We are so excited to go into Nashville today. The girls got all dressed up and curled their hair, I think in hopes of seeing someone famous. I’ve heard that it’s very common to run into someone famous in downtown Nashville. They were so giddy and adorable getting ready, it was precious. We are going to the Grand Ole Opry tonight, so I guess it’s good that we all get a little dressed up!
The KOA had a wonderful shuttle van that took us to downtown Nashville (for a fee of $10 per person), on Broadway Street. Our driver was hysterical and wonderful because he told us all the little details of Nashville and what to do here. He was full of information. Tennessee is definitely the Music Capital of the South. Broadway is the main street downtown and everywhere you go somebody is playing some music. You can even walk right into a bar during the day with kids, and listen to a band without paying a cover charge. We walked into several and most of the bands were really good and just waiting to get discovered.
We are definitely in the south again with the ya’ll and southern droll!! The south also has incredible hospitality and they are so friendly. Every store we went in, the people were awesome and so helpful. We walked down Broadway Street and went into almost every store. We went into several boot stores and looked at all the really fancy boots for $300-500. The girls wanted a pair so bad . . . too bad they were so expensive.
Finally in one of the stores the girls decided that they wanted a glamorous cowgirl belt and a cowboy hat. The clerk gave them an incredible deal and marked the items down even more than they were . . . he was a very nice gentleman. I even got a cowboy hat so now we’re all cowgirls!
We walked up the street to the Ryman Theatre which is where we are going to the Grand Ole Opry tonight. They have self guided tours all day which we were going to do, but once we got there we decided that since we paid a lot of money to go to the Opry tonight that we would just enjoy downtown until the show. We went back down Broadway Street to a restaurant called Wild Horse Saloon.
We were told by our wonderful shuttle driver this morning that this restaurant has free line dancing in the early evening. We decided to eat an early dinner before the show and do some line dancing. The kids were thrilled! Between the 3 of us, we ordered 2 entries to share. One was barbeque pulled pork nachos and the other was fried chicken strips with cole slaw and fries. Does that sound good ole southern or what?? The girls loved the chicken strips and I loved the nachos. . . they were amazing! The coleslaw was excellent too.
At 5:30 a cute young lady called all the line dancers on the dance floor. Our kids were in the front row and they were incredibly excited. They loved it! She taught the steps of basic line dancing and then put on the music. They all were laughing and having a great time. They seemed to pick up the steps well, although there were moments of messing up!! J I even joined in for a little while and it was a blast!!
After we danced and ate we walked back up the street to the Ryman Theater. The Ryman Theater was the original Grand Ole Opry house and now still has shows during the week that are usually some of the old timers and tend to be less crowded
The history of the Ryman Theater began in the 1880’s when Thomas Ryman, a riverboat captain and Nashville businessman, attended a revival by the traveling evangelist Sam Jones. He went to the revival just to harass the preacher but instead his heart was touched and changed, and he instantly gave his heart to Christ. He then decided to raise money for a permanent place for Jones to preach. Seven years later, after spending $100,000, the Union Gospel Tabernacle was completed, renaming it the Ryman Theater after Thomas died in 1904. From 1904 to 1943 it was used for many different events such as: religious revivals, operas, ballets, jazz recitals, political debates, and even boxing matches. In 1943, a contract was signed to rent the Ryman out on Saturday nights for the popular live radio show with country music playing. From 1943 to 1974 the building became known as the “Mother Church of Country Music” and rarely had an empty seat in the house for the Saturday night Opry. The lines were often around the block. Old country stars like Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, and Bill Monroe, helped shape country and blue grass music from the Ryman. In 1974 a new building became the Grand Ole Opry and the Ryman Theater was left alone for 20 years. In 1994, after major renovations it reopened for shows. In 2001, it was named a National Historic Landmark. It was a beautiful theater and the music was amazing.
Tonight at the Ryman was the “Grand Ole Classics” and Loretta Lynn was the star . . . she is as classic as you can get! Larry Gatlin was the host and he was fabulous . . . he is hysterical when he spoke and even when he sang. There was also a newer girl name Teona Goans and a young man who were just starting out.
When Loretta Lynn was about to sing Cole Miners Daughter, she announced that Zoe DesCharne was going to play her on Broadway in the ‘Cole Miners Daughter” and she had her come on stage to sing with her!! It was a fabulous evening and program.
After the show, we walked up the street to find a bank and accidentally ran into the Lifeway building! Lifeway is the company that produces all the Beth Moore Bible studies that I do. Right in front was a fabulous statue of Billy Graham preaching. What a treat to see that!
To end the evening with a bang we decided to go back to the Wild Horse Salon for more music and line dancing! We just couldn’t get enough of Nashville’s music fever!! We stayed for an hour and then took the last shuttle of the evening back to the KOA. What a fun day!!
No comments:
Post a Comment