the ultimate rd trip 2013 our nashville adventures

The Ultimate Road trip 2013 our Nashville, TN Adventures

June 1 We started our day by going to the Country Music Hall of Fame. The building itself tells a story, every detail represents something about country music and American history. The windows are designed to look like the keys of a piano. When looking at the building from above, it looks like a bass clef. The wood floors, remind you of barns and farms or rural areas where a lot of singers and songwriters come from. There is a rotunda that is graduated in size represents the changes of how music is stored from the large vinyl records to the lp’ s, the 45’s and then compact discs. There is a tower that represents the radio towers that music is played on. There is much more but I don’t have my information guide with me right now. It houses every album that has gone platitnum or gold in country music.

We kinda split up as we walked thru, some striding leisurely, others taking a brisk pace, then meandering back thru to catch up with the others. It’s a 3 story museum of country music history from costumes, personal belongings, guitars, cars, letters, and etc. They were having a special Patsy Cline exhibit.

There is a tv show that came out this yr called Nashville, Nana and I watch it every week. They had costumes and props from that show on display. The  pilot’s script. I think this show must’ve been playing in the background each time I set out to plan our road trip. I wanted to go a completely different route to get to Rt 66 and somehow Nashville, TN became my pre Rt 66 destination. I thoroughly enjoyed this place.

We then had to find a place to eat, Drakeston wanted food as soon as we went inside the country music hall of fame. We ended up walking to an area of town called The District which is food venues that showcase live music. We ended up at a place called Paradise Resort and had some burgers. We started walking down the District and a rain storm came in. The weather was changing as each block was walked. We made it back to the car with just a small bit of rain. Eric and I got slightly more  wet than the others cuz we stopped to wait for traffic before crossing the st by the time we got the car out of the car garage it was a gray thick mass of pouring down rain that could barely be seen thru.

We attempted to go to Opryland but we missed the part that was not a part of the Gaylord resort. We decided we would just go back to our host’s house. We spent the rest of the night hanging out with them. We learned a card game, the boys jumped on the trampoline in the rain(it was much lighter rain at this point) Jason grilled us some brats and dogs, Laura cut up some watermelon. The kids ate it all up before the adults got any.

June 2 We started our day with a visit to Berry’s Chapel Church of Christ. The bible lesson was on Joy, Joy for God, living with Joy in God’s kingdom. We then went back to Nashville. Rain threatened to end our 2^nd sightseeing day as well. We arrived and it was raining on us. We walked to a store with Umbrellas but ended up not getting any. We walked some in the rain. We walked around the Ryman auditorium but did not take a tour so we didn’t get to see much of the inside. We headed back to the district. This time we ate before we started exploring and had white castle. We walked around inside the Hard Rock Café and in Downtown. We walked around the river window shopped some of the stores, saw some funny and famous saloons. Eric liked one called Country that kicks and laughed and laughed at it. He said it made his day. They had a funny horse statue in front of it, standing up. The Coyote Ugly was next door.

The day before I had seen some stars on the sidewalks but couldn’t get close enough to see what it was, Drakeston wanted his food. We walked back towards the area where I had seen them. Its close to the country music hall of fame. It is a walk of fame that was established in 2006. It is similar to the Hollywood Blvd walk of fame with stars on the ground. These stars are red and black and have the name of the star and a guitar.

Drakeston was now tired of walking so we headed to the car. We then drove down music row, me not really knowing what it was but knew I wanted to see it. It is a st that has old houses turned into recording studios. It has Studio B which is where most Nashville singers record their work. It’s also the RCA/Victor studio with the RCA dogs. This st has painted guitars. As we were driving around I remembered I wanted to see the parathion, an exact replica of the parathion that is in Greece. We got there about 4:20 and they closed at 4:30. They let us run inside and get a look of the statue of Athena.

By this time it was time to head to the Bluebird Café and meet the Millers. We knew we would have to wait in line, seating was first come first served. The line usually starts at 5pm and doors open at 6:30pm. The bluebird Café is a 31 yr old listening Venue that showcases songwriters. It’s the jumping off point for people to get signed or have singers by their songs. Elvis Presley and Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, Vince Gill, Taylor Swift, Leann rimes are just a few of the people whove performed there. It’s a small intimate venue but plays a major role in Nashville and country music, only holds 100. Its featured in the show Nashville, and some of the stars from the show still perform there. It is becoming more popular of course cuz of the recognition from the show. We got to the door and were told they just seated the seat, and we couldn’t get in. They said we could wait and see if anyone left for the 8pm show and then we could see if we could get a seat then. The Miller’s didn’t wait they have small kids. They went across the st and had The California Pizza for dinner. At this time Alex went with them. Drakeston and Eric walked to Mcd’s we were going to wait and see if we got an opening. The door guy gave us some umbrellas to block the sun off of us. Drakeston got tired of waiting, so when The Millers came out from the pizza place he went with them. They ended up going bowling. They bowled from 8pm-12midnight. We left the bluebird café about 11:15 or so. We got inside and heard a good show. There were supposed to be 10 writers but was more like 13. Each one was to sing 3 songs, and the closing feature writer got more. It was the start of The CMA festival week which is the country music awards and festivities leading up to them all week. The lines were longer than usual due to this. We stopped at Walmart to get the Millers some groceries for letting us stay with them and get some gas.  We all got to the Miller’s house about the same time. Dusty and Eric went straight to bed. The boys and Leia Miller played some cards. The younger kids finally went to sleep. Laura, Jen and Alex stayed up til 3am just chatting and visiting.

June 3 we packed up and started a drive day. We went from Nashville, Tn to Chicago, Il with a stop in Louisville, KY. When this blog was written while riding in the car between Louisville and Chicago we have driven 1300 miles.