NY eve in Nashville

Last day of the 2011. Today we started off with no real plans, so checked with front desk to see what plantation tour they would recommend. We ended up going and spending a couple of hours at Belle Meade. If anyone is interested in race horses Google this place, many many of the big winners have blood lines back to this farm. Belle Meade are is now like a suburb of Nashville, filled with lots of lots of millionaire homes. At one time it was a plantation with so much land that there was a 18 mile stone fence surrounding the property. Now it is a tiny fraction of this, but still a very impressive mansion stands with much of the original things inside. We did a tour that included the inside of the mansion, and what a tour guide we had. Anne was around 80, and so good. She said that there is no script that they are given to follow, they are given books to read on horse racing, parties, and the family history and they can choose to educate us a little on whatever they find interesting. She said the parties were so boring there was really nothing much to tell us, very funny. Anyway one more piece of Tennessee history for us to go home with.

From here we took some back roads where we saw garages that were much bigger than our home (one 6 car garage!). We were going to a small town called Franklin for lunch and to look around. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and a nice day for the 30 minute drive to Franklin. This is a small town that has really grown into a tourist destination now. Many old buildings have been preserved, and most of course include some kind of shopping store now, or a restaurant. We spent a couple of hours wandering around here, I found my earrings that I had been looking for. I like to find something that will remind me of our visit when I wear them, and this would be my Christmas present from Andre this year. These earrings are made out of guitar strings, so of course I will think of Nashville/Memphis when I wear them. After lunch we headed back to our hotel in Nashville for a nap before our evening plans, I really wanted to make it to midnight!

We had been told it would be safest to take the hotel shuttle downtown tonight, rather than drive our own car. So off we go about an our before our Grand Ole Opry show is due to start to look around downtown before it gets to crowded. Tonight there is a free concert starting at 7PM downtown. We have tickets to see the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium which is also downtown, so it works out perfectly for us, we'll go to the Opry and then go to the concert. Broadway is not too busy yet when we first get there, We get quite close to the stage, but we don't figure we will get this close later. Off next to the Opry, tonight is a live show that is broadcast on the radio, so we get to hear commercials and everything. Each entertainer comes on for one or 2 songs and then the next person comes on. We saw about 16 acts, but didn't know any of them except Jett Williams, who is Hank Willams daughter. We had just read about her at the Country Music Hall of Fame the day before so it was interesting to see her in person. This is his daughter that was put in foster care when Hank and her mother had both died, she was 2. She only found out when she was 21 who her birth father was, I remember hearing about this in the news a few years ago as well. It was fun to see, the show opened with someone acting like Minnie Pearl doing the opening act. I`m also glad it was at this theatre, the Grand Ole Opry has a new theatre built quite a few miles from downtown, but sometimes they still use the old Ryman theatre, which is where we were.

Following the Opry we went downtown, wow the people there now is crazy. Lots of police presence, and after a few mega concerts in Moncton it wasn't bad. Because of the set up here though it was much more crowded than Moncton. Here is was one street that was closed for about 7 blocks, so everyone was in 1 very long block, and it was hard to move around once you got into the crowd. We started of by going for supper, it was now after 9:30 so we figured if we ate now it would be good timing to watch some of the concert and see midnight in. We ended up at Jacks BBQ right downtown, we were so late that the line ups weren't too bad, and another excellent BBQ meal. After supper we decided to hit the street and see how close we could get to the stage, well that didn't last long, it was crazy! The worst part was where the line ups were right across the street for lining up for beer. We decided to back track and just stand near one of the big screens that had been set up on the street to watch the show, the problem with this is the sound was not good, we have been spoiled with the Stones and U2, this really did not sound very good. The headliner act was Lynyrd Skynyrd, he was on stage from about 11PM through to the new year. Really by the end we couldn't even hear him, which was too bad, but we did make it until midnight, watched the music note drop (instead of the ball in New York), saw a good fireworks show then caught a taxi back to the hotel. The taxi ride was funny, 2 young girls ran up to the cab as we were leaving and asked if they could get in with us, they were going very close to our hotel so they joined us. They were from Nashville and were on there way to get out of their party dresses and into clothes to party for the night. I can just imagine what time they got home! We were probably getting up to start the day. A great end to 2011 and start to 2012.  Tomorrow off to Memphis