Day 7: Memphis to Nashville

Wow! After a difficult night’s sleep in a very hot hotel room, Thursday turned out to be a very nice day for us. The hotel “comped” the room for us, and we still got to take advantage of their full breakfast on the way out. Personally, I would rather have had everything working!

On the 4 hour trip to Nashville, we took this picture. From the sparseness of the desert to the open prairies of Texas to the green countryside of Oklahoma, things were gradually changing. Now we are in country that is thicker than the Willamette Valley, as you can see by this highway shot. This is a typical view in Tennessee.

We stopped in Nashville so Ian could replace his "Commodores" shirt we gave him a few years ago. He is more intrigued by the mascot than the school, but the campus is old and pretty cool.

We had a chance to visit the Gibson Store at the Opry Mills mall, where Forrest played this gold-plate, $8500 banjo. Two years ago it was $10,000, so it's a steal at this price!

Also, Forrest gave Jeremy a $5000 guitar to play, and after Jeremy strummed it once told him the price. Jeremy protested, "You know better than to hand something like this to me! I might drop it!"

The boys wanted this picture with the drums for their cousin Sean, who has his own drumset.

We also went to the Bass Pro Shop, where Sherry took this picture of a 110 pound (!) catfish in a tank. This is the largest catfish I have ever seen. He is at least 4 feet long, and as thick as a man.

The pictures below are from the Grand Ole Opry. We had a chance to visit the Opry Museum prior to going to the Opry. This was the last performance until September of a new series they call the "Opry Country Classics" Series, where they honor past Opry greats. Thursday was Chet Atkins night, hosted by Larry Gatlin.

During a 15-minute break, Sherry asked the boys to go up to the stage and get their picture taken. They were both strongly opposed to going up there, so finally Sherry convinced them to come up and take our picture. Then, of course, she asked them to trade with us so she could take theirs. All of this maneuvering provided some half-time entertainment for everyone in front. We did get their picture as well, and they gave a nice smile!

Steve Wariner turns out to be a very excellent guitarist, and we enjoyed his tribute to Chet Atkins. He also has a new album out in tribute to Chet Atkins, so this was a kind of advertisement as well. Everyone seemed to enjoy the entire show, which is pretty casual and not too loud. Sherry commented she knew almost every song!

We ended the day with the boys swimming in the pool and Sherry on the computer changing our reservations tomorrow. We didn't make it to the Hermitage, so we are reducing travel time so we can get up and go there early on Friday morning before we head to Virginia.

Pray for weather...it looks like that giant storm that has devastated Chicago, Minnesota and Illinois is going to be on top of us tomorrow...