Nashville Tennessee

My trip northward began with a big driving day from Milton, Florida to Nashville Tennessee on Monday March 27th. It followed a restful final day in Milton Florida, and with John by my side we made it.  Our destination was an RV parking area, with full hook-ups at the Nashville Fairgrounds.  I knew from the online reviews that the place was nothing special, but the price and location were better than the more traditional or military campgrounds, which were a much further distance from the Downtown tourist area, but seeing as we don't tend to spend much time in the trailer during the day, it would be fine, similar to the place I parked in Philadelphia.  I also knew all the sites were back in, not something I was looking forward to after a long days drive and with a lightning storm obviously heading in our direction.  With John's help directing, we were able after many maneuvers to get the trailer onto an empty site.  (I really do need to get much better at backing the rig up!)  We did so just in time as the rain and lightning bared down on our location.  We relaxed for a while and then went out for a late dinner to the nearest restaurant, Smokin' Thighs, one we had noticed on our way in.

I was near Nashville in September of 2015, but all I had time for was the Johnny Cash Museum, and an organized Pub Crawl.  John and I had one day full day to explore the city.  We didn't get off to a very early start, but that was O.K. as we wanted to take in some night life.  Finding a parking spot for the truck was a bit more problematic than I had expected.  There is a lot of construction going on in the downtown area.  We counted no less than 7 cranes in the skyline, which likely meant fewer on grade parking lots remain.  We though we had found a good one, but then realized you could only pay by the 24 hour period and that was around $35.  At first I didn't think we would be able to fit into the Convention Center parking lot, but upon further calculation we did, just barely, only the top of the antenna was hitting a few low pipes.  The bill came to $12.

The Convention Center located across the road from the Bridgestone Arena, where the Predators play, and the Country Music Hall of Fame, our first destination.

We spent several hours at the County Music Hall of Fame.  

John is a big fan of the older country music, and I'm renewing my interest in it from days gone by when I liked Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and a few other country musicians.  They have a new display about Brad Paisley, the singer of "our song," "Forever and Ever, Amen," which in 1987 won a Grammy for Best Country & Western Song and an Academy of Country Music award for Song of the Year.  John always selects it when we are in a bar with a jukebox and sings it to me. 

The museum is large and a bit overwhelming, so many artists are recognized, many sound bites and artifacts like, stage costumes, instruments, awards, and some cars. 
There is a little Canadian Content:

At the end of our tour we had a look around the gift shop and tried on some hats:

Afterwards we took a walk along the riverfront and went part way over a bridge that is for pedestrians only.  

All this walking around had helped us to build up a thirst so we did a little bar hopping looking for good live music.  We walked both sides of Broadway and 2nd Ave.  At one of the bars on 2nd, I noticed a tour group come in and recognized the guide as the one that had taken me on my tour about 17 months ago.  He was able to suggest a venue for us to check out that would have music John would like.  We stopped for a bite of dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery.  Tuesday nights they have their beer sampling on special so I gave it a try:

  

Beer comes in many colors.

Tasting notes.

We had a fun day in downtown Nashville. 

This was our last full day together as Wednesday afternoon John was scheduled on a flight back to Tucson by way of Los Angeles.  We will keep in touch and meet up again, possibly in Canada, and otherwise back in Tucson is about 6 1/2 months. 

I spent one more night in Nashville.