NASHVILLE-YEE HAAA!!!!!

Oct.27
We left Kentucky this morning-said goodbye to "my" trees-hugged the rv park owner and thanked him for such a nice place to stay-and now we were on our way to Nashville!
We had made reservations at Two Rivers RV Park-Larry had reccommended it-and we were not dissapointed. It was a really nice park, and close to everything we wanted to see-and shuttles to those places that were in town. We made reservations to see a dinner show that night-and got tickets to the Grand Ole Opry for Tues. night-and a "Tommy tour" of Nashville on Wed. There were plantations to see and we knew it was to be a busy few days for us!
Monday eve-we went next dooe to the dinner show-we should have known when we saw all of the tour busses in the parking lot-but hey, we were in Nashville, and we could walk to this place. The theatre was large-and the buffet was set-and Mike and I were the youngest ones in the place-but dinner was good-the guests we sat with were as friendly as could be-the show started and,ok, it was a little hokey-pokey, but it was fun-and country and we just went with it. We did not stay for the entire show-after a day of being on the road we were done-but it was a good experience-and a fun first night in "music City".
Tuesday.
We got up and dressed and went to town. Driving in Nashville is not the easiest-but it was way better than St. Louis. We found 2nd Ave and Broadway-walked up and down the streets,had a drink at Coyote Ugly-noone dancing on the bar yet-too early. We walked in a few shops and just took in the atmosphere of being downtown Nashville. Had lunch at a great place-best fish tacos ever! Afterward we did more sightseeing,then back to camp to get ready for our big night out.
We get our shuttle to "the Opry"-it is amazing! tons of people everywhere-it is much bigger than I had expected. The "Opry" was not something that was on my tv growing up-but Mike's Mom never missed a show-this was a special place! We got our seats-took some pics and waited to be entertained. The start of the show is like watching a tv show-cause that is what it is-that and radio too, I think. They do commercials for the sponsors,then the big velvet curtains go up. The stage is huge-lots of lights and lots of musicians and instruments-looks like a great show is going to happen! We saw young musicians, old musicians-some we had heard of some not-but it was really fun! It was like being part of something special and just too cool. I don't think it would have mattered if we liked country music or not-it was just fun.
Wed.
today we took a tour of Nashville-with "Tommy". he is a fixture in Nashville-I remember seeing him on tv at some point- he is just funny as heck, and HE KNOWS NASHVILLE! We went downtown,uptown,and saw lots of beautiful homes owned by big country stars. He told us little known trivia-made the tour fun and personal. I think my favorite place we went was to Union Station. Wow! This is the most beautiful building-oh, and Tommy got us coctails in coffee cups-but the building is fantastic. the whole roof is beautiful stained glass-the carved moldings-the history here-just great. There is a beautiful restaurant and bar-and just going to the ladies room was a destination! I highly recommend checking this out if you are in the area! It was a fun and interesting day-and at the end of the tour we really felt like we had seen Nashville-by day. Now we were ready to see the nightlife of "music city".
Tommy hooked us up with a guy that would take us in to town where we would want to be
to listen to some great music. We had plans for a certain restaurant-well that went out the window fast! We went to Robert's-heard there was a young musician there that was pretty good-and he was. Mike started talking to some guy that was getting signatures for a petition to get Hank Williams reinstated to the "Opry". He has been tossed out due to his wicked ways! Well, the guy tells Mike that HankIII is going to be doing a concert next door in a little while-and so,off we went. The place was Layla's Bluegrass Inn-we found a table in the back, and ordered a drink. Now for those of you out there that don't know-HankIII is the grandson of Hank Williams-and Kenny is just about his biggest fan around. Kenny play a lot of his music-and quite well I will add. So, pretty soon, we notice that guys are taking away everyones tables and bar stools-and we are the only ones left with a table. That did not last for long-they took our table waway too. They said it would be room for standing only-that Hank was playing-and it would be VERY crowed in there soon. Well, we just stood for a few minutes, then the guy that Mike had been talking to next door came up. He and Mike talked for a minute-then we were invited to come sit up front by the band area-at the ONLY table left in the place. He told us we were welcome to sit there-introduced us to the club bouncer-and said that Hank's Mom would be sitting at our table also, if that was ok. We just could not believe what was happening-too fun!
Hanks Mom came and sat next to Mike-we introduced ourselves-she was just as nice as could be-we talked a little-then the band-with HANKIII started-it was great! a little profanity now and then-well, ok, lots of it-and hanks Mom winced a few times-but it was just a cool evening-and no I did not have the camera-so you all just have to imagine the scene. When the band started getting into the real roudy hard stuff-we decided it was time to end a perfect evening. We did end up going up to the restaurant-but it had closed-so went across from the crazy horse saloon and had cheeseburgers instead-it was a perfect night!!