Music City, USA

Well, with the coldest night of my life behind me I had the full day ahead in Nashville to look forward to.  I'd heard wonderful things, and I'm not sure I quite lived the day up to everyone else's lofty standard.  But I'll let you be the judge of that!

Tuesday

Waking up the morning after the night before, my knees still felt cold but they actually worked... No more shuffling to and from places!  I eventually hauled myself out of bed, later than I probably wanted, but I did need the sleep.  It was late enough that the shared bathroom was empty again, which was a bonus.  Though it occurred to me that perhaps people were just walking 5 paces out the door to a private handicapped bathroom with a shower and toilet rather than walking down the hall to the gender specific bathrooms... I'm sure handicap karma will look after me for not using the handicap bathrooms...

One of the cool things about the hostel was that all of the rooms were named after famous country music singers or bands.  Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Alabama, Elvis Presley... I was staying in room 409.

Staying in the King's room and I wasn't even in Memphis yet!

I got dressed bearing in mind my experience the night before and made sure to layer up just as heavily despite it being broad daylight.  Thermal pants, 2 thermal shirts, multiple jumpers, jackets, gloves (though the left hand one is full of holes and is pretty average, thanks Dad), scarfe and beanie.

It was, in truth, a beautiful day in Nashville.  Barely a cloud in the sky.  Beautiful sunshine.  No breeze to speak of... The only drawback was just the fact that it was 1 degree Celsius...

I walked down to the riverfront and to the city tour bus, the hop on-hop off bus tour, though my intention wasn't necessarily to hop on or off, more so to gauge what was in the city and if there was anything amazing on the tour itself I could go back.  Jumping on the bus I found that 90% of the other tour goers were older women in Steeler black and gold.  The bus took us down Honky Tonk Row, with the guide suggesting many places to eat and watch some live music.  We went through parts of downtown on our way to the back side of the Capitol building, going by some galleries and "the first mall in the USA" (a small arcade... I'm not sure if the guide was embellishing a bit on that one)

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Sidebar on the subject of tour guide embellishment:  I am a sports fan as many of you know, and that is probably why I recall this as a reason to call bullshit on tour guides from time to time. 

In taking my hop on-hop off tour of San Diego back in the first week of my trip (see the 5th and 6th posts in this blog) we drove by an empty lot where the former baseball arena of the San Diego Padres used to stand, and the tour guide gleefully told us that the longest home run in the history of baseball was hit there, stating that the ball was hit out of the yard and onto a passing train which eventually stopped in Los Angeles, the longest home run ever hit... Apparently...

The reason this had my interest and had me ready to call bullshit was because I had already heard the exact same story... In 2010... At Fenway Park in Boston...

In taking the tour of Fenway Park when I was last in the USA (I would absolutely recommend it by the way, Red Sox fan or not, such history in that ballpark), the tour guide said that a ball was hit over the Green Monster in left field and onto a passing train which ended up in New York.  It is the exact same story, the only difference is that one city where the ball ended is prone to earthquakes and Tommy Lee Jones movies about a volcanoes, and the other one is prone to Matthew Broderick movies about virgin lizards and French people... Actually, both of those cities are prone to disaster movies...

I mean, I trust the guy at Fenway Park more than a random bus driver, but when you hear the same story in two different places making the identical claim... Well... Someone is lying... (In all likelihood they're both lying)...

So, when a claim is made that something is "the first mall in the USA" and it is a small arcade in Nashville, Tennessee, without shooting it down, it wasn't the most believable thing I'd heard that day... Not saying it isn't true, but just needlessly casting doubt...

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Anyway, back to the tour of Nashville... We drove by the Tennessee State Museum (which was Sam friendly, I.e. free... Although I never made it there in the end... Sorry to kill the suspense), then by the backside of the Capitol and over to the Tennessee State Bicentennial Mall, which was where the 200 years of Statehood celebrations took place (It was opened in 1996).  We drove to the back of the park and were treated to a wonderful view of the Capitol Building.  See below:

View towards the Capitol through the Bicentennial Mall.  The State flag of Tennessee can be seen on the pavement in the foreground

Tennessee Capitol

The Bicentennial Mall was actually really interesting.  The drive back towards the Capitol was only about 3 minutes, but the scenery and story behind it was amazing.  Called 'the Walkway of Counties' it had a circle on the ground for each County in the state of Tennessee, beneath it was a time capsule which each County had prepared.  The tour driver told us about his favourite one, which was from Moore County; this is where Jack Daniels is based.  In 82 years time they'll open up that time capsule and find a 100 year old bottle of whiskey... I'm not a drinker but that even impressed me a little bit (more so because of the positive experiences that generally tend to be associated with drinking properly aged alcohol)... The shrubbery and topography next to this walkway was divided into three distinct areas, each meant to represent one of the three regions of Tennessee; East Tennessee was made up of more hills in the walkway area and showed a lot of trees and plants from this area (which is near the Smoky Mountains), Middle Tennessee was represented next, then West Tennessee... The further along we went the density of plants became less and less, and there was less of a hilly nature to the feature, which is meant to show the topography of Tennessee.  We were told that the 3 stars on the state flag were also meant to represent these three distinct regions in Tennessee.  It was actually really impressive the depth and planning that had clearly gone into the park and into the representing all of the state.

Trivia time:
Driver: Can anyone tell me the state animal of Tennessee?
*Steeler fans murmur to each other*
*Someone eventually punts*
Driver: It is actually the raccoon... The raccoon... What about this one, what is the Official State drink of Tennessee?
Random 1: Whiskey!
Random 2: No, that's too obvious!
Random 1: Well...
Random 3: Lemonade?
Driver: Ooooh, lemonade... I would love to have a cool glass of lemonade right now... Not correct however... Any other guesses?
*Silence*
Driver: Milk... The Official State drink of Tennessee is milk!

Who knew right?

We drove by 'hospital row', which was interesting, but also it was a bunch of hospitals... I mean, without meaning to sound like a dick given my own personal good health, I've seen the inside of a hospital enough during my lifetime to last a dozen more...

We drove out to the Marathon Motor Car factory, which is long closed, but is open as a museum for 4 of the 8 remaining cars in existence which were created by the company.  It was at this point I saw the best piece of bus driving I've seen since Contiki in Europe in 2008.  The tour bus was blocked out by a guy loading antiques into his truck, so the tour guide had to take the bus into a car park and do about a 15 point turn to get it turned around and then take us through back streets to get to our stop.  Once he'd completed this maneuvering I broke out in applause... I wasn't supported by my fellow passengers... I feel that they let me down!  I tipped the guy an extra dollar at the end of the tour just for that single maneuver. 

We drove by Vanderbilt University and saw the back side of their football stadium.  The Commodores are the NCAA Champions of baseball.  The story about the University was interesting insofar as the original name I don't believe was Vanderbilt, but after a substantial donation from (the previously despised) Cornelius Vanderbilt ("the Commodore") they changed the name (and he became much loved).  The tour guide told us as to why he was so immensely rich, but I already knew this from watching the History Channel mini-series "The Men Who Built America".

We then drove through a number of recording studios where the likes of Elvis, Johnny Cash, the Stones, the Beatles and others had been, the guide also pointed out an apartment which houses 4 famous female singers when they are in Nashville.  The major one he gave was Taylor Swift... This was the first of many references made to Taylor Swift on this day in Nashville, she appears much loved in this town!

After this we made it to the Music City Center and past the Country Music Hall of Fame, and finally to the end of the tour route.  I'd not properly eaten breakfast, and it was lunchtime by this stage, so given that I was at the bottom of Broadway I figured I'd find a place to eat and move on from there.  I settled on the first place I saw, which was also at the recommendation of the tour guide, Acme Feed & Seed, which was made up to look a little bit like an old timey Farm Supply shop (guess that'd entailed in the name right?)

Acme Feed & Seed

After lunch I made my way to the Country Music Hall of Fame a few blocks away (it was its own stop on the tour... This surprised me in the sense that it was so close to the end of the tour route... It is a very contained city for the purposes of what I wanted to see, so I could quite easily walk pretty much everywhere).  I flirted with the idea of going into the Johnny Cash Museum but figured that the Country Music HOF would have more to offer me and give me a more rounded view of Music City, USA.

RAA Moment of the Day: *Buying tickets to the Country Music HOF*
Attendant: "Hello sir, just one adult?"
Sam: 'Yeah, that would be good please.  Also, I am a AAA member...'
*Presents RAA card*
Sam: '... It is a foreign card, but it is an affiliate... See, it has the AAA logo on the back'
*Points to logo*
Attendant: "I see.  Well, the AAA price is $2 less than the regular adult price"
*Pumps fist and pays the cash and enters the HOF*

The first level gave some history and showed many artifacts from famous country musicians.  Although, the biggest take away was being immediately confronted with 'The Taylor Swift Education Center'... I am in no way being anti-Taylor Swift, but it did strike me as odd that she'd have the Education Center at the Hall of Fame and Museum named after her when she is a relative new-comer to it all (based purely on age) when compared to people who'd been in the country music business for years and years and years... It does make sense though if they want to market to a younger audience... Naming it after Taylor Swift as opposed to someone like Tennessee Ernie Ford or Family Guy's own favourite Conway Twitty. 

The history presented showed firstly the beginnings of country music, the spread through the use of the wireless and later TV, and had a video of country music on TV and in pop-culture... It is amazing how many songs that have made their way into our lives that have roots in country music with us never knowing... 'Hey good looking, whatcha got cooking'... 'You load 16 tons, what do ya get? Another year older and deeper in debt'... Stuff like that, I knew these songs from hearing them around, but never knew they were originally from Country Music... They showed versions of the Monday Night Football song which has evolved over the years and ended up as what is in the link (before Hank Williams Jr compared Obama to Hitler and was summarily dismissed by ESPN... Seriously!)... Even the Willie Nelson cameo on The Simpsons 'Behind the Laughter' got a gig.

CMHOF

Inside the museum

Memorabilia from Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and others

Webb Pierce's car... Gun attached to the back, the interior had a bunch of guns and was full of coins

These records stretched along the wall, out the door and down two levels!

The next level down had a large exhibit on Bakersfield and 'the Bakersfield sound', which referred to the influx of country music performers into California after the South and Plains states in the USA experienced some agricultural hardships.  This was interesting but a bit beyond my limited knowledge of country music.  The juvenile in me will tell you that the best part of that exhibit was an interactive floor display, where an image was projected onto the ground and if you stepped on it the image cracked and moved and shimmied before returning to normal once you moved away... I spent about 5 minutes letting the little boy inside me pissfart around with this swanky piece of projection technology.  (I have a brief video, but the internet where I am would take about an hour to upload the 5 seconds of footage, so again, believe me when I tell you how much fun and how swanky it was)... I may upload it at a later date... Until then the still will have to suffice...

After this were individual exhibits on some of the best known country music stars... Older ones such as Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash; some newer ones such as Keith Urban, Taylor Swift, and a few others that I can't recall right now... My personal favourite guilty pleasure country music group are the Dixie Chicks, even they got an exhibit... The Sunday Night Football theme song got a gig as well.

Could only be one woman with a mannequin with a rack like that

The man in black

Dixie Chicks

Aside from the Hank Williams song earlier this was the song I knew best

After the interactive end to the museum, which said that I would be a good merch person, I moved on to the Rotunda which I think is the HOF portion of the tour.

Rotunda

Family Guy's own

The King

The man in black

One of the walls in the Rotunda

After stepping out I walked back to Broadway for the purpose of buying candy... On the way I went past a fountain with the water still running... Given the ridiculously cold weather over the past few days and that pretty much every other place had drained their water I was surprised to see running water, but it did give an amazing Mr Freeze style thing going on for it:

A freeze came

Savannah's Candy Kitchen

I bought 4 small pieces of fudge, peanut butter & chocolate, cookies & cream, vanilla chocolate swirl and chocolate... This is a story for the next blog...

I went back to the hostel, got invited out drinking by the guy in my room, politely declined, did some blogging, then headed out to get some dinner on Honkey Tonk Row in the hope of seeing some live music as well... You know, doing the whole Nashville thing...

I walked down to Honky Tonk Central and went into the bar for a meal.  The place was packed, so I had to sit at the bar, which was fine, and watched a band named Tim Bridges, after the lead singer who was named Tim Bridges.  They did covers of music by Queen, Third Eye Blind and others like Elvis, so it was a mix of artists, but sung in a country sounding style.

Despite the option of Tennessee style food, I was deliberately saving myself for Memphis, so I did the Philadelphia cheesesteak thing.

Honky Tonk Central

At the bar watching the band

Tim Bridges

As the show ended they introduced each of the band members, and when they got to the lead singer it was pretty clear that during his set he had made massive amounts of sexual innuendo, I mean, I missed the start of the set so I missed all of that. 

Quote of the night: *Bass player introducing Tim Bridges*
Bass: "... He's bigger than the Titanic people... Its true, only 400 women went down on the Titanic..."

At this point in time Bridges started doing the whole Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels thing and was strutting around... It was good times

I walked back to the hostel but given that I was taking a bus ride the next day I decided to do the thing Dad apparently does and stopped for a milkshake... Pretty good times...

Got back, packed, and went to bed.  Travel day tomorrow!

Wednesday

I got woken up with a start by two people leaving for the airport at about 6 AM... The downside to all of this was that I expected to be asleep until about 8:30-9 AM, with the aim of getting to the Bus Terminal at about 10 AM for an 11:25 AM departure for Memphis... Given that I was awake and couldn't get back to sleep I decided to get up, shower and get on my way to the bus.

I checked out and, on the say so of the guy on the far right in the picture below, I walked to the Greyhound Terminal.

Silicon Valley

Walking in such cold weather for several blocks carrying bags is weird.  I was rugged up because it was cold, but I was sweating because of the number of blocks I had to walk... The walk took my by the Country Music HOF, the Music City Center, 3 Gentleman's Clubs and a builder... After the Music City Center it wasn't the nicest few streets... Anyway, I got to the terminal, got my ticket, and sat in a crowded space...

These two really weirdly matched people sat down next to me and started making out... The male looked like a down and out cowboy, the female looked like a blimp... Anyway, they started making conversation with me and it was one of the weirdest conversations I'd had in so long...

'Murica Moment of the Day:
Guy: 'So, where are you from?'
Sam: "Australia"
Girl: 'Where is that?'
Sam: *disbelieving look on my face* "Where is Australia?"
Guy (to girl): 'Are you kidding right now? You know where Australia is'

I decided to stand in line with the people who were lining up an hour before the bus was due to leave... This was dumb... Same thing at the airport... The plane/bus won't leave without you... But I stood in line to get away from these other two people...

Getting on the bus I left my bag at the door and hoped for the best (because as soon as I sat in the seat this massive rush of panic hit me like I should have put it under the bus myself)... But you have to trust the system... Also, I didn't want to give up my seat, because I had one and the dude next to me wasn't completely vile... It was a full bus, and there were some rather interesting characters...

As the bus pulled away I didn't see my bag left behind, so I trusted that it was on the bus and got stuck into a book.  The driver said a prayer (honest to God, she said a full prayer) and gave her rules, and we were off to Memphis.

Writer's Note: At this point in time I would usually keep on with the day, but as Nashville has come to an end and Memphis is the next city, and one that I adore, I'm going to keep that contained to one post... Or at the very least not mixed in with Nashville... For the record, I loved Nashville, but Memphis is the shit!