Nashville, Part 2

The Grand Ole Opry. It really was a grand event. First off, let me just say, you think it would be easy to find a destination that had 'grand' in the title. This was not the case. We followed are GPS which wanted us to make a turn into a huge Gaylord Resort complex. Of course, I didn't turn. GPSs are always so wrong. So two or three U-turns later, I made the turn like the GPS said. We proceeded to drive onto the resort campus and saw signs for the Opry; but there were no arrows, no directions, no indication of where to head to find it. Finally, I made a random turn, trying to find a place to ask directions, we rounded a corner, and there it was!

I knew the Opry was a concert hall of sorts. I knew most famous country singers have played there at some point. But i was not fully aware of the history. The Opry actually has 'shows' three nights a week that are broadcast live on the radio. And these shows have sponsors. The sponsors get air time for 'commercials.' The cool part is the broadcast hasn't changed. So the commercials are the announcer reading the script, which means the audience hears them as well. We saw some old timers, a few country music hall of famers, and a couple of today's country radio stars. It was a really neat experience.

Our last full day in Nashville was cloudy with rain. We had already explored pretty much all of downtown, so we started the day in the suburbs. We hit up the Frothy Monkey for breakfast, checked out the worlds only full scale Parthenon replica (why it's in Nashville, we never fully determined) and saw the largest indoor statue in the western hemisphere (which was a frightening replica of Athena). Then we drove to George Dickel's Whisky distillery. Touring the distillery made me realize how gross whiskey is. The beginning fermenting phase smells like yeasty bread batter. Then corn, rye and barley are added. It's distilled and pouring over 'virgin wool blankets.' Then placed in wood barrels and left to improve for 7-10 years. And somehow it comes out tasting good. One cool fact is the barrels are filled with 57 gallons, but after aging they generally only retrieve 36 gallons of whiskey. That's a lot of whiskey evaporating, and they can't account for where it goes. It is one reason why alcohol is called 'spirits.' We purchased a bottle at the end of the tour, which they sold in a commemorative decorative tube. The distillery is in a dry county so by placing the alcohol in the tube they have found a loophole which allows them to sell it.

We rounded off the trip by bar hopping down the row of Honky Tonks. Nashville is a great city for live music. Pretty much every bar and restaurant has someone playing live. Of course, you have to like country music. Luckily, we do!