9-19-2012
While in Cave City we visited an old general store that was run by a true picker.He told us he had been picking for 57 years. He had the things in his store to prove it. We were surprised at the high prices he had on his stuff. It was a real collection of old stuff.
We toured Diamond Cave which was more like you expect a cave to be with many pretty formations. It was not a big cave but we enjoyed the tour.
We visited the town of Munfordville, KY to see the Green River and the historic sites and a battlefield.We drove on a lot of back roads during our various trips to see the farms and the scenery.
We toured the Corvette plant and watched them make new Corvettes. We toured the National Corvette Museum also. The museum was very good..
We left Cave City on Friday the 14th and drove to Nashville, TN. Saturday we went to Cooters Garage which has a lot of things for sale from the Dukes of Hazard. We visited Belle Meade Plantation which was founded in 1807 by John Harding. The plantation raised race horses in the 1800's. Horses like Seabiscuit, Secretarial, Funny Cide, Barbarro and every horse to race in the Kentucky Derby since 2003 can trace their bloodlines back to Bellemeade.They have a winery which had very good wines. There are many original buildings on the site. The mansion was very elegant.
We visited the Parthenon in downtown Nashville which is a replica of the one in Greece. The statue of the roman solider inside is huge. We visited Lane Motors which is a car museum with foreign cars, old motorcycles and many odd cars. Lots of small cars and three wheeled cars.
Saturday night we went to the Grand Old Opry. Sara Evans was the featured singer as well as 5 or 6 other singers including Little Jimmy Dickens who is 91.
Sunday we took a bus tour which covered the downtown area and the homes of some of the stars. The homes we saw were very large, as big as 30,000 square feet. They were all on large estates. In the afternoon we visited the Hermitage which was a large plantation built by Andrew Jackson. The mansion had many original things in it including 4 rooms with the original wall paper. Andrew Jackson and his wife are buried on the grounds. There is also the grave of a man who was a slave for Jackson and then was freed. He stayed on at the plantation and worked. Later when the estate was bought by the historical society he worked as a guide. His only request was that he be buried next to Andrew Jackson.
Monday we visited the Country Music Hall of Fame which is very large and very well done. There were lots of things to see, read about and listen to. We then walked down Printers Alley which is a small entertainment district. From there we walked to Coyote Ugly which is a well know chain of bars where the waitresses dance on the bar. There were not very many people in there since it was a rainy Monday afternoon. So with a little encouragement Judy, another customer and the girl tending bar got up on the bar and danced a little. Monday night we went to see the Opry Land hotel which has almost 3000 rooms. The inside of the hotel has many water pools, sky walks, flowers and trees. The inside with all the gardens, water and walkways is very beautiful but it is a real maze. Just when we thought we had seen it all we discovered another large area with a river and a waterfall. It was a real challenge to find our way back out.
It rained all day Monday and they had flooding in many parts of Tennessee so we checked the weather Tuesday morning and it looked better so we headed for Chattanooga. The rain held off on the drive until we stopped at a rest stop on top of the mountain, 2300 feet elevation, then it poured.We decided to wait for the rain to let up. The rain stopped after just a little while but the clouds moved in and you couldn't see 100 feet. We waited to see if the clouds would move out. After about 20 minutes it improved a little and the trucks were leaving the rest stop so we started out. You couldn't see very far but everyone was going about 40 mph so it wasn't too bad. We went about 3 or 4 miles when we came to a steep downgrade. By the time we were half way down we were out of the clouds. The down grade went from 2300 feet to 800 feet. we arrived in Chattanooga about 4PM since we lost an hour due to the time change.
Well it's time to get around and go see Chattanooga.
Dick and Judy
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