Day 14: Nashville

Goodlettsville TN to Lebanon TN

We didn't want to leave too early in fear of getting caught in the Nashville traffic coming from the suburbs into the city, so we left the hotel about 8:45 after breakfast. It took us about 30 minutes to drive to downtown and park in a public parking garage near the famous Ryman Auditorium. I knew it was where WSM broadcast the Grand Ole Opry back in the day, but I didn't know that so many other famous people of all types performed and spoke here as well. It looks like a church because it was a tabernacle in its earliest days, including the pews.

After our tour of the Ryman, we drove northeast of Nashville to tour the Hermitage, the 1821 Greek Revival homestead of President Andrew Jackson. We arrived at 10:30. The visitors' center had good exhibits and didn't avoid the controversial subjects of slavery and Indian removal. As we all are, Jackson was a man of his time and place with corresponding views, perhaps a little more extreme. Jackson and his wife Rachel are buried in the garden.

 

 At 12:30, we ate at the cafe at the visitors' center and then drove to Lebanon, TN, to stay at a Sleep Inn, again much cheaper than a downtown hotel. Naps in the afternoon. Took out a pizza from a Bellacino's in the same interstate interchange as the hotel.