Time&TideTravels: Nashville

Nashville Tennessee

Music City.

Home of the Grand Ole’ Opry,

Country Music Capitol

Ahhhh, Nashville J

On the way here I was seriously concerned that we had made the wrong decision to come all the way up the Cumberland, fight a lot of current and debris in the water, to get to Nashville. Besides I don’t even like country music!!

The first thing we saw was a huge boat docked at the water front. It was a boat they used on D Day in the 2^nd WW to deploy troops and vehicles. (More about it later)

The second thing we saw were the homeless people camped, mere feet from where we had booked and paid to park our boat. Interesting.

City docks Nashville,
no power or waterhook ups but the town is worth a visit
especially for the music and honkytonk bars

Anyhow, we figured we were here; best thing to do was to find the tourist information office and figure out what was worth seeing.

Nashville (Party town)

Well, we walked up Broadway Street and we started off with the best intentions but the sounds coming out of the bars stopped us in our tracks. It was just after 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon and we were hearing some of the best live music we had ever heard. Then Gary asked me the fatal question: Do you want to go in and have a beer?

They do like to wear those here

Thank you, thank you very much....

I have no idea why he is huging a horse

A few beers later we finally made it to the information area but by then we had figured out Nashville all by ourselves. It was party central and even non country music fans (like myself) could have a BALL here.

We stopped in at Famous Jack’s for BBQ and oh my, I like Southern cooking!!

In the South mac and cheese and potato salad count as veggies!!

Like a kid in a candy store??

We had a great night sleep, the homeless people never bothered us and we were told that they leave the boaters alone (usually) if you leave them alone.

Sept 19, 2012

We had some problems with our generator battery so the first thing we did was call up an auto part place that would, not only sell us a new battery but would also deliver it to us. That went off without a hitch and we started our day, eager to explore Nashville.

At the Nashville hockey team (Predators) arena

I don't even know what to write here as a comment.
We were having so much fun...

We spent a lot of time touring through the LST 325. Gary enjoyed talking to the Vets who crew the boat each summer as it sails 24 hours a day at 8-10 mph.

The MASH jeep from the TV series

If you look close you can see
our boat in the background

Gunner

The bunks where the crew would sleep

The boat is a 99% original LST (Landing, Ship,Tank) The largest ship ever designed /built to place tanks, troops and cargo onto a hostile beach, then retract it. 1,051 were built for WW2 and it is considered The Ship That Won The War.

After touring the boat it was time for lunch and we enjoyed the “Best Hot Dog in Nashville” and I can’t say for sure because I am not able to compare but is was darned tooting tasty!!

They were very good hot dogs

We spent the afternoon checking out the Walk of Fame just across from the Hilton Hotel where many famous people have suits, among them Little Richard who apparently likes to drive through town blowing the horn of his big old Cadillac, just to make sure people notice him. We kept our eyes peeled but saw no one famous.

Nashville Walk of Fame

We toured the Country Music Hall of Fame and surprisingly I must say I really enjoyed it. Apparently there is a lot of country music that I actually do like! We saw Elvis’ Gold Cadillac and gold piano. Many outfits that the country music stars had worn on different occasions and we also enjoyed a guided tour of the beginnings and history of country music. We both had a tear in our eye when we watched the last performance by Johnny Cash.

Elvis' Golden Piano

We ended the day on a high note by going into yet another one of the bars on Broadway Street and listening to some amazing performances.

This is a great town and you will be surprised at all the different music you hear on the streets. It is mostly country but there is a lot of rock and roll, blues, and bluegrass too.

When in Nashville.....

Nashville at night

So many honkeytonks, so little time...

On our last day in Nashville we decided to visit Opry Land, home of the Grand Ole Opry. Unfortunately it was a Thursday so things were pretty quiet there. They have a show every Tue, Fri and Sat. In the summer they add a show on a Wednesday (I think). We enjoyed lunch at Johnny Rockets and headed back to the boat.

Soon two more boats showed up at the city dock. MVLauren Grace (a GOLD Looper )and MV Carina. As we were listening to the Zac Brown Band doing their sound check for the weekend’s upcoming show, we enjoyed a few cocktails and shared some stories.

Looper cocktail hour

Loopers are always willing to share information about anchorages and places to see and these folks were no exception. MV Lauren Grace actually gave us a great chart of Kentucky Lake with their favourite anchorages marked on it.

It was the perfect way to end our short trip in Nashville. Gary and I keep saying what a wonderful surprise it was to walk up the street, on our first day there, and hear the great music coming out of the honkey tonk bars. We really enjoyed Nashville, the music, the drinks, the food and the people.( Beer just tastes better when it is accompanied by great music)

Zee, her husband was working security for the LST ship
and also for the Zac Brown concert that was being held on the weekend.
While he worked she fished and visited with us.

The sternwheeler General Jackson . The world's largest showboat
at 300 feet long can accommodate over a 1000 guests.
Quite a sight having her pass us while we were tied up to the city dock

On our bustrip we saw this example of some of the greek inspired architecture
which gained Nashville the name of "Athens of the South"
This building is the Tennessee State Capitol