My Town & Others

I spent the night in my town, Elizabethtown. Well if you know me or read my bio at the side then you know I love my name and so of course I had to see this town. Actually this trip started with the movie Elizabethtown. A friend and I watched it and decided to do the road trip the main guy takes at the end and then I just made it so I could see all of the south. And the friend ended up not being able to come. But this trip has been awesome. So in the morning I went to the visitor center to pick up a driving tour. The older lady just kept chatting away and handing me brochure after brochure. Then I snapped this photo, I steadied my camera on a boulder and set the timer.

The driving tour was cute, it just took me by a bunch of old homes and the years they were built and the elements of that period. It also took me to the courthouse and the cemetery and down the road that a general took on his Christmas raid during the Civil War. The courthouse sits in a roundabout and then little shops in a circle around the street. It was cute. While doing the driving tour i kept getting turned around and making sudden turns and stops and not once did somebody honk at me. Actually that is one thing I've noticed everywhere in the south, people don't honk, they are much nicer on the road. Thank goodness  because I've made numerous sudden changes on the road. After my little tour, I had to say goodbye to my beautiful little town and head to Tennessee.

I went straight to The Grand Ole Opry and up to the ticket desk I didn't have much time and most things close at 5pm and I had a few things to see. I asked for the 12:45 tour and then said its 12:40 right? The ticket lady said, no its 11:40 so I can put you in the 11:45 tour. For a minute I was totally confused and then it hit me, TIME CHANGE. I had crossed the border and gained an hour, it was the best news of the day, probably of the last few days. It made me so happy and relieved. Below these guitars are like 12 feet tall.

The Grand Ole Opry, only one in the world and all cleaned up and fixed since the flood.

Look at the line on the wall, the lighter gray cement and the darker gray cement. They left that there on purpose so people could see where the water was, 4 feet high, anyone sitting would have been under water. They replaced quite a bit, but kept the little things like the artists plaques and mailboxes and center stage.

So the Opry has its own mailman and post office and each member of the Opry has a box here until he/she dies. And one of their old mailmen now has his own box here, who is it? Alan Jackson, most of you may not know who that is but for you country folk out there, I thought that would interest you.

So this is one of the dressing rooms they have. Each room is themed This one is the comedy room and the pictures on the back wall are put up in the shape of a smile. It was really cute. We got to see about 5 of the 20 dressing rooms.

So the show has been consecutively running for like 87 years or something and at one show in 1980's sometime they could not get the curtain to come up, they tried everything. So instead of cancelling the show, people just help up the curtain the ENTIRE night so the audience could see the show.

It was a fun tour, to see where the stars enter and stay and the stage where Hee Haw was taped and then to stand on center stage. This lighter piece of wood was taken from the original stage (from stage right where all performers waited before stepping onto stage to make sure that every performer has been on that same floor). They refurbished this from the flood and put it back down and this is where all performers stand when on the stage.

Here is the view of the performers. Because the original place used for the Opry was a church, they kept the same style of seating, pews. They are cushioned though and not just hard wood.

Here is the stage from the back of the auditorium.

Also this home sits right at the left base of the Opry and I can't remember which artist lived here until he died a couple years ago. He loved the Opry so much after his wife died, they built the house for him and he moved here, they also left a back door unlocked at all times because he was an insomniac and would just wonder through the Opry at night, sit in the pews, walk on stage, etc. I thought that was AWESOME. I want to be given rights like that to somewhere awesome. I would totally have sung and danced on the stage all night long.

As I left the Opry parking lot right by the mall, which is still closed and being repaired, I saw a speed limit of 24! No lie, that is why I need a drive so I could have gotten the picture. An accident or a joke on purpose. The Opry people are a bunch of jokesters, so it wouldn't surprise me if it was on purpose. Also after the flood the Opry was up and running in four months, they had people working day and night to repair it. Then I went to the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum. You can't take flash photography and most things are behind glass anyways. This was Elvis' gold piano. It was okay, but really not worth the $20 to get in. I got lucky though and at least didn't have to pay the $20 for parking!!! Yep, parking downtown was $20 because its CMA Week, the CMA is this Sunday and there were TONS of people everywhere. That was a bit annoying. I was so happy I didn't have to pay for parking. Why? because I came in the back way and didn't see the meter machines all the signs talked about, I asked two other people and they didn't pay and nobody asked them to pay so I didn't. When I came out to leave one of the guys told me, the entry was on the other side and because of construction they didn't think people were able to get in from the other side and thats why we got away with it. Yeeeaaah!

I drove up and saw the Capitol it is on a HUGE hill and then a ton more steps up to it. A great location in case of flood :) By the way in case you forgot, the flood was one year ago in May.

Then I went to see their public park and the Parthenon a replica of the one in Greece including the Goddess Athenos statue inside. It was fun walking around in there and since I gained the hour, I had half an hour before they closed when I got there, which is all I needed. Another interesting fact, from these steps is where they performed the Opry show the day after the flood, all the artists said the show must go on and it did. One performer had lost everything in the flood and was waiting for shoes right before she walked on to perform.

Help me! It scared me white like a ghost, haha.

Then we had a stare down, he won.

I saw the Nashville temple but didn't include a picture because its like the previous 4 that were all the same. Then I drove to Memphis. I went and saw the Memphis temple, exact same as the previous 5 now. I did inlcude a picture, because it was a night shot and I thought it looked pretty.

It was a long day and a hot one. I was exhausted and slept pretty solid till my alarm this morning. now I'm off for another very long day. A lot of miles in front of me.