Nashville, Cont’d.

Awesome day sightseeing in Nashville!  The morning started at the Grand Ole Opry with a Backstage Tour (after we picked up our tickets for tomorrow night’s live radio show).  The tour was really interesting….since 1925 only 210 country artists have been asked to be members of the Opry. The radio show is the longest at 88 years of “live on air” shows.  You can catch the shows if you have Sirius Radio on Friday, Saturday and Tuesday nights (channel 59).  We get to see Carrie Underwood, Trace Adkins, Craig Morgan, Terri Clark and Mark Chestnutt, plus several others.  The tour included the stars’ dressing rooms and we followed the steps they take as they get on the stage.  Standing on the same wood circle, at that microphone, looking out at the seats was very cool!

      

From there we traveled to 1300 Clinton Street; the American Pickers store, Antique Archaeology.  It was located in the very old Marathon Motorworks Bldg.  It was so cool to see items in the store that we had seen them “picking” on their TV show.  Remember the pig head that Mike had Frank wear?  Here is a picture….   the place was jam packed with people and some were buying the antiques but most were like me, buying AA memorabilia.

   

On to the Belle Meade Plantation.  What an historical place…..it was purchased by John Harding in 1807 and changed ownership when William H. Jackson married Selena Harding in 1868.  The farm was transformed into the nation’s leading thoroughbred breeding center.  The mansion is huge, centered in well-tended lawns.  One of the pillars still shows bullet holes from skirmishes with Union soldiers.  Some original buildings have been preserved:  the original cabin built by John Harding; the mausoleum; smokehouse and dairy.  We had a delicious lunch at the Harding House restaurant on the grounds.

      

Tomorrow we are headed down to Lynchburg to see the Jack Daniel Distillery and on the way back stopping in Franklin to check out the battlefield of the “bloodiest” battle of the Civil War.  I think there is a quilt shop in Franklin too 🙂