Nashville - The Grand Ole Opry

This blog finishes up our time in Nashville, the great Music City. The highlight would have to be our trip to the Grand Ole Opry to see a live country show. For the ‘town mice’ amongst you, the Opry is the most famous country music stage in the world. This is where YOU make it as a country and western singer. The Opry started back in 1925 where the live show was broadcast live on radio WSM 650. The show moved to various locations but most notably is the famous Ryman Auditorium from 1943-1974 and now the Grand Ole Opry House – all in Nashville. We toured the Ryman earlier in the day and it’s a beautiful old tabernacle that really made Nashville the home of country music. Everyone and anyone has performed at the Ryman – the acoustics are one of the best in the world. When the Ryman became too old, they moved to the current location where a circle of the Ryman wooden floor has been inserted into the Grand Ole Opry House floor – to ensure the Opry history continues. There are shows several times a week and it seems they are all live recordings, as ours was on the night. The announcer would come on between performers and read advertisements just like the old days – it was awesome. There were about 6 performers during our 2 hour show of which I had only heard of Charlie Daniels who is about to turn 82 !! He finished his set with the classic Devil Went Down to Georgia fiddle song. Bloody incredible.

Under that big hat is Charlie Daniels

The kid (my niece) loved every second and we both wore our country gear to look the part. My mum was a strong influence in our music interests and country was one of the genres she imparted on us. I did think of her a lot during the show and I wish she could have been there with us. 

Another Uber Story. The show finished around 1130pm and there were more people than taxis/ubers so we were standing around a while waiting for our drivers. One group of older blokes were funny…waiting for Jerry. They kept looking for the Honda and saying Jerry, is this Jerry….no, not Jerry. This went on for like 10 minutes and at one point, a guy drove past slowly with a woman in the front seat and they said Jerry, no, unless it’s Jerry and his wife!!  I kept thinking of that meerkat youtube thing where the meerkat keeps saying Allen, Allen, Allen, Allen…it was just funny hearing them saying Jerry, Jerry, Jerry. In the end, Jerry arrived for them. Anyway, our uber finally arrived too. He was south American, about 50ish and had a cool Latin accent and he was funny. It was a 20 minute drive back to our hotel and all we talked about was country music. He had not been to the Opry but really wanted to see Shania Twain recently…but it was $250 a ticket. He really likes Shania and puts on her CD which was already loaded in the car - so this guy was definitely a fan. Good grief, here we go I thought. The kid is swaying in the front seat to the song and the Uber guy is telling us how much he likes her music. Eventually he said everyone can sing her songs, she's easy to impersonate. He reckons they all sing her songs up town in the bars. So he puts on 'Still the One'.... and says c’mon lets sing it, you can do it. So here we all were, cranking out Shania Twain for the last few minutes of the ride….. 

Looks like we made it, Look how far we've come my baby
....You're still the one I run to
The on that I belong to
You're still the one I want for life
(You're still the one)
You're still the one I love

I can't even say there was any alcohol involved so it was pure karaoke style. And the uber guy is in full vocal mode with his deep Latin accent. We got out of the car at our hotel and say bye, he winds the windows down and turns the volume up loud driving away still singing. Man we laughed our way inside and it ended a fabulous night. 

We spent our last day doing the trolley tour around Nashville and toured the American Music Hall of Fame. I didn’t do this last time I was here so was glad to see it this time around. This museum was all about the musicians (behind the scenes people) who support artists in making songs. This included the record studios, sound engineers, musicians, backup singers, producers…I’d never heard of any of them really but it was fascinating to read all about the people who’ve made the music. There were lots of memorabilia and stories to read. There was a section on the Grammy’s and Jimmy Hendrix. I was glad to see this museum as I love music and it’s fantastic to see so much history in one place. 

 

One interesting stop on the trolley tour is the Parthenon – an exact replica of the Greek Parthenon including the huge statue of Athena inside. This is the most weird thing in Nashville. Nashville is known as the ‘Athens of the South’. By the 1850s, Nashville had already earned the nickname of the “Athens of the South” by having established numerous higher education institutions; it was the first American southern city to establish a public school system. By the end of the century, Nashville would see Fisk University, St. Cecilia Academy, Montgomery Bell Academy, Meharry Medical College, Belmont University, and Vanderbilt University all open their doors. So I get the concept but I still think it’s the weirdest thing to find in the Music City.

We couldn't leave Nashville without trying the famous Hattie B's Hot Chicken. Holy shit, it was cluckin' hot. Neither of us like hot and spicy so this was not a place we should be dining at. But, we lined up outside and found ourselves with a plate of fried chicken, baked beans, potato salad and mac'n'cheese. We ordered the weakest heat but still, the kid was sweating bullets after her first bite. She really is quite soft when it comes to hot food ;o   I have a little bit more hair on my tongue so it was bearable for me. I"m not into deep fried food much so while it was nicer then KFC, I couldn't eat this stuff often or eat too much of it. Regardless, we can tick off this food stop on our list. By the way, check out the levels of heat....I cannot imagine how bloody hot the 'Shut the Cluck Up' is !!!

 

And one final funny joke from our trolley driver today.

What has 132 legs and 8 teeth?

The front row of a Garth Brooks concert ........baaaahhhhaaaahhaaaaa !!

The Kid Arrives

A month has flown gone by with no update from me - slack Batman. It continues to be a busy time and this will be the case until we leave in January. As I write this blog, I’m enjoying a very good coffee in a trendy coffee house (Crema) in Nashville. My niece has been here for 2 weeks and we are enjoying a jam packed itinerary as is customary on any of Batman’s trips for visitors. The kid is currently in the Country Music Hall of Fame museum which I’ve seen so I’m checking out some local coffee houses while I wait for her.

RAGNAR. So, the last time I wrote was after our trip out west to the canyons around Utah and Arizona. There was plenty of work and flying going on and last minute preparations for the 200 mile RAGNAR relay race from Cumberland to DC. I was not running this time but instead, was the Captain organising the team of 6. They were again the Aussie Drop Bears and an ultra team of 6, unlike the majority of traditional 12 person teams. Thus the team runs 6 legs each totalling around 40-50km by the end. I was initially on the team but due to a calf injury mid year, I decided to pull out and focus instead on the marine corp marathon end Oct. The team were an entertaining and fun bunch of Aussies as always and it was a long 2 days in the van with little sleep, no showers and lots of wondering why the hell we were all doing this…AGAIN. But the Aussie Drop Bears crossed the finish line exhausted, proud and relieved to have a well earned beer. The RAGNAR relay race series is about to begin in Australia so I’m certain I’ll be running this back home at some stage.

Kid Arrives. My niece AC (the kid, albeit in her 30’s now) arrived early October and we have already knocked over a few museums in DC and spent a week in New York. She’s super excited to see everything and has to be the best travel companion you could ask for…apart from her having travel sickness on just about anything that moves. Poor kid, she’s been like that all her life but she’s a trooper and chews a few motion sickness tablets. We weren’t quite so lucky on the bus to New York. Hmmm, we got about 2.5 hours along, she’d slept all the way and the driver stopped to change over at a service centre. I immediately thought, great, she can get some fresh air and the last hour will be fine. Nope, as soon as that bus stopped in position, she had her head in the bag. Blart. Maybe the final hour to New York won’t be so good. But, the driver was great and a few people swapped their front seat for us and the kid felt much better after a good spew. I had visions of getting a taxi to nearby Philly and taking a train for the rest of the trip but the kid said she would be fine and she was. We made it to New York with no more chucky chuck. Mind you, I cancelled the bus trip home and booked us on the train which proved to be a good idea.

New York was crazy as always. The weather was not kind to us. I didn’t think but we went up the Empire early to only see fog and clouds. We decided to go back later that night (as you are allowed to with a same day ticket) and the night view was incredible. We weren’t able to get up the Rockerfeller on this trip but managed to do the usual tourist stuff and a few new things for me. Of note, we took a tour in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg through the Jewish Hasidic community. Wow, this was a total culture shock and we were looking into a little sheltered bubble of another world. I had no idea about traditional Jewish culture and the tour guide came from this community, leaving it as an adult and now taking tours to help people learn more about the Hasidic Jews. The tour guide was excellent and I can totally recommend this tour.  Tours by Frieda 

We ate our way through the city as the kid is a bit of a foodie. We visited one of the famous Carlo’s Bakerys, had a donut at Dough, ate fantastic Italian as Little Eataly near 9-11 and had a great bagel breakfast at Sadelles in Soho. We of course had hot dogs at the ice hockey as the kid wanted to see her first ice hockey game and I made sure I got a Ben & Jerry’s fix at Rockerfeller center. And how could I forget tea at Tiffany’s on 5^thAvenue. This has only been open a short while and I had to book this a month earlier, get up a 6am to buy tix as soon as the website opened, tix sell out in a few minutes. Lucky I reckon she’s a good kid !! It was a treat and she was exicted to tick another foodie box. She also made a sizeable purchase too so that was nice to see. 

I was surprised she wanted to visit the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier museum but she loved it. We had to rush through but I made sure she saw inside the ship, the bridge, the aircraft of deck and the space shuttle Enterprise and Concorde out back. We also took a wander through the old USS Growler submarine. The kid was overwhelmed with the size of everything and I told her that these things are small compared to today’s fleet of ships and subs. She loved every second of it which made me happy to see as a former military girl.

 

We went out to Liberty and walked around but the weather was completely foul. Wet, cold and windy. We had gone from 26c when we arrived in shorts and were down to 10c freezing in our limited coat selection. Note to self, summer has apparently just finished all of a sudden. 

I visited the 9-11 museum again as I will unlikely return here or to New York again. It is hallowed ground and always leaves you thinking about the fateful day back in 2001. We also walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, as you do, to wrap up our last day and squeezed in a look at the original Winnie The Poo in the NY Library (thanks to my friend PH for that tip). I also took the kid to Grand Central Train Station to marvel at the decorative main terminus. We got home to DC exhausted and my legs were screaming with tiredness. 

Nashville. We had a day at home to wash, rest and repack for the next leg. I managed to get a 20k run in the afternoon and the change to cool weather made a big difference after the high humidity of recent months.  It's 2 weeks now to the marathon and I have no idea how I'm going to survive it :o

We headed off to Nashville, Tennessee where we currently are. I’ve been here before but we are doing a few new things that I’m quite excited about. We took an uber to the station and the guy had a rating of perfect 5.0. Wow, this guy must be fabulous. We jump in the car and he’s a young guy, just finished college, proudly saying we were his first uber ride. Crikey, I wasn’t sure whether to be scared, honoured or happy for him. Probably all three. He got us there safely so it was a good ending. We were delayed 2 hours getting out of DC as there was rain and storms. Thankfully, the kid flew well and we had no chucky chucks on the plane trip. 

Uber Story 1. We arrived late in the afternoon and headed uptown via Uber again. Oh my god, this is a story to tell. FARK, the picture on my phone was scary even though it was a tiny thumbnail and I’m blind….long bearded dude (lets call him Johnny for this story) in a red ‘pick up’ truck – never had a pickup truck before but we are in Nashville I guess. He’s rating was 4.67….anything less than 4.8 is a worry as far as Uber driver ratings go. It was hilarious. He was scarier than his picture and the pickup was so loud, like it needed a new muffler or belonged on the dragway on Saturday night. His truck smelled of weed and cat piss. He was friendly alright but he had a good thick drawl of an accent, long scraggly hair, had 2 big silver skull rings and a big southern Georgia cap on his dash. He might well have been related to Willie Nelson with all those good looks :o

The kid hops in the front seat and she looked like a midget in the big pickup. I’m in the back thinking what the hell are we doing in this truck and I was way too scared to look behind to see if there was anything dead in the back of his truck. Anyway, we’re driving down the road and he’s telling us about how bad the uber map application is, he’s rung customer support …in Korea….gives them a serve about their lack of competence…tells them that he’s not rude, they are just snowflakes…..and then he yells…AWW MAR GOD LORK  someone just hit that girl (pedestrian). Shit, she’s on the ground on the corner and I’m thinking oh god, can’t look, I’ll be sick, I’ll faint. But she gets up and was ok. Light goes green and Johnny says I’m going get that guys number so he burns off (imagine the loud roaring noise of his red pickup truck dragging off up the road). I said I had a phone and could photo it and he’s getting up behind the cars but wasn’t quite sure which one - this was clearly a scene from Nashville Five-O ;) We didn’t get the number plate but thankfully, we arrived safely to our drop off point. He finally drops up off and as we step out of his high truck…..watch for cars he says – god we laughed !!!  We walked away and just burst out laughing, so loud, we were trying not to piss ourselves, we were crossing our legs and just in tears, hysterical with laughter. This was the kid's 5 minute welcome to Nashville.  

Before hitting the town, I played some Bobby McGee and Harper Valley PTA in our hotel room just to get her in the mood. Who doesn't love Charley Pride and she'd not heard the HV PTA song - just a classic. We enjoyed an easy dinner out and wandered the streets of Nashville. The kid was in heaven. She's always wanted to come here, thanks to my mum's influence I think. She bought some boots of course and I've got some cool country girl shirts to wear with my jeans tonight. Of course, we hit the candy shop and helped the economy by eating a few hundred calories of sweetness.

Uber Story 2. We took another Uber into town again in the morning. This was a much more enjoyable ride but memorable again. We had the usual Australia conversation, how long is the flight, do kangaroos hop along the Sydney Harbour bridge....The driver said he’d tried vegemite and hated it. It’s always good to hear people’s reactions to that foul black paste. He then said his ex-father-in-law went to Australia last year to meet a woman he’d met online - this was going to be good. Apparently it was a miserable trip. The lady picked him up from the airport and chucked him out after 2 hours!!  They had a big fight and didn’t get on. So he was stuck in some place (not a big city either) with nothing to see or do. He had to get another motel to get away from her. I don’t know where he was but it must have been quite remote. We had a good laugh and felt sorry for his x-FIL, such a long way to go for 2 hours and a fight. Not a good advertisement for Aussie chicks !!  Anyway, when he dropped us off he laughed and said, now it was his turn to ‘chuck us out of the car’. We laughed. He was a nice bloke.

I dropped the kid off at the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum. I've been before and thought I'd spent time blogging while she soaked up the cowboy boots, hats, tassels and guitars. She checked out RCA Studio B and then we both went through the famous Ryman Museum.  This got her all excited and well briefed for the big night ahead - we're going to the Garnd Ole Opry to see a show. I'll continue the adventure next time as this is enough of a read for now. Here's us rocking it on stage at the Ryman Auditorium in preparation.

One fat pumpkin !!

Pick your shit-spice ;)