Gatlinburg to Nashville

Today we had an early start, as we needed to return our rental car to Nashville airport by lunchtime. Fortunately we would be crossing a date line during our drive, meaning we would gain an hour too, giving us an hour sleep in! Our drive today was somewhat uneventful, particularly since we didn't get a chance to stop in Knoxville on the way. I was only really interested in getting a photo in front of the Sunsphere anyway, just to see if anyone could remember that memorable Simpsons episode.

Getting to the airport was near impossible, as there were whole sections of the freeway completely closed (no idea why). When we finally arrived we called for an Uber to drop us off at our accommodation. The neighbourhoods surrounding the airport weren't exactly the type you'd want to break down in, so it was good to see our accommodation was in a much more desirable area.

We are staying at a guesthouse that Ted found on the Mister B&B website. We arrived before we were able to check-in, so we asked if we could leave our bags in order to explore downtown. We again called for an Uber as downtown was not really walkable from our accommodation.

I'm not sure if I was missing something but to me, Nashville has no charm whatsoever. My impression was just a whole lot of people getting drunk in pubs playing the occasional country and western music, and the occasional beer-mobile going down the street. The town also wasn't that attractive, and lacked any of the character that makes New Orleans appealing. Maybe I just didn't get it. We walked down to the waterfront to have a look and again, it did nothing for me.

After getting lunch at the appropriately named Pita Pit, we went to the Country and Western Museum to see what it was like. Since neither of us are interested in C&W, paying a lot of money to look at displays we didn't understand seemed like a waste. We felt similar when seeing the Johnny Cash museum. One thing that interested us somewhat was the Goo Goo shop which is one of the early confectioners in Nashville.

We walked back to our accommodation in the now hot weather (shouldn't have worn jeans!) to meet the hosts of the accommodation. They also have a dog named Rex who immediately recognised us as dog lovers. We did some laundry and rested before getting ready to go to the Grand Ole Opry tonight. Since we've spent a bit of money to see the show, we didn't feel guilty about not seeing any of the museums today.

As it turned out, the drive to the Opry was awful. Our driver seemed to take forever to get there, meaning our plan to have a formal dinner first was replaced by having a fast food meal instead. Even though we were among the youngest visitors to the show and our tickets were in the back row, we still enjoyed it. Some of the entertainers were great and it did show the appeal of the C&W scene. I am glad we did this or our trip to Nashville may have been a complete disappointment.

We were keen to go out afterwards, so we called another Uber (almost impossible to find with all the people everywhere after the show!) and headed into a venue called Tribe. There was definitely a good, older crowd there and we managed to talk to a few of the locals. We probably didn't have the late night we'd expected, but it was still good to go out in the Country and Western capital of the United States!Read more