NASHVILLE - ONE MORE TIME. THEN HOME.

Got an early start and went to Ryman Auditorium for their behind the scenes tour.

When we were there yesterday in the afternoon the ticket lady told us there were no more tours available and we should come back tomorrow. I asked to buy tickets for tomorrow and she told me to "just buy them when you get here tomorrow."  So we get there this morning and are told, "Sorry. All tours are already sold out. Would yo like to buy tickets for tomorrow?"  I told the nice man, "We tried to do that  yesterday and the lady wouldn't sell us tickets for today. And today is our last day in Nashville." He rolled his eyes and said, "Let me see what I can do." 5 minutes of suspense while he poked at the keyboard and he came up with two tickets to "the tour that starts in 5 minutes. Hurry upstairs now."

The "backstage tour" was wonderful. Dressing rooms full of posters and other memorabilia. But we were not allowed to take pictures.  We could take pictures in the auditorium though.

As close as I'll ever get to Ryman stage.

And in the museum area around the balcony.

I don't think there is anyone reading my blog who doesn't know whose hat this is.

This is one of Johnny Cash's tuxedos from his TV show. The dress was worn by Sissy Spacek in the movie "Coal Miner's Daughter. Please click on pic to see it full size.

Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl and Carol.

Again we took about twice as long as we had anticipated. Carol has never seen the Grand Ole Opry.  Being with me for 7+ years has made her knowledgeable about many of the stars. But neither of us knew all the history of the building. It's a really fascinating story with some larger than life characters.  Click here for info.

Time for lunch. You may know, Nashville has dozens if not hundreds of bars and restaurants with live music. The musicians play for tips hoping for that "big break". Too many to pick from. Finally chose Crazy Town.

Three stories, six bars and three stages. We chose the patio on the third floor. All three floors were packed at lunch on a Friday. Apparently it's packed pretty much 24/7 but management hasn't figured that out yet. The bartender was the only employee on the third floor. She apologized for the delays and said there should be a second person in a few minutes. We finally gave up on table service and went inside to sit at the bar. The music was nothing special except loud. I think Sounds of Bluegrass or Dew South would get a lot more tips than these guys did. Anybody got an old bus?  With such a crowd we didn't expect the food to be anything special. We were wrong. We were going to Ryman and the Airstream was an hour away. I couldn't risk my incredibly consistent spill on my shirt.

Finished lunch and returned to to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. We got there around 2 o'clock but the lady that told us yesterday the we couldn't do it in an hour and a half should have told us we couldn't do it in three hours. As we left, my comment for the suggestion box was, "Sell a two day ticket. Or at the very least allow anyone who enters after 2 o'clock to come back the next day for free."

Pictures WERE allowed !

But there was soooooo much stuff to see and read about that Carol only took a few.

The only bass in the building.

 Except for this. The "Whomper" was probably the first bass guitar. It was made from a bass drum head in the 1940's. Please click on the pic and enlarge it so you can see the Whomper in the photo of the quartet.
It was BIG.

We had to take a picture of the Charlie Daniels exhibit because we were going to hear him this evening.

They threw us out at 5 o'clock. So we had 4 1/2 hours before our show started. We walked to The John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge which connects downtown with Cumberland Park. Condemned as a highway bridge, it was scheduled to be torn down. But concerned citizens convinced the City to turn it into a pedestrian/bike bridge. It's a beautiful bridge and offers great views of the river and downtown.

There were street musicians everywhere but this trio featured an upright bass. After listening for a while, I told the bassist, "It's not very often I see some one playing lead on a bass."

Time for THE SHOW.

Just some of the artists we got to hear before the main act.

Exile

Smithfield

Ray Pillow, a member of the Opry since 1966. He's from Lynchburg, VA.

The Grascals

The Whites

And the MAN and his band !

Eighty years old and still rocking the house.  A late night but worth every minute and $. A quiet ride back to the campground.

Saturday we watched Penn State beat Indiana. Sunday we went to church and packed things up to head home.

Got home, Tuesday November 15th after almost three months.

An incredible trip.  A dear friend called it the "trip of a lifetime."  I corrected her and said it was "our new life."  We're home until April and then we'll head west again, this time through the South.

MORE NASHVILLE

We had tickets for The Grand Ole Opry for the Friday night late show. On Thursday we went into town to check out parking. It's something we have to scope out with a 23' long truck. Don't want a city version of the North Rim.

Looked like it was going to be expensive. We planned to spend most of Thursday and ALL of Friday - from 10am to midnight in the city. The web showed the most convenient locations started at $10.00/hr with a $25 or $40 maximum. For a minute I thought I was in Manhattan. But there was a link to "Parkwhiz".  This app allowed us to prepay and park in that same lot for $8.00 for up to 18 hours. If you're traveling even occasionally it is a wonderful app to have on your phone or computer. The instructions said, "Print your pass and put it on the dash." We didn't have a printer so I called the lot manager. A lady said, "Just write your confirmation number on a piece of paper and put it on the dash."

Downtown Nashville is very walk-able. Our first stop was the Johnny Cash Museum.  We spent about twice the time we had anticipated. It has SO much information about Johnny and the Carter family.


One of his first custom guitars.

One of Maybelle Carter's autoharps.

Johnny's Gold records and albums.

Ragged Old Flag.

This poem is featured at the museum. Click here to watch a different version of it.
We spent the better part of the day here. When we left to go to the CMA Hall of Fame and Museum a kind docent told us, "It's 3:30 and we close at 5. You can't possibly see it all in 90m minutes. Can you come back another day?" We thanked her and put it on out list for tomorrow when we'll be in town longer.

I don't know why we keep finding people like this, but it's a Blessing we see almost daily.

NASHVILLE

We arrived at our campground in Dickson, TN and "took the rest of the day off." Dickson is a small town about 45 miles west of Nashville. The campground wasn't even in Dickson. It was a small park about 10 miles south. Half permanent RV residents and almost half permanently parked RV's used as hunting camps. Friendly people and no worries about security after election day.

Wednesday we got up early and went to Loretta Lynn's Ranch. The museum was already closed for the season but the store, grist mill, replica of Loretta's childhood home and her house were open. It's a beautiful valley. Actually the town of Hurricane Mills was - is - located here. When Mooney and Loretta bought the ranch, the town including the Post Office came with it. The Post Office is still open.

It was a delight to tour her home, especially after Graceland. If you didn't know, Loretta built her career as a Down Home Country Girl and the home just shouted, "We are happy, devout country folk." We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the house. But believe me, from the family pictures to the huge collection of Avon bottles, you just knew this was a lady you'd love to get to know.

Just hangin' out on Loretta's front porch.

The replica of the "Butcher Hollow" house.

The grist mill and pond.

Inside the grist mill.

Remaining roots of a weird old tree.

Sorry. We didn't see any chipmunks. This might be why.

Between the  Ranch and the Interstate is a place called, "Loretta's Kitchen." We asked a lady in the general store if we should go there for lunch. she smiled, looked over her shoulder and said quietly, "No. Ms. Lynn is not connected with that place. Mooney sold the use of her name to them years ago. Go to The Log Cabin just off the Interstate. We did. Great food, very reasonable price and more food than we could possibly eat. You know it's gonna be country good when two of the entrees under "Seafood" are catfish. Mississippi catfish" I was assured by the waitress. "There's nothing Chinese on there."

Tomorrow we go into Nashville.

GRACELAND AND SUN STUDIOS

Prelude to blog. Sun Studios comes later but please click on SUN now. You don't have to read it yet, but the Home page will provide the appropriate background for this blog.


I'm not usually one to stay in expensive campgrounds - WAIT for gasps of surprise from my old friends -
But Graceland RV Park is within easy walking distance of Graceland and they provided free shuttles to downtown and Sun Studios.  AND Marlow's, a famous Bar-B-Que place provides transportation to their restaurant as well. I didn't plan to go there because I had a special place I wanted to take Carol. More about that later.

Graceland is a wonderful view into the life of Elvis before his decline.

 My first record purchase was "45 LP" from his first movie, "Love Me Tender."

In spite of reported sightings, we did not see Elvis. This is as close as we got.

Our "Platinum Tour" included the cars, motorcycles and airplanes.

Then it was wait for a bus and go to Sun Studios, the Birthplace of Rock and Roll.

 Andrew and I saw "Million Dollar Quartet" on Broadway and Carol and I just saw it in Las Vegas. For the two or three of  you who don't know the story, on December 4th, 1956 Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis spent an afternoon jamming at Sun Studios. Elvis had already gone to RCA but the others were still under contract to Sun. The owner Sam Phillips was smart enough to leave the tapes running without telling the quartet.

A relatively new addition to the Sun Studios Museum - This is the radio booth of Dewey Phillips (No relation to Sam) who was one of the very first DJ's to play black artists and white artists playing black inspired music. He was the first to play almost all of Sun Studio's releases. Sun employees heard that the building was being torn down so they salvaged the entire booth.

The Cook Family Duet rehearsing in the actual studio where so much history was made. No one offered us a contract. I don't know if Carol was disappointed but as a bass player, I'm used to it. After all, the "Million Dollar QUARTET"  had two more people who remain in obscurity. The drummer, W. S. Holland and bassist, Carl Perkins brother Jay.

I had planned to take Carol to Rendezvous. I remember them having the BEST dry rub ribs in the world. And it would be fun to lead Carol down a back alley to a hole in the wall. 

BUT our only day in town was Monday and they are closed on Monday. THANK YOU Tinkerbell. Latest reviews are that it has gone touristy and lost a lot in quality.

So, back to the campground, call Marlowe's and ask them to come pick us up. A few minutes later they arrived in a pink stretch Cadillac. Didn't get a picture there, but here we are arriving at the restaurant.

AND their mascot is a pink pig Airstream. This was worth it even if the food doesn't live up to our expectations.

But oh my goodness, it did. Here is Carol's pulled pork.

And my rack of ribs with sides "on the side" because there's no room on the platter.

They are famous for their desserts too, so we HAD to go for it.

Maile - yes I spelled it right - was simply the icing on the cake. Friendly, helpful, full of life. The perfect compliment to a perfect day.

The limo was waiting to take us back to the campground where we collapsed in a food coma.

ONE DAY. But what a day.

Next is Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry.