I'm a little bit country...

The Missing Links
Originally uploaded by Olivia Linkel

We had a later start to the morning than we normally do. Our first stop was at 9 am for The Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Grand Ole Oprey. We parked the FunV at the Country Music Hall of Fame and walked the three blocks in a light rain to the Ryman. We got to go up on the stage and tour the theatre. Next we headed back to the Hall and spent the rest of the morning exploring the museum. On the way a photographer for The Tennessean (newspaper) stopped us and took our photograph. The kids are really hoping we will be in the paper tomorrow but I doubt it. The museum had a great Tammy Wynette exhibit including her closet and an excellent exhibit on Hank Williams & Hank Williams Jr. Of course we loved seeing some of the cool stuff - like Elvis' 24K gold leaf piano, his gold limousine and the mechanical bull from Urban Cowboy.

By the time we were finished in the museum it was nearly 1 o'clock and we were hungry. We stopped for lunch at Panera and then walked about 6 blocks to the capitol building. We took our customary picture in front of the capitol building and then did the self guided tour. By this time it was nearly 3 and we were quite tired of walking so we headed back to the camper. We were lucky that the rain had cleared by lunchtime.

We needed to stop for some groceries at Walmart and I really wanted to go to Cooter's Place (the Dukes of Hazzard museum) but no one else could be convinced. They all wanted to play at the campground. We took Cherokee to the K9 Kamp which is a fenced area for dogs where they can go leash free and try some of the obstacles. Cherokee was more interested in smelling everything but the kids had a good time. After that we were all ready to chill so we headed back to the camper for some R&R. Scott made a great dinner of shrimp, crabcakes and veggies.

I just want to say a few things about Nashville. We were surprised at how hilly it was, it actually reminded both Scott and me of our trip to San Diego. It also was unique to us in the amount of older buildings that are still around. Unlike Charlotte, they really seem to have held onto the history of the town. There is a street called Broadway here which must have at least 20 bars that all have space for music to be played. We would love to come back, kidless, just to bar hop and listen to all of the great music.

Tomorrow we head to Shiloh Battlefield and then on to Memphis. We are looking forward to some soul food!!