Nashville, Opry, and Heartlands, Oh My!

Tuesday, June 11th

Today, we loaded up and headed out about 9am on the road (I-40) to Nashville. The drive was uneventful. We passed by Jackson, TN, which is where our "friend" Mark lives. Friend is in quotes because we've actually never met. Mark was the founder of the North Trail Owners Online Forum we joined, shortly after we purchased our first trailer (a Heartland North Trail 21FBS). We purchased our ElkRidge, and we were not participating as much... The forum was eventually ceased as an independent forum, but we were already participating on the Heartland Owners Forum, which is supported by Heartland directly. We kept in touch with Mark, thanks to Facebook, and had hoped to stop for a bit and visit. I gave a "shout-out" to Mark as we passed by, on Facebook. We'll have to stop some other time! We also had made plans to visit some other friends, Bill & Lynne, Sarah, and Patrick, in Nashville, but since we will be here less than 24 hours, we just couldn't make it work. 

We have tickets to the Grand Ole Opry tonight, so we need to get to Nashville as quickly as we can, so we can get set up, get food and get to the Opry without being too rushed. We filled up as we drove again, and got to bypass the $3.75 diesel prices!

We stopped a few times at Rest Stops, and for lunch at McDonalds that advertised bus parking. The kitties did a little better this trip. Traffic was typical of a big city, but we found our way just fine.

We got to the Nashville KOA at about 3pm and got set up. Man, it was hot! About 90*, and humid, as they had rain the day before. We were right next to a BigHorn, that looked very new. Sure enough, we talked to some folks that were visiting the couple that owned it, and it was their first trip. Also another row over, there was another ElkRidge, as well.

Nashville KOA Entrance

Our site at Nashville KOA, note the BigHorn next door.

The coach took a while to cool down. About 5PM we ate leftovers and then at 6PM we headed over to the Grand Ole Opry.

Tony at the entrance

Us at Grand Ole Opry

Inside

The stage

Rascal Flatts on stage!

The "ole" Opry doesn't look that old, but that is because of the renovations, that had to be done due to a flood in 2010. We had a interesting time in the gift shop, it was packed! But we got our souvenirs. The show was great, we got to see a variety of groups. The headline group was Rascal Flatts, and they were terrific! Because the Grand Ole Opry is a live radio show, each "act" was only about 3 songs, about 15 minutes each. We were out by 9:15PM, but we were bushed! A long day, indeed. 

As we pulled into the park, we saw another BigHorn, and it had an Owner's Club plaque! It was too dark and too late to stop and find out more, we went on. 

We collapsed into bed, soon after.