Nashville, Tennessee
7/6/17 to 7/9/17
Thursday 7/6/17 It took us about five hours to drive from Pigeon Forge to Nashville. I made reservations at KOA of Nashville. The location was good and just a couple miles north of the city. This KOA was one of the nicest and most modern KOA's we've stayed at. It's a very large campground with over 300 RV sites and 20 cabins. They do put the trailers pretty close to each other but everything else was great. The main building had a pool table, ping pong table, a snack bar, living room area with a large screen TV, camp store, and laundromat. They had a beautiful pool and even had live entertainment on Thursdays and Sundays. Plus there was a shuttle service that stops right in front of the building. Only $10.00 per person round trip to and from downtown Nashville. After we set up we ran out to get diesel fuel and check out the area. In this same area, there were two other RV campgrounds and two RV dealers.
Friday 7/7/17 We took advantage of the shuttle service from the campground. This would save us the trouble of driving the truck into town and paying for parking. We had been to Nashville a couple of times before so this time we decided to take one of the hop on hop off Old Town Trolley Tours. Our plan was to stay on the trolley for the whole tour, eat lunch and then tour the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum was built after the last time we were here so it would be something new to see. The tour was interesting and the driver talked the whole time with information about all the stops. We were on the trolley about two hours and got to see all the places of interest in Nashville. We had lunch at Demo's Restaurant, an Italian place that both the shuttle driver and the trolley driver recommended. After that, we walked over to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is a great place to visit. Although we're not huge country music fans we spent two hours there. In 2014 the Museum underwent a 100 million dollar expansion. It takes you through the history and sounds of country music, its origins and traditions, and the stories and voices of many of the people responsible. The story is revealed through artifacts, photographs, and text panels, recorded sound, vintage video, and interactive touchscreens. Lots of reading as you travel from room to room and many short films to watch. The last room in the museum has brass plaques with all the members of the hall of fame. Check out the pictures below, I found Uncle Bob!
Saturday 7/8/17 We wanted to get some exercise today so we went to Warner Parks. Edwin and Percy Warner Parks, known as “The Warner Parks,” are managed by the Metro Nashville Parks and Recreation Department. The Warner Parks are one of the largest municipally administered parks in Tennessee and together span more than 3,100 acres of forest and field, nine miles from downtown Nashville. Not familiar with the area we just got in the truck and headed to the park hoping we could find a trail. We drove into an area that had a nature center and although the building was closed for repairs we picked up a map from one of the employees. We ended up hiking the Harpeth Woods Trail. A 2.5-mile loop. The park reminded us a lot of Mill Creek Park. This park has picnic areas, trails, blacktop bike trails and scheduled activities. A nice park for the people of Nashville. We spotted a mother deer and her baby and also found an engraved rock showing that a wildflower garden was donated by Mr. and Mrs. David Wilds but with a little creative leaf placement we changed that. Check out the picture below.
Sunday 7/9/17 Today we visited the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center. It was just a short drive from our campground. The Opryland Resort is a huge hotel with gigantic atriums maintained at a constant temperature of 71 degrees and housing more than 10,000 plants. There are also waterfalls and fountains. The rooms cost $300.00 a night. This is something you have to see if you are in the Nashville area. You can spend an hour just walking around the place. Parking is expensive ($29.00) but we took a tip from our shuttle driver from the other day and parked at The Opry Mills Mall next door and walked over. After we walked around a while and saw everything we wanted to we went next door to the mall and spent some time. We ended up eating lunch at Johnny Rockets in the mall.
It was good to spend a couple of days in Nashville. Other than The Country Music Hall of Fame not much has changed since we were here years ago with Wendy. We did get to explore some of the outlying areas and parks this time. But if you are a die-hard country music fan you should visit Nashville someday.
Monday 7/10/17 Today we are packing up and moving to Memphis, Tennessee to visit Elvis.
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