Luckily, we got a good night's sleep last night and woke up pretty refreshed today. We have done a lot of driving and it really does make you tired. We've also driven almost 9,000 miles and gone through well over a dozen states.
We finished checking in at the campground and headed in to downtown Nashville. This is a city we could spend a week in and really enjoy ourselves. Our first stop was The Frist Center for Visual Arts. This was a recommendation from a friend and it worked out well. We parked in the parking lot there and got to explore the Center where there were some extremely rare cares we'll probably never see again. They were 1920s and 30s Art Deco style cars-beautiful! This building was an old post office and the architecture was really pretty as well. Now, only a small section is still a post office. Next to the P.O. is a really old train station that was also very pretty. We stayed parked in this parking lot and walked right down Broadway to the main part of Nashville. We made a stop at the visitor's center and kept on moving. The temperature was hot but there wasn't a lot of humidity. Once we got to about 7th street, it turned into a big honky tonk. There was live music coming out of every bar and restaurant and many restaurants were open air. It was close to noon at this point. We heard country music coming out of little speakers at each street corner. There is a ton of history in this city from the early to mid 1900s. The greats like Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams, etc played at the old Grand Ole Opry(The Ryman Center) and then took breaks at the local bars. From what we read, The 80s and 90s were not the best times for Nashville. It sounds like it wasn't the greatest place to be during this time period. The person who owns the famous bar, Tootsie's, described it as a place where homeless people roamed and there were hookers and pawn shops and there wasn't live country music at all times like it is now. Anyway, we stopped at Honky Tonk Central for lunch. This was a 3 story restaurant/bar. We listened to the two hopeful country singers play familiar tunes and had a delicious lunch-this is the life.
We stopped in a few different boot shops just to check out what they had. Since we're in the heart of country music, everything was marked up about 50%. The original boots I wanted and thoroughly researched were 200.00 more and the only thing we could chalk it up to was the fact they were being sold in Nashville. Chris found the exact cowboy hat he bought in Wyoming and that was being sold for 50% more than he paid for it-wow! Luckily, we found our boots/hats elsewhere. We walked to the riverfront and sat for a few minutes watching the water and boats.
One of the coolest things we saw was a "Pedal Tavern." This is seriously what Bloomsburg needs-whoever starts one there will surely prosper. Basically, you get a group of 8-12 people and there is a driver who has a brake and a steering wheel in the front. There is a keg on the "Pedal Tavern" and music as well. Everyone pedals, the driver steers and brakes and everyone has an individual cup holder for their cold cup of beer! This thing was awesome! You pedal around the streets of Nashville, drinking beer and listening to country music and the best part is, all you have to do is pedal-no harm done!
We walked up the other side of the street and stopped at a homemade candy and ice cream shop. The ice cream and gelato was all made in-shop and tasted delicious on this hot day. We headed back to our car. We had decided not to tour The Ryman and maybe save that for our next trip. It was pretty expensive we thought for a tour. It cost 14.00/person and we were more interested in browsing and seeing downtown Nashville. Anyway, parking only cost us 5.00 since we had the discount coupon from The Frist. Chris and I planned on going back to Nashville to check out the night scene. On our way back to the campground, we stopped at The Parthenon. This is the only full scale replica of the actual Parthenon in the world. Thanks to our math-loving teacher friend, Catherine Orleski, we ended up having a really nice time at The Parthenon. We didn't know it even existed until she told us about it before our trip. Anyway, it was pretty cool to see what The Parthenon looked like-what an amazing structure.
The two of us were exhausted driving back to the campground. We took a much needed couple hour nap and headed for the pool. I really didn't feel like going out in Nashville. This could mean one of two things: either, I had so much fun during the day I wore myself out, or the more likely option-I'm getting too old for days and nights like this :( . Hitting a quarter century is really taking its toll on me. Anyway, we had a really great night of sitting at our site, cooking pie-iron pizzas and hotdogs, listening to country music coming from the camper speakers and drinking corona with lime. We had our lights on our camper set up and it really was a much better choice and a relaxing night. Tomorrow we head to Gatlinburg, TN. We only have 4 nights left until we go home.
It's bittersweet. We are excited to get home and sleep in our bed again and spread out in our humble abode and have Gimley back and get our new kitten(well, I'm excited about this one), but this trip has flown by and we have made so many memories that I don't want it to end...
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