We have visited many cities on this voyage of discovery, but few have had as much to offer as Nashville. Having never been here before, we had no idea what to expect. What we discovered, however, is a vibrant, bright, friendly, accommodating, easy to get around, interesting, clean and beautiful city. There is a wonderful mix of old and new here. This is a small city that has everything a big city has. From sky scrapers to professional sports teams, Nashville truly has it all. The best thing about Nashville, however, is the music.
Nashville is known as "Music City USA". You might be thinking that Nashville is all about country music. Certainly, Nashville is the home of country music, and the birthplace of many of its varieties. Nashville is the home of the Country Music Awards. It is the home of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Country Music Walk of Fame. Certainly, when you think of country music, you think of Nashville. However, the city's moniker is Music City, and as such, the name incorporates all genre of music from country, to blue grass, to gospel, to the earliest forms of rock 'n' roll. It's all here, folks, and the music literally oozes out of the walls.
There are a couple streets where there is music all day and all night. Broadway is where you will find all the Honky Tonks. Second Street is where you will find more theatres for music. There are also musicians performing in virtually every restaurant and bar throughout the city and on street corners as well. You cannot avoid music in Nashville. It's everywhere.
We stayed on the city docks. There are A docks and T docks. The A docks are on the city side. There is power and water, and you are literally spittin' distance from Broadway and all of the wonders of downtown Nashville. We shared the dock with a bunch of other boats that showed up for the weekend festivals, including the Titans-Bengals game that took place across the Cumberland River at LP Field. We had to move to the other side of the river for most of the weekend, however, because the A docks were otherwise reserved in advance. So we moved over to the T docks. While there is no power or water over there, it was still conveniently located to the foot bridge that takes you right back into downtown Nashville. In fact, this bridge takes you directly to the plaza between the Omni Hotel, the Symphony House, The Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Arena where the Predators play and where the CMA awards will be held this week.
As you know, my mom came from LA to visit us for a few days. We had a great time. She is a real sport to come out here and spend several days on this old boat. We managed to have perfect weather and a great time. We went out to a number of cool places including the Grand Ole Opry at the Rhyman Auditorium.
Most folks have heard of the Grand Ole Opry. It's an institution in the world of country music and every legend that has ever strapped on a guitar has probably played there in the 80 plus years of its existence. The Rhyman Theatre is the home of the original Grand Ole Opry and it has been nicely restored.
We also went to an induction ceremony for the Country Music Walk of Fame. This is like receiving a star on the sidewalk in Hollywood. Here, however, it is a nice placard that will go in the concrete in the plaza in front of the Country Music Hall of Fame. We witnessed receiving plaques Alan Jackson, Kix Brooks and Les Paul. There were others as well, but these were the ones we recognized. Also, presenting the award to Kix Brooks was hall of fame musician Reba McEntyre.
The City is easy to walk around in as it is all pretty compact and located within several blocks. Again, it is a wonderful mix of old and new. There is a clearly defined government center with wonderful buildings and memorials. I did not know that there were 49,000 folks from Tennessee who fought in Viet Nam. That seems like a disproportionately high number compared to the population of the state. I wonder if this is comparatively high? There are also plenty of reminders of the Civil War planted throughout the community.
There is some fine food here as well. There are so many restaurants and bars in the downtown area, the difficulty is not finding something to eat, but deciding what you want to eat. There is good southern style food everywhere, and the BBQ pork is particularly good. The best meal we had, however, was our own early Thanksgiving dinner. We made a turkey with stuffing, yams, green beans, and cranberry sauce. We would not be able to join my mom this year for the holiday and in fact she is not doing it for the first time in many years so we thought it would be a good idea. It turned out great.
I would have to say that, among the several smaller cities we have visited including, but not limited to Charleston, New Orleans, Jacksonville, Savannah, and others, Nashville is a place I would highly recommend as a fun place to come and spend a couple of days. The airport is nearby and you can easily get here by boat. As I have said before, this was a side trip off the regular loop path. But, it was worth it.
Today, we'll start heading down the Cumberland River back towards Grand Rivers and Green Turtle Bay where we plan to stop and re provision, get fuel, and then head south up the Tennessee River to points as of yet undefined and as of yet, unknown. We are petty enamoured with Tennessee so there is a good chance we'll not turn off as soon as possible onto the Tombigsbee Waterway, but perhaps head north again (somewhat) to Chattanooga which I hear is a very cool city as well. We'll see. Right now, we're pretty tires and will be slowly heading back to where we started on the Cumberland River, stopping here and there for a night or two to enjoy the changing of the seasons, the colors of the trees, and the general serenity that comes with more far reaching river travel.
Talk at you later. Bye from Nashville, y'all.
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