Nashville

A hot chick under a cool old tree (Osage Orange, est. 200+ yrs old)

 Friday May 17, 2024, we drove to Nashville today. Most of the route is on I-40, one of our least favorite roads because of heavy truck traffic. To ease the pain, we drove local roads to Knoxville before getting on the freeway. Surprisingly, traffic was light and we sailed along and passed the time listening to an audio book.

Campsite #24

Our campsite reservation outside Nashville is at 7 points campground on Priestly Lake. It is one of the seven Corp of Engineers campgrounds on the lake. When I made the reservations a few months ago all the waterfront sites were taken and we picked site 24 which is across the road. It turned out to be lucky for us as all the waterfront campsites were recently flooded due to heavy rains and they were all still closed.

All the waterfront sites still drying out after flood

On Saturday May 18 2024 we drove into downtown Nashville and visited the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. We had timed entry tickets for 11:15am and arrived about ten minutes early. The atrium at the entrance was busy, but there were only about 15 people in the timed entry line. 

The easy passage ended when we exited the elevator, all of the three floors were jammed with people. Apparently, there is no plan to keep the masses moving and everyone who entered that day was still there! Putting my distain for large crowds in-check, the hall of fame/museum was interesting and informative. Most of the displays are of entertainer costumes and musical instruments.  There are also videos and many tidbits of information on wallboards.

Scenes from the street

The streets surrounding the Hall of Fame are on the route of many different concepts of mobile barroom. There is almost a constant stream of people pedaled draft beer bars, old buses with the tops cut off, sporting a barroom where the school kids used to sit, and even a two and a half ton military truck (Deuce and a half) that sported an open air bar in the cargo bed. All these vehicles (term used loosely) were populated by revelers in varying stages of inebriation who were celebrating who knows what! All the mobile bars had hip-hop music blaring, yes hip-hop in Nashville, who knew?

We stopped for dinner at Chili’s on the way home and stayed at the campground the rest of the day. Millie did some laundry and I worked on the blog.

Entrance to visitors center

Sunday May 19 2024. Today we toured The Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States. Once again, we had timed entry, this time the system worked. Guides take you thru the mansion and keeps the flow of Homo Sapiens moving along and then spits you out onto the rear portico. 

View from the original residence

From there, you are on your own to walk the grounds, all 2000 acres of it, lol. Seriously there are several outbuildings and gardens in close proximity to the mansion. I noticed there were many people of foreign descent visiting the complex and I suggest that everyone, both new and long time Americans go visit the Hermitage. You will learn much about life in the early 1800’s and of just how important Andrew Jackson was to the shaping of the United States of America.

President Jackson's grave in the family cemetery

We decided to drive through downtown Nashville on our way back to the RV. The scene on Broadway Blvd looks the same as it has the last couple times we've been here. There is music trumped out of every barroom, and the barrooms are side by side all the way down the street. The sidewalks were a sea of humanity, there were thousands of people, some wanting to be part of the scene dressed in cowboy boots, western cowboy hats and butt cheek exposing shorts, I'm sure there were some with a musician's dream, but most were just tourists who I imagine, just wanted to see it.

Cornton Platation and confederate cemetery

Monday May 20 2024. Today's journey was south to the city of Franklin Tennesse. We couldn’t help but comment to each other on all the stately mansions as we entered the vicinity of town. The real treat was the picturesque downtown, it's like it's something out of a fashion homes magazine. Franklin would surely be at the top of my list if I wanted to live in Tennessee. Intrigued, Millie googled the town, it appears this is the bedroom community for the rich and famous of Nashville and real estate is priced accordingly.  Not only housing, the cost of gasoline was 75 cents higher per gallon than in Nashville, which is only about 25 miles up the road. We didn't go in anywhere to price milk and bread, but Franklin is clearly not for the working man.

1650 Confederate soldiers are buried in the 2 acre cemetery.

Lucky for us we didn’t come here house shopping, we came to visit a Confederate cemetery just at the edge of town. The Civil War battle of Franklin occurred on the 1,420 acres of Carnston Plantation. More than 1,750 Confederate soldiers lost their lives at Franklin, including four Confederate generals. 

Soldiers are grouped by state

The McGavock family, owners of the plantation, donated 2 acres for use as a confederate burial place. It is the largest privately owned confederate cemetery. This is surely a blessing for these poor souls and those of us who care about them. It’s only a matter of time before the government caves in to the insanity happening in the US and bulldozes all the government managed Confederate cemeteries. I'm stepping off the soapbox now.

To those of you who care about the history of our country, I encourage you to visit Carnton Plantation, or sometime in your life visit a military cemetery. They are hallowed ground.

PS: Carnton has never received any funding or support from local, state or the Federal government. The site is maintained and managed by The Battle of Franklin Trust, a non-profit organization.