Nashville

We hadn't done any laundry since we were in New York City and clean clothes were becoming hard to find.  Since they had a washer and dryer at the hostel, we decided that now was as good of a time as any.  The only drawback was that the dryer took a long time to dry the clothes.  We had 2 loads which I started at 10:30, they weren't finished until 1:00 pm and even then the clothes were still a little damp.  Never mind the dampness, we were itching to explore Nashville.

Our main destination was the Country Music Hall of Fame.  We spent the entire afternoon there, walking through the exhibits which were set up as a time line depicting the start and growth of country music.  The exhibitions were interesting and often included video clips and music.  One of the things I liked the most was looking at the clothing worn by many of the different musicians being portrayed.  Once rhinestones were included, the outfits became much more elaborate and intricate.  The Boots!  Usually custom made with the artist's name or initials on the boots.  No representation of a musician would be complete without a couple of automobiles.  The acoustics were amazing; you could be listening to a song and three feet away you couldn't hear a thing, this allowed for many different things to be going on all at the same time.  The finale was the rotunda where they have a plaque representing each of the musicians that have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

When we left the Hall of Fame, we walked to Jake's to enjoy some Bar-B-Que.  This was a very casual restaurant, you ordered and picked up your food at the serving counter.  Rainy and I shared the rib platter; for sides we shared cucumber salad, mac and cheese, green beans, coleslaw, potato salad, and of course, cornbread.  They had 6 different bar-b-que sauces and we tried them all.  Julie's favorite sauce was described as sweet and spicy.  Rainy's favorite was the Carolina's, a mustard based sauce.  For dessert we shared the chess pie and the chocolate pie. 

Next on our agenda was the Grand Ole Opry!  When we bought our tickets we had to buy two single seats so we would not be sitting together, that was okay, at least we were going to the opry!  The show was at the Ryman theater, the original location of the Grand Ole Opry.  There were 8 performers scheduled, each playing for 15 minutes or so.  The show began with Riders in the Sky.

Next came Chris Young, Jimmy C. Newman, Mark Chestnutt, Jeannie Seely, Montgomery Gentry, and Jimmy Dickens.

The finale was the Charlie Daniels Band!

The show ended at 9:30 and we were off to Memphis.  Rainy was driving and Julie was sleeping!  We got as far as Jackson, Tennessee, which was about 90 miles from Memphis and decided it was time to look for a motel as it was after midnight and Rainy was getting tired.  We pulled off the interstate and found the Casey Jones Motel tucked in between all of the chain motels that you would expect to find.  Our room was air conditioned and actually fairly decent.  We were settled in for the night.