Music City USA

Left for downtown Nashville at 8:00 a.m., parked in the Nashville Library parking lot and headed for the Ryman Auditorium.  This is know as the "Batman Building."  It is actually the AT&T building.

Bill Monroe is the father of blue grass.

This is a statue of Captain Tom Ryman.  He was a well-known and prosperous river boat captain and riverboat company owner..  During a tent revival led by Sam Jones.  he was saved and wanted to build a great church building for Nashville.  It was called Union Gospel Tabernacle.  Eventually, it became the "The Mother Church of Country Music" and renamed the Ryman Auditorium.  It began housing a church but through the years it hosted a variety of other events including political, musical, opera, ballet, debates, etc.  People who have been on the stage of the auditorium are Bob Hope, Will Rogers, and Mae West.  In 1943 the first country music show know as the "Grand Old Opry" took stage and the rest is history.

We entered the Ryman through security and metal detectors.  We were asked to empty our pockets of all metal.  I only had my camera which I put on the table and walked through the scanner.  Much to my surprise, I set off the beeper.  I had a knee brace on and it had metal supports.  I had completely forgotten about the brace.  It was a reminder to  Carol that he had a metal knee that would beep.  They scanned our knees and then passed us through.

Interior seating is church pews.

Windows and pews are originals.

We aren't sunburned.  Our faces are a reflection of the red windows in the auditorium.

We walked from the Ryman onto South Broadway the home of several Honky Tonks.

Nashville is the home of the famous candy "Goo Goo Clusters."  They are sooooo good!  We had to have some!

Our next stop was the Johnny Cash Museum.  It was small but filled with memorabilia and information on Johnny Cash.  It was packed and hard to walk through let alone see or read all the information.  This was our least favorite we visited.  

He was a cute kid!

He went from a  cute kid to a handsome Air Force Staff Sergeant.  His birth name was J.R. Cash but when he went into the Air Force, they would not accept initials as a name so he began to call himself John R. Cash.

Our last stop was the Country Music Hall of Fame.  There was so much information, memorabilia, pictures, and displays that it was overwhelming.  It was very nice and we enjoyed it but by the time we were finished, our feet were complaining. As we were leaving the museum, we talked to a security guard who worked at the museum.  He told us that tomorrow the museum would be  closed for the induction service of the 2019 inductees.  Brooks and Dun and Roger Miller are two of the three.  The third was a record producer that we didn't know.  He told us that the streets around the museum would be closed because of the country stars attending would be arriving in their limos entering the front of the museum.  That would be a sight to see.

Bridgestone America's headquarters is located in Nashville.

This car was owned by Webb Pierce.  It was very unusual.

After the museum we walked the Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge to get this skyline picture of Nashville.

Besides walking, there were several other ways to explore the city.  There were lots of people riding electric scooters.  They would ride them in the streets along with cars.  It looked scary to me.

Another skyline view.  The building in the center is the Bridgestone Building, corporate headquarters in the Americas.

This is an interesting way to see the city.  Each person pedals to power the ride.  Can you believe that people would pay to ride this and provide their power foot power to move the vehicle?

Thi

Another means of transportation:  "Hell on Wheels."

The always popular "Old Town Trolley."

Want to party?  Ride the Honky Tonk Party Bus and Rolling Bar.

We saw both John Deere and Case tractors pulling wagon loads of tourists.  All of these clogged the street along with all the cars and pedestrians.

The famous "Tootsies Purple Orchid Lounge.:"

Outside of Ryman.

This picture was taken on the stage of the Ryman.  I took a picture of the original so I could include it in the blog.

At 3:30 we decided to call it a day, give our feet a break, and head back to camp.  Little did we know that the bridge we would cross to leave downtown and get back on I-24 East ended at the parking lots for Nissan Titan Stadium.  Two games were being played at the stadium this afternoon and evening:  Tennessee State vs Austin Peay college game and  the Tennessee Titans Pros were playing.  This was the perfect storm for a gigantic traffic jam.  It took us one and a half hour to cross the bridge and get back on the interstate.  Once we were on the interstate, it only took 45 minutes to get back to camp.  Sandy was very happy to see us.  She had been in the RV for 10 hours but she did great.

Tomorrow should be shorter and less taxing for our feet.