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Riverboat Cruise & Road Trip - March-April 2014
Nashville, TN

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4

Day 1: Country Music Hall Of Fame; Music City Walk Of Fame
Our first day in Nashville we visited "The Country Music Hall Of Fame". We had planned to spend about half the day there, but it was so interesting it took us most of the day. You are allowed to take pictures there, but you can not use the flash. Unfortunately we did what we thought would turn off the flash on Dale's new camera but when she took pictures a light lit up, so we did not take any pictures. When we returned to the motel we opened the user manual on the cd and found out we had turned off the flash, that the light we saw was to assist in focusing in certain lighting, at least we were able to take pictures elsewhere.
We visited the visitor center at the Bridgestone Arena and bought a package that included passes we could use at multiple attractions. Dale listens to Charlie Monk on "Willie's Roadhouse", she said that while in Nashville she would like to meet him. Ernie sent Charlie an email asking if this could happen, his reply was that if we stopped by the Bridgestone Arena about 2:00 and asked for him, if he was available he would meet with Dale, he emphasized that he was making no promises. We left the hall of fame a little before 2:00 and went back to the Bridgestone Arena, Charlie was not available. We went across the street to eat at Rippy's and listen to a country group that was playing on their stage. After eating we returned to the Bridgestone Arena, but Charlie was still not available.
We walked along the "Music City Walk Of Fame" on our way back to the hall of fame. (Pictures)
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Day 2
Our second day in Nashville we visited the Nashville Parthenon and the Ryman Auditorium.

Nashville Parthenon
The Nashville Parthenon is a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens, Greece. It was built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. The first building was built as a temporary building for the exposition, in 1920 a rebuilding was started using permanent materials. The exterior was completed in 1925, but due to the need to accumulate more funds the interior was not completed until 1931. Just inside the entrance is a circular walkway with a display depicting the history of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition and the building of the Greek Parthenon. On the first level is an art museum with 63 paintings on permanent display and many others on temporary display. On the second level is a huge auditorium with a 42 foot tall statue of the mythological goddess Athena. There is a 6 foot statue of Nike (Victory) standing in her right palm. In a smaller room behind the statue are replicas of many of the smaller statues at the original Parthenon. (Pictures)

Ryman Auditorium
The Ryman Auditorium is known as "The Mother Church Of Country Music". The auditorium first opened as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892. It was built by Thomas Ryman, a riverboat captain and Nashville businessman who owned several saloons. Samuel Porter Jones was an evangelic preacher who frequently preached against gambling and drinking. Ryman lead a group of men to the tent where Jones was holding a revival meeting with the intent to cause a ruckus, upon hearing Jones speak, Ryman had a complete change of view and decided to build a cathedral for Jones to use for his preaching. When Ryman died, Jones recommended the building be renamed for Ryman so it became the Ryman Auditorium. After Jones moved away the auditorium, which is known to have acoustics amongst the best in the world, was used for a wide variety of entertainment. On June 5, 1943 the Grand Ole Opry moved to the Ryman Auditorium where it stayed for the next 31 years. Though the Opry has a home of its own, the Ryman is still used by the Grand Ole Opry during the winter months. The original pews are still used for seating in the auditorium. There is a comprehensive history of the Ryman and its history as the home of the Grand Ole Opry on display. We had out picture taken on stage at the Ryman. (Pictures)

Between the visits to the Nashville Parthenon and Ryman Auditorium we visited Ernest Tubb's Record store and had lunch at Merchants Restaurant, both of which are on Broadway in the section known as Honky Tonk Row. After the visit to the Ryman we stood outside some of the honky-tonks to listen to the music. We were going to go into Tootsie's but it was too crowded, we went down a couple of doorways and went into Legends to listen for a while.
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Day 3
The third day in Nashville we did a backstage tour of "The Grand Ole Opry House" and saw the Grand Ole Opry show.

Grand Ole Opry House
We did the backstage tour in the morning. The Grand Ole Opry House was celebrating its' 40th anniversary the weekend we were there, so it has been the home of the Grand Ole Opry for longer than the Ryman, but it will always be the "New" Grand Ole Opry House. When they built the Grand Ole Opry House, they took a large circle from the stage of the Ryman and made it the center front part of the stage at the Grand Ole Opry House. This circle is where the performers prefer to stand. We had our picture taken standing in the Ryman Circle of the Grand Ole Opry House stage. The backstage tour was very interesting. (Pictures)

Grand Ole Opry Performance
That evening we returned to the Opry House for the show. We purchased tickets on line several months in advance to ensure we would have good seats, the seats were great. When we ordered the tickets the lineup of performers was TBA. About a week before we left we checked the lineup to discover that the line up included Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Josh Turner, Clint Black, and Diamond Rio. As a surprise guest Lisa Hartman Black joined Clint to sing "When I Said I Do". A new group, Green River Ordinance, made their first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. Some of the Opry regulars that performed that night were Riders In The Sky, Bill Anderson, Connie Smith, Marty Stuart, Old Crow Medicine Show, The Whites, and the Grand Ole Opry Square Dancers. The show started with the whole Opry family of regular performers and the featured performers singing Roy Acuff's "Wabash Cannonball". It was a great show. (Pictures)
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Day 4
Our last day in Nashville was on Sunday. We went to church at the First Baptist Church of Nashville. The congregation were really friendly, it was a worshipful service, and a very good Bible based sermon.
After church we ate lunch at an Italian restaurant named Demos. We mention this because the restaurants on Broadway are quite expensive, Demos is on a street that runs parallel to Broadway one block away and the prices are moderate. The food at all the places we ate in the area was very good.

Johnny Cash Museum
After lunch we did a tour of the Johnny Cash Museum. There are many listening stations where you can listen to Johnny sing songs from different decades of his career and of course much memorabilia. We were reminded of things we knew but had forgotten about him such as his given name is J.R., when he went into the military he was told he could not be just J.R. so he said OK make it John R. There were also some things we were surprised by, a couple of which are: his senior report card showed he was a A- student in typing and when the military told him he was being assigned to Germany he bought a learn to speak German book and taught himself to speak German. One interesting item on display is an album cover for an album that Johnny recorded in Russian. (Pictures)

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Last updated:   jul 13 2015