I spent half of last week in Nashville, Tennessee. I had never spent any time there, only driving through on my way to somewhere else. I would make a point to stop somewhere to hit a drive-through to hear that sweet southern drawl from the girl taking my order (though these days, she sounds suspiciously Hispanic, just like at home). Anyway, this time, I got out of the car and walked around for a couple of days.
I allowed myself to be the googly-eyed tourist, as such, there are a few things you must do. Wednesday night, we went out honky-tonkin'. We got downtown too early for the real action (it was full daylight), so we made a semi-casual browse of 2nd Ave. and the cheesy celebrity -named gift shops. We decided to duck inside the Hard Rock.
As soon as the bartender brought us our drinks, he started to work us over. Kind of felt like being frisked at a traffic stop (not that I have any idea what that's like!). "You guys from out of town?" "Where you from?", "Would you like to be able to take those glasses home?", "Are you going to visit our gift shop?"
We realized this isn't quite what we had in mind, so we left.
We headed up Broadway and found the seedy little dives that I was looking for.
Sure enough, you could hear music pouring out into the street as you walked by. We ducked inside Robert's Western World and listened to several songs performed by a really good band, but I have forgotten the name.
Thursday, I had a few hours on my hands, so I went back downtown to take some photographs. Of course, I had to tour the Ryman Auditorium, original home of the Grand Ol' Opry.
(BTW, not one left-handed instrument in the whole place! Go ahead and cross them off your must-see list, as I have)
It took me a while to put my finger on it, but I am very impressed with Nashville. They have preserved all of the historically significant areas and they are clean and inviting. All around are gleaming high rises that belong together. There are no big eye sores on the city skyline
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