We've spent two nights in the Country Music World centre - Nashville, Tennessee and I am one very happy girl.
The drive up yesterday was a good one. We took our time in the morning to explore a couple of sights around Cullman before hitting the Interstate.
Our first stop was to the Ave Maria Grotto, a small garden filled with intricate carvings and sculptures created by a resident monk in the early to mid 1900's. Some of them were amazing - the amount of detail he had in them and the various things that he had used to build them was just stunning. It was a really nice, quiet start to the day and even the kids could take it in and respect the work that had been put into creating them.
From there we took a short drive out the other side of Cullman to see the Clarkson Covered Bridge. Pretty spot. Whilst the bridge is no longer used by vehicles you can still walk across it - or in the case of the kids run, jump, drag your feet and whinge your way across. Got some neat pictures of it and some of the surrounding area.
Then it was into the car and hit the road for Nashville.
Got in around lunchtime and found our hotel (first time we've really made any navigational errors - one because Google maps decided we were going to a different street and the second because the highways around Nashville are crazy. Definitely an example of the 'spaghetti' roads Craig kept referring to before we left. Exits are so closely together that you think you've taken the right one and then half a second later when it's too late and you're committed to the turn, nope, you wanted the next one just another hundred metres or so along.) Oh well, we still got there without too many dramas.
The boys had been pretty restless the last couple of nights after a fair bit of time stuck in the car so we decided to walk across to the Grand Ole Opry and check it out, also with the hope of me being able to buy a ticket to the show that night. Should have used Google Maps - took us about 40 minutes to walk there and as it turns out (when we found the gateway) we could have saved ourselves around 20 of them. (No wonder we got strange looks from workers and drivers when we were hacking along haha!)
Anyways, the important thing was I GOT MY TICKET!!! Excited was an understatement.
After a late lunch we made our way back to the hotel with a short stop at Cooter's for the boys and Craig to drool over the General Lee. There was lots of discussion about which of the cars were better than the others and/or destroyed and who they were driven by. Dukes of Hazzards has some fans in our house.
Back to the hotel for me to get ready and then Craig and the boys dropped me off at the Grand Ole Opry (no walking this time).
As luck would have it my late ticket purchase was by no means a bad thing - section 6, row L which put me not too far away from the main stage. Once again, I managed to be in luck without even realising - this year is the 90th anniversary of the Opry!
I honestly couldn't have cared who was performing I was just happy to be there but again, as a bonus, the key performer for the night was Brad Paisley so I can now add him to my list of live performers and he even sang three of his songs that I'm really familiar with . There were 8 acts all up - Love and Fetch were particularly good, as were Dailey and Vincent. Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers were crowd pleasers and Bill Anderson was a hilarious start to the show. Such an amazing experience. So SO glad I went.
This morning we went back to the Opry and took a backstage tour. They show you through the entrance that the stars use when they arrive, the studio out the back used to shoot scenes for the new tv show Nashville, the dressing rooms and the literal back of the stage. It was interesting to hear how badly Nashville was effected in 2010 when the Cumberland River breached it's banks and flooded a huge area. The Opry House had 4 foot of water in and around it, destroying much of the inside. It was completely rebuilt, with the "circle" - a circular section of flooring from the original opry house which the stars all stand on to perform - being replaced.
From the Opry House we wandered over to the Gaylord Opry House Hotel and Resort to take a bit of a look. The place is so enormous that it has its own river and the whole thing is completely covered in. We took a short boat ride around (not really worth the price you pay) but it was interesting to see.
After that we decided to head in to Downtown Nashville and have a quick look around. We found the Country Music Hall of Fame - spread out over 2 floors it has an immense amount of memorabilia which I found really fascinating. I recognised so many of the names, having listened to them with Mum and Dad and my grandparents when I was younger and then was able to say that I've managed to see in concert or have music of so many of the more recent stars.
The late afternoon was spent playing a couple of rounds of mini golf at a nearby place then to a rather cool restaurant for dinner - Caney's Fork. Inside had a fountain set up with big catfish swimming around and there were stuffed hunting trophies all over the place. Definitely had some atmosphere that's for sure. (couldn't help but laugh, the waitress kept asking us questions because she loved our accents and wanted to hear us talk - she was at least kind enough to explain what funnel cakes are!)
Tomorrow we head back to the south and further East. The boys are starting to get excited for the upcoming Talladega weekend and following week in Orlando with Disney World visits!