Grand Ole Opry

“There’ll be guitars and fiddles, Earl Scruggs and his banjo too;
Bill Monroe singing out them Old Kentucky Blues;
Ernest Tubb’s number ‘Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right’
At the Grand Ole Opry ev’ry Saturday night“
- from Grand Ole Opry by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Today began with a trip to the Belle Meade Plantation just outside of downtown Nashville. Before heading to the plantation, however, we had planned to have brunch at the Loveless Cafe, a Nashville landmark opened in 1951. However, after arriving at the cafe, we found that there was a wait of about an hour twenty minutes, so we visited a couple of craft stores next to the cafe, then decided to move on and ate elsewhere. We then made our way to Belle Meade, where we took a one-hour tour of the Mansion, where we learned the history of the plantation and the families that lived there. The tour focused on the late nineteenth century when the plantation functioned as a stud farm, breeding and training championship thoroughbred horses. In fact, many great horses, including Secretariat, along with recent Derby winners Funny Cide and Barbaro, can trace their bloodlines back to the Belle Meade stables.

Following our visit to Belle Meade, it was time to return to the music theme which has dominated the past four or five days, as we traveled over to Opryland. First, we took a backstage tour of the Grand Ole Opry House. Although neither Caren nor I are country music fans, the tour was interesting and it was fun to go out on the stage where so many famous artists have performed over the past thirty-plus years. The Grand Ole Opry is the longest running radio show, having started in 1925, with the format of the show having changed little throughout its history. However, the Opry has continued its growth over the many years, having frequently outgrown its venues. After some thirty years at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, the Opry opened its own auditorium back in 1974, where it still performs today.

Down the street from the Grand Ole Opry House stands the incredible Opryland Resort. With almost 3,000 rooms, the hotel is huge, but it’s the interior of the resort that is so amazing. The building features three separate glass-enclosed sections (the Cascades, the Garden Conservatory, and the Delta), each of which is filled with plants, fountains and even waterfalls. The Delta atrium contains its own “river,” where they offer a fifteen-minute boat tour of the atrium. A large fountain in the Delta atrium is the site of a water show (music with “dancing” fountains shooting water as high as fifty or more feet in the air), which we enjoyed during our visit. Many of the hotel’s rooms overlook one of these atrium areas, which makes for a great view.

Tomorrow, as we continue the final week of our road trip, we’ll leave Music City and head east to Asheville, North Carolina. The drive will take us through Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

More to come…

Stu