Went back to the campgrounds and swam, then showered. The water was real nice. We met some other travelling kids from Washington State, thus making our journey so far seem like nothing.
Hit the road, and got to Nashville pretty quickly. We both wanted to see the Grand Ole Opry , and thus headed over there to get tickets early in the day. We made it out to a mall on the outskirts of Nashville, where the Opry is located. Kind of strange to find the central bastion of country music amidst a mega shopping mall complex. Decided on the 6 PM show, as opposed to the late-night 9 PM show, so we could hit the road while we were still conscious. We bought two tickets, and I was a little nervous that the show would only have contemporary (read crappy) country music, and not the older more soulful stuff, with good bluegrass and genuine country jamming. Anyway, I figured whatever happened, it would be a fun unique experience (for a Northerner, at least).
We headed back to downtown Nashville to find some place to eat. We drove past a train-station-looking building a few times, with a huge iron beam skeleton framework at one side. It was an interesting sight, and I tried to get a picture, but to no avail. We wanted to have lunch around the Nashville music industry area, but a blocked-off road proved ot actually be a formidable obstacle, but we finally triumphed in our navigational quest. The music industry area was totally dead, which sort of made sense for a Saturday. The few restaurants we found were closed and locked.
Nashville had some weird-looking futuristic skyscrapers, like evil people trying to take over the world will have their offices in the top of. See some here.
So we headed for downtown again, and parked near the Statehouse. Once again, this area was totally dead and quiet, and the few restaurants in this area were shut down. Some nice folks pointed us to a section a few blocks away that should be hopping, so we headed over there. Here's a shot of the Statehouse, if anyone's interested in comparing Tennessee governmental architecture with that of South Carolina's capital, as seen on July 4.
The area we wound up was a definite tourist-trappy area. Hard-Rock-Cafe-like places abounded. After discussing the philosophies of money spending, we went to an Irish pub called Seanachie, or something like that. I think there was an accent grave somewhere in the name. Our waitor told us a story about how the pub serves the Perfect pint of Guinness and that a good brewmaster could tell how clean the pipes were by the color of the head. Then he went on to say how big Bud Lite was back in Ireland. Hillary and I pondered how much he was putting us on, and wondered if we should try to call his bluff, or play stupid and let him tell more and more stories. Our food then came, we both had burgers with cheddar, bacon, and BBQ sauce.
We walked around the kitchy part of Nashville for awhile. THe shops had a wide array of country music, including bluegrass and gospel, and I drooled over the collection of music. But frugality prevailed, and I left emptyhanded. A bar across the street had some band playing, so we listened to them a bit on the street corner. Mused about the shaggy-haired blond bassist looking totally out of place in a country band, and how he was either surf or punk. A weather-beaten man wandered by begging for some change so he could buy a beer. I gave him 25¢, and he mumbled something about needing 15¢ more for his beer, and then he mumbled something about just getting out of prison. Eventually he wandered off, and we decided to get to ye Opry for the show.
We made it past the throngs of people to the Opry. At some point, Hillary posed next to a bronze statue of the late great Minnie Pearl.
However, as I entered the scene, the statue remarkably came to life, hat with price tag, and all.
The Grand Ole Opry show itself was quite a spectacle. It was interesting to be part of the radio show, albeit an AM station probably not widely diseminated. When the curtain rose, some great kickin' bluegrass music greeted the audience, along with some funky jig-doing dancers. Everyone got real into it, and was clapping to the beat, grooving a la country style. Several musicians played all different styles of country, bluegrass, and folk. Each performance was separated by a commercial break, which was kind of a shock. It was the first show I've paid to get into, where we had to endure commercials between songs. 2½ hours of country goodness was the show. I realize that country is the soul music of the rural folk, it's their chance to kick in and git down.
Porter Wagoner seemed to be a big hit at the show. Got one of the
loudest ovations, he did. I gather he's a famous music star, so here's
a shot of him on the stage, with the Saturday Night Opry Live musicians.
G.E. Smith wasn't there, fortunately. I apologize for the lack of
pictorial quality here, the flash seems to have bounced entirely off the
bald-dude's head in front of us, creating a blazing glare.
Because of his tremendous fame (and fortune) you might not be satisfied
with that little picture. So here, for the benefit of all, is a closeup,
showing every little detail of Porter himself.
Here's another shot of the Opry, with the Opry Square Dance Band along with the Melvin Sloan Dancers. Their crazy white pants beg the ultimate question : Why the hell did we do square dancing in gym class? What was it's purpose?
We left the show and waited a bit in the parking lot for the cars to to get going. It was a very inefficient parking lot, who designs these things? The huge megalopomall and the Opry all had thousands of cars leaving, and there are only two little roads to/from the parking lot to the highways. During the wait, I called home and was shocked when my brother Jake answered the phone. I thought he was at camp, but it was his day off. Hillary and I then hit the road with intents to get as far out to Memphis as we could. It proved to be too many miles, so we camped out at another KOA campgrounds on the way to Rt. 40, but before Jackson, TN. We set up our tent, and went right to sleep, being hot and exhausted. I fidgeted for a great while in the heat and stuffiness of the tent, but finally fell asleep. Once again, it got cool at night, so we used the sleeping bag for warmth. We had an alarm on Hillary's pager set to 7:30, so we could hit the road early, with hopes of getting to Al Green's church in Memphis on time for Sunday services.
| Location | Somewhere near Spot, TN |
| Odometer | 131003.8 Miles Total 2250.1 Miles On Trip 202.7 Miles Today |
| Coordinates | 35° 52.825' N 87° 47.444' W |