Day 11...Nashville

Our first stop today was the Grand Old Opry House, with the intention of a tour.  We waited for a while for the ticket office to open, only to realize they were preparing for the Dove Awards, so there weren't going to be any tours today :(  So, we headed to their museum and spent some time learning about some of country music's history.  It was actually really interesting to see how the Grand Ole Opry got its start and to read the stories of all the different acts that had spent their careers trying to get invited into the exclusive membership "club."

From there, we drove back into downtown and parked the car.  We went to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, which had some of the same info as the GOO Museum, but tons more on top of that.  It seemed to be newly renovated and had a lot of song samples, memorabilia and interactive exhibits.  After these two stops, I realized how much I actually liked country music back when Long Island had stations for it.

Naturally, I was hungry by this time, so we walked around town looking for some more BBQ...and somehow we couldn't find any.  So, it was back to Jack's...yes, on this 40-day road trip, we have now eaten at the same place twice, but it was so worth it.  I would be happy to eat their again if I had the chance.

After lunch, we drove to the Parthenon...a very odd Nashville favorite.  It's an actual replica of the Parthenon, to scale, in a park...Centennial Park.  Apparently if you go inside, they have a sculpture of Athena, just like in Greece, said to the be largest sculpture indoors, in the western part of the world.  Of course, it's closed on Mondays, so we just saw the outside.  Nashville thinks they're cool because their Parthenon hasn't crumbled.

We decided today might be a good day to head back to the hotel for a little while to relax, so we weren't half asleep by sundown and could enjoy some more live music after dinner.  So, around 7:00, we drove back in and had dinner at the Big River Brewery and a beer sampler.  After dinner, we went to Legend's for some live country music.  The band playing was great - they had an album, but they also played some covers, which was nice.  And now, here we are, getting ready for another early day as we set out for Memphis tomorrow morning.