NASHVILLE, TN

We arrived in Nashville, Tennessee on a clear sunny day.  It was an amazing drive down from Elizabethtown with all the fall colours.  We moved into our new campground and after setting up we met other couples from Canada, from BC, Ontario and Quebec.  Nashville is a large city of some 635,000 persons but it has at its soul, Country Music.

We toured Belle Meade Plantation the next day.  

Belle Meade Plantation is a 30-acre historic site 6 miles west of Nashville. The centrepiece of the property is the Belle Meade mansion built in 1853.  The Plantation originally began as a 250-acre farm in 1807.  It grew into a very well known horse ranch and at its height; the plantation was 2600 acres (8 miles square) and had its own racetrack, deer hunting area, fox hunting area and paddock areas.  This rock wall, built by the slaves, once surrounded the estate, 64 miles of rocks.  

 One of the slave quarters.

It also had at one time over 120 slaves.  Here are some other pictures of the children's playhouse, the stables and the grounds.

Over 400 top rated thoroughbreds and over 20 Kentucky Derby winners can trace their bloodlines back to the Belle Meade Plantation horses.

We also had a visit to the Belmont Mansion.  

Belmont Mansion is the largest house museum in Tennessee.  It was completed by 1853 as an Italian villa style summer home.  The first owners used Belmont as a summer home to escape from the heat of their seven Louisiana cotton plantations, which totalled 8,600 acres (3,500 ha). The owners built, furnished, and landscaped one of the most elaborate antebellum homes in the South, totalling 36 rooms.


The whole home measured over 19,000 sq. ft. (1,800 m²). The estate contained a variety of buildings with the house adorning the top of the hill. Beside the house, there was a T-shaped guesthouse and art gallery. The south wing of the guesthouse contained guest rooms and a bowling alley. The art gallery had a corrugated glass roof and comprised the north wing. The grounds also included lavish gardens, conservatories, aviary, lake and a zoo. The conservatories housed tropical fruit and flowers along with camellia japonica, jasmine, lilies, and cacti. The zoo featured bears, monkeys, peacocks, singing birds, a white owl, and alligators from Louisiana and a deer park. Covered balconies with cast iron railing and trim surrounded the house to protect windows from the sun. Atop the house, a ten-foot octagonal cupola vented the house during the summer months and provided an "astronomical observatory" used for viewing the stars, the estate and downtown Nashville.

We enjoyed a back stage tour of the Grand Ole Opry that let us view the dressing rooms set to honour many of the country stars who have performed at the Opry over the years.   In the 1930s, the show began hiring professionals and expanded to four hours; and WSM-AM, broadcasting by then with 50,000 watts, made the program a Saturday night musical tradition in nearly 30 states. In 1939, it debuted nationally on NBC Radio.

This is the entrance the performers use when arriving at the Opry.

A statue of Minnie Pearl.

The Opry is a weekly country music stage concert that has presented the biggest stars of country music since 1925.   When the stars come into the Opry, their first stop is often their mailbox.

The above picture is of the mail room.  This is where fan mail is actually delivered to the stars who are members of the Opry.  Superstar Alan Jackson once was a mailman who delivered mail to the Opry, and now, he has his own mailbox.  The following are pictures of the dressing rooms.

When it was about time for you to perform, you would move from your dressing room to the main lounge.  This is it…

And, then it was onto the stage.

The Ryman was home to the Opry until 1974, when the show moved to the 4,400-seat Grand Ole Opry House, located nine miles east of downtown Nashville on a new site that was part of the Opryland USA theme park. Opening night, March 16, was attended by President Nixon, who played a few songs on the piano. When the new Opry opened, a large circle of wood was cut from the original stage at the Ryman and inlaid into the stage at the new venue.  

We had a backstage tour of the Ryman and it included visits to the old dressing rooms of some of the originals of country music.  In these photos you can see the balcony, which is known as the Confederate Balcony.  This area was erected at the end of the Civil War in order that the returning veterans could go to the Ryman, as for the first time in many years, the men were at home and families could go out together to see the music shows.

On Tuesday, we sat in the audience of the Opry and watched the show.  It starred Little Jimmy Dickens (who will be 91 next month)

Other performers that night included Alabama

Carrie Underwood who won American Idol in 2005.

Bill Anderson, Josh Thompson, the Del McCoury Band and Brad Paisley.  It was amazing to watch these stars perform in their environment but also to see and listen to the radio program, complete with commercial messages, done completely live.

We decided to complete our Bourbon tour with a drive south about 2 hours to the town of Lynchburg and visit the Jack Daniels Distillery.  This is one of two distilleries in Tennessee who make Tennessee whisky.  It differs from Kentucky whisky in the filtration stages, but otherwise use the same ingredients.  But, because the distilleries are both in “dry” counties, there are no tastings given and you cannot buy any sort of liquor anywhere in the county and only a very limited selection of their very expensive and "not regularly available to the public" distributed Bourbon at their store.

This is a limestone cave/cavern from which the water which makes Jack is drawn from.

One of our last visits was to the Country Music Hall of Fame.  We never expected it to take so long to tour but we were there for over six hours.  The museum tells the story of country music through historic country video clips and recorded music, dynamic exhibits and a regular menu of live performances and public programs.  We were enthralled with the history behind Chet Atkins struggle to fame and the history behind Hank Williams death and how his family is coming together to honour him.

We also went and visited Arnold’s Country Kitchen.  The night before we were watching the Food Channel on TV and one of the locations being highlighted was Arnold’s in Nashville.  So after the show we decided we just had to go and see it for ourselves.  Host of Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Guy Fieri, described Arnold's as a family style restaurant doing its James Beard Award-winning take on classic southern comfort foods.  We immediately loved the atmosphere and great mix of people. It was crowded, but as the guy who was cleaning up the tables (and turned out to be the chef) said, "You just might meet new friends or family."  Their specialties were southern greens, chess pie, cornbread, black-eyed Peas, succotash, baked chicken, brisket, pork chops and country Fried Steak.  We ended up with a meat + two vegetable plate and pecan pie.  Wow, what a meal!  We were sorry to be leaving, as we weren’t going to have a chance to go back again.  But, we just might add this stop to our list to see for next year!

So, next we are off, through the Ozark Mountains, into Missouri and the City of Branson.  It will be a 7 – 8 hour drive but we are really looking forward to seeing the Las Vegas of the North.