Nashville Skyline

For us 50 somethings two of the best - Poco and the Eagles

"The King" Not just another pretty rock star

The Hall of Fame - Will The Circle Be Unbroken

Charlie Daniels at the CD museum and gift shop

What the well dressed country star should wear

The Nudie Suit

The Ryman Auditorium

Recreation of old Fort Nashborough

We left SC and set sail for Music Row. Enroute we hit the worst weather of the trip so far, a heavy mist that turned into a torrential downpour by the time we reached Knoxville. Ron would have liked to head over the U of Tennessee campus to see Neyland Stadium, but the rainfall said no. Neyland is one of the largest football stadiums in the nation seating over 102,000 fans. We continued on I40 finally settling on a place called Lefty’s BBQ for dinner, where Ron discovered gleefully that the Daytona 500 was showing on the TV there. Of course we had to extend our stop to finish the race. We finally stopped about 30 miles east of Nashville and prepared for our assault on the Music City.
After our continental breakfast at the Hampton we headed for the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum. Country music fan, or not, this is an incredible display of one of the most enduring styles of music which has also birthed other styles, including one called rock and roll. We took the self-guided tour through which takes about 2-3 hours depending on how fast you can read. There also were two different movies, one showing country music and TV, and the other featuring Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on the road.
After the HOF we just meandered around the downtown area taking pictures of the old Ryman Auditorium and some of the old buildings, as well as Reliant Stadium, home of the Tennessee Titans. We went through the Charlie Daniels Museum and gift shop and visited another Hard Rock Café. After this we went to Opryland USA. This is a huge complex that shows that someone is making major coin from country music. A quick tour and another gift shop visit and off down the road we went, heading for Beale Street.