Nashville – Meanderings & Mind Munchies

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, RCA Studio B tour, and bar hopping on Broadway

Rain and more rain. I swear Nashville is trying to drown us.

We met up with Greg’s sister Debbie and her husband Paul in the early afternoon to tour the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

The website says it takes 1 1/2 to 2 hours to complete a tour of the museum. I disagree.

I think it would take a minimum of 3 hours to do a reasonable tour. There is so much information, and it is very well presented.

Also, I should have paid the extra money for the audio tour. It’s impossible to gain an appreciation of music history, artists, and styles of music without actually hearing the music, and I’m not that familiar with country music, honky tonk, hillbilly, bluegrass, and rhythm and blues to know the difference between them.

RCA Studio B tour

Included with our admission was a tour of RCA Studio B, where Elvis Presley, Charlie Pride, and numerous other country music singers recorded their songs.

The building was not particularly impressive, but one would expect that from something built in the 1950s for $37,000.

Paul is standing on the X that marked the spot where the lead vocalist would stand because that spot was the most acoustically perfect spot in the room.

Bar hopping on Broadway

After our tour of Studio B, we walked over to Broadway to get something to eat and listen to some live music.

We started at Luke Bryan’s, where Greg and I had been a few days earlier.

Our next stop was the Whiskey River bar.

I was so tempted to get on the dance floor and try out my new line dancing skills, but I chickened out.

Our final stop for the evening was Ole Red, Blake Shelton’s bar. This was the first floor.

We ended up on the top floor, where a different band was playing.

Most of the bars on Broadway had a different band playing on each of their floors.

I get the impression that Nashville is a popular place for bachelorette parties. We saw a number of young brides-to-be during our bar hopping.

Broadway is loud and energetic at any time, but I think Saturdays must be particularly wild. Every bar was jammed, and every building had a rooftop bar that was packed.

On to Memphis!

Stones River Greenway and Tennfold Brewing

After a quick trip to the grocery store this morning, we headed back to Stones River Greenway for a second attempt at a bike ride (see yesterday’s effort). This time, we went to the trailhead at the Kohl’s parking lot.

Stones River Greenway really is a lovely multi-use trail. But… the weather while we have been in Nashville has been terrible. And today was no different.

We got about 5 miles down the trail when I looked at the skies and decided it might be risky to continue. A check of our weather app confirmed our fears, so we turned around and raced back to the car. The pedal assist function and the turbo boost on my bike got quite a workout.

It started to rain while we were putting the bikes on the bike rack, and by the time we were on the road, we were in the midst of a deluge.

Dinner at Tennfold Brewing

Debbie and Paul joined us at the campground today. They had just come from Mammoth Cave. We decided to have dinner at Tennfold Brewing, a popular bar and restaurant near the campground.

Stones River Greenway and Grand Ole Opry

I woke up yesterday morning feeling unusually tired. Greg finally managed to drag me out of bed and away from my book around 2:00 p.m. for a bike ride.

We headed to the Percy Priest Lake trailhead and got on the Stones River Greenway. It is a lovely paved multi-use trail.

After 2 miles, we hit a snag. The bridge was out.

We turned around and headed back to the campground to get ready for our next adventure of the day.

After our backstage tour of the Opry House yesterday, we concluded that a trip to Nashville would not be complete without actually attending the Grand Ole Opry itself. ( I still can’t figure out what to call it. Concert? Radio show? Event?)

Anyway, Greg bought tickets online, and off we went.

It was a blast.

There were seven artists performing. Each one did three songs, so if you weren’t particularly fond of one artist, their performance didn’t last very long. These are the best of the best of country music, though, so there wasn’t a bad performer in the bunch.

As I was listening, I had what to me felt like a revelation. Good music is good music, regardless of the genre.

Opry House tour

We got out fairly early this morning because we had tickets to take a tour of the Opry House.

The Grand Ole Opry is celebrating its 100th year this year. Our tour guide claims it’s the oldest running radio show in the country.

Not being a country music aficionado, I had always thought the Grand Ole Opry was the name of a building where country music singers perform.

I have since learned that the Grand Ole Opry is a radio show and not to be confused with the Opry House, where the Grand Ole Opry is performed. (It seems like a bit of a distinction without a difference to me, but apparently some people really care.)

Anyway, Greg and I both concluded that the introductory video to the tour was worth the cost of the tour alone. By the time the video was over, I was a country music lover. 🤣

There’s nothing like hearing the best voices in country music singing Will The Circle Be Unbroken to bring tears to one’s eyes.

The rest of the tour was thoroughly enjoyable as well.

There were over 20 dressing rooms for the guests, all with different themes.

After touring Opry House, we headed back to downtown Nashville and walked across the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge.

We were looking for a scenic greenway to walk along but didn’t find anything appealing, so we headed back to the campground.

To be honest, I haven’t found Nashville all that enjoyable yet. The city doesn’t feel particularly safe to me, everything is so expensive, and there seems to be a dearth of green spaces.

Line dancing in Nashville

The campground where we are staying right now is quite posh, so Greg and I decided to spend yesterday morning hanging around our campsite and soaking up the ambience.

Greg also unpacked the bikes and we took a couple of laps around the campground.

After lunch, we headed into Nashville to take a line dancing class. Based on the number of people from Ireland, Scotland, and Australia, tourism is alive and well in Nashville.

The class was held in a bar on Broadway, a street in the heart of Nashville famous for its live music venues.

We had a blast. After class, we took a walk down Broadway and ended up at Luke Bryan’s bar and restaurant.

The guitarist was absolutely fantastic.

We enjoyed a drink and the music for a while. Then we headed back to the campground.

Greg and I have been so unimpressed with the food in Tennessee that we had no interest in having dinner out.

Instead, I marinated some chicken breasts, and we had those with rice and grilled brussels sprouts.

On the road again…

Greg and I are about to head out on our first camping trip of 2025. We’ll be doing a six-week trip through Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, with most of the time spent in Tennessee. Here is our tentative itinerary:

3/31 – 4/5	American Heritage RV Park	Williamsburg area
4/5 – 4/10	Waynesboro North 340 Campground	Charlottesville, VA, area
4/10 – 4/11	Pioneer Village RV Park	Port Chiswell, VA, area
4/11 – 4/18	Riverbend Campground	Pigeon Forge, TN, area
4/18 – 4/23	Spacious Skies Belle Ridge	Monterey, TN
4/23 – 4/28	Raccoon Mountain Campground	Chattanooga area
4/28 – 5/4	Elm Hill RV Resort	Nashville area
5/4 – 5/8	EZ Days RV Park	Memphis area
5/8 – 5/11	Thousand Trails Diamond Caves	Park City, KY, area
5/11 – 5/14	Louisville South KOA Holiday	Louisville, KY, area
5/14 – 5/17	Seneca Lake Park and Campground	Cambridge, OH, area
5/17 – 5/18	TBD	PA, somewhere

Child #2 and Child #4 will be holding down the fort for us. I’ve outfitted both of their bedrooms with fire escape ladders in case they set the house on fire while we’re away.

Tennessee, here we come!