Concierge!!  He booked us on a "Discover Nashville" tour, which was leaving in 1/2 hour.  Yikes....put groceries away, change clothes, and run to meet the bus, which was already waiting!!!

Nashville is a very eclectic city (and it is HUGE!)  There is everything from state-of-the-art buildings and businesses to Honky-Tonks that were here when the earliest country singers came on the scene.  Tootsies, the very first Honky-Tonk was where stars like Randy Travis was discovered while singing on Tootsies homemade stage, and signed to a contract.  It is still a viable establishment today.

We toured the old Ryman Theater, home of the original Grand Ole Opry.  It is now fondly referred to as, "The Mother Church of Country Music".  We found out why. We will be there tomorrow night for the show, but enjoyed our intimate look at the old theater today.  They have a video detailing the history and we learned it was originally a church and the original pews are still there providing seating for the Opry patrons.

Interesting note...there are 700 churches in Nashville...not a typo....700!!!

After this we toured the Country Music Hall of Fame.  We had only an hour there and I can tell you that is NOT enough time.  Our tickets are still good tomorrow and we could go back, but the traffic is horrendous and Roger wants to watch football games.  We'll just have to come back :-)  It is really an Awesome place to visit.  I especially liked the clothing that was worn by singers throughout the years.  They even had one of Minnie Pearls cotton, puffed sleeve dresses and one of her famous straw hats with flowers and the price tag dangling down  :-) 

A busy fun day!!