Nashville Country

We have moved on to Nashville.  The countryside changed as we drove.  Less corn and more trees.  Also hillier county.  Loads of traffic near Nashville and construction led to a good snarl.  We heard on the news that Nashville has grown very rapidly and the roads have not kept up.

We are at a RV park in Goodlettsville, just to the north of Nashville.  The park is nice but the internet is painfully slow.  We are going to try to get a tour of the city but will have to go to the Hermitage on our own because the tour is all day and Casey's bladder would not hold that long.

Friday, Halloween.  Boo!

We took a tour of Nashville today.   It was nice and easy.  They picked us up at the park and drove us to a central station where we met our tour.  The first major stop was the Ryman, which is the location of the original Grand Ole Opry.  The Ryman began as a church, built in 1892 for $100,000.  The acoustics are amazing.  From 1904, it has been used as the venue for a variety of events, both religious and secular.  The Grand Ole Opry moved in in 1943.  It remained there until 1973.  For a time the building was allowed to deteriorate.  When there was talk of razing it, there was a public outcry.  Subsequently there was a major renovation and the Ryman reopened in 1994.  In 2001 it was named a National historic Landmark.

From the Ryman, we drove around the downtown area and looked at the university, a large memorial park,  the state capitol and the music studios, among other things.

State Capitol in the distance.

Decorations in the music district.

The last stop was the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  There were artifacts of musicians from Minnie Pearl to modern artists such as Taylor Swift.  I especially enjoyed looking at the costumes.  The sewer in me could not help but notice how they were put together and the embellishments attached. 
 Amazing!

 We saw Elvis' gold Cadillac and a car all decorated with guns. (I forget who it belonged to.)  There were three floors to look at so it was a good thing we had an hour and a half.

 There was also Elvis' gold piano.

We ran into a Riders fan dressed for Halloween.  They are everywhere!

A couple of very large walls were covered with gold and platinum records, both new and old.

Saturday

Today we went to  Mansker's Station ín Goodlettsville.  Unfortunately, the Visitors' Center was closed so we couldn't get tickets to see the inside of the fort-like structure and the house.  I stuck the camera through the fence and got a picture of the inside of the fort.  The fort was first built in 1780.  The Indians kept attacking the fort, so they abandoned it and it was burnt to the ground.  The second fort was built in 1783.  The structure now there is a reconstruction.

The Bowen house was built by Captain William Bowen in 1787.  He had been awarded the land for services during the Revolutionary War. the family owned the house until 1835.  It was occupied until the 1960s when it had fallen into disrepair.  In 1975 a restoration was begun , completed in 1980.

Both the fort and the house are located in a large park which seemed to be a favourite of  joggers.  There were also playing fields and a dog park.

In the afternoon, we went to the plantation of President Andrew Jackson.  Jackson purchased the Hermitage in 1804, after  a financial reversal forced him to sell the family land next door.  The family lived there from 1804 to 1821, first in a modest two storey house and then in the larger house built in 1819-1821. Jackson was inaugurated president in 1829.  He served in that role until 1837.  He died at the Hermitage in 1845. The plantation was a working farm with slaves as the workers.

This is the front of the Hermitage.

This is the back.  It was suggested that they sat on these balconies to keep an eye on the slaves.

The house was not as large as I would have imagined with four family bedrooms and two guest bedrooms.  If you are thinking about a house as in Gone With the Wind, it wasn't even close. Although quite opulent at the time, it is modest by British great house standards.  However, wallpaper came from Paris and the furniture and drapes were quite fancy. We were not allowed to take photos of the inside of the house.  The grounds are large, presumably because they were once cotton fields.  One small section appeared to have had a crop on it even today. 



We followed a map with an audio recorder to see the out buildings and grounds.  The inner part was narrated by guides in period costumes.  They were very knowledgeable and pleasant while keeping each tour group of about 12 moving along.

 This is a slave quarters.

Tomorrow we will be in Georgia and then we are moving on to Florida.  A cold front has "come down from Canada" and the temperature is supposed to go below freezing tonight.  The locals are freezing already!  There was snow in the mountains.  One place had 22 inches.  Maybe  we brought the weather.  Remember the snow in Texas?