A Nashville Dash

Thursday, June 2, 2017

Today we got up and decided it's finally time for some fun. We knew we'd be getting our parts for the shock replacement tomorrow, so we decided today is our day to sight-see. We took the shuttle service from the KOA to downtown to Broadway street, which is where all of the bars and honky tonks and touristy places are.

It was again somewhat cloudy and rainy, but that was OK. Temps weren't too bad. We decided to find us a place to eat, based on the comments from the driver. We decided to try Demo's Steak and Spaghetti House.

Tony had the chicken pasta, and I had the sirloin sandwich. Both were pretty good! Mine came with a side, so I decided to try the spaghett with mushroom brown butter sauce, their "signature" dish. It was good, but I am not a fan of salty mixed with sweet, and that is what was happening in this sauce.

After lunch we walked a few blocks over to the Ryman Auditorium. The Ryman (formerly Grand Ole Opry House and Union Gospel Tabernacle) is a 2,362-seat live performance venue . Click here for more.

We got our tickets, and saw a short film about the history of the building. Then, we got to self-guide our tour around the place. It was very interesting!

Signed Hatch Show Prints on display

The auditorium from the balcony

Tony on the balcony

The lighter wood is the original stage

Wow!

Exhibit of the restoration 

Tony found a cool hat in the gift shop. Probably should have bought it!

Hatch Show Print Posters for sale in the Ryman Gift Shop

After the Ryman, we headed over a few more blocks to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Notice the large windows make a keyboard!

This place is huge, and there are tons of folks visiting.

Tons of country and western memorabilia. It was too crowded to get lots of pictures.

The hall of fame (3 pics)

There was also a tour of the Hatch Show Print Letterpress facility, which has been moved to the same building as the CMHOF. We didn't get done with the Hall of Fame in time to go on that tour, but we did visit their gift shop and got to see the facility behind large glass windows. I was giddy! Anything printing-related, I love.

Watching the tour through the glass....

A woman was demonstrating on a smaller press, in the gift shop.

Small samples for sale

Love this!

After that, we headed back to where our shuttle would pick us up. We walked a bit on Lower Broadway, and enjoyed the sights and sounds. It was too early for dinner, so we stopped and had some ice cream, then waited another 15 minutes before the shuttle arrived.

Broadway street

More Broadway street

We headed back home, tired and happy to have experienced a tiny bit of Nashville. We had hoped to visit my old High School friend Bill and his family, but it just didn't line up this trip. Maybe another time!

We ate dinner and collapsed for a while, then prepped the trailer for our move tomorrow. Apparently, this KOA is FULL, and though we inquired about staying an extra day, we were told no, no room at the inn. So we looked into moving to another RV park, just a 1/4 mile away. However, we had to just "show up" to see if we can get a one night stay. They had a 2 night minimum for reservations. We'll hope our parts come in sooner, rather than later!