Nashville, TN - October. 2002
Updated: 11/22/08
We were in the Nashville area for the HitchHiker International Rally. Because we have never visited Nashville, we took advantage of all of the optional tours offered by the rally organizers - the City of Nashville, lunch on the General Jackson Showboat, historic homes, the Ryman Auditorium and The Grand Ole Opry. We also made a couple side trips on our own after the rally ended. The dress for all of the tours and attractions is casual. Comfortable footwear is recommended.
The number of photographs selected from this trip would make this page load very slowly. Therefore, we posted our trip over three pages.
On this page: The HitchHiker International Rally
Fiddler's Grove Historic Village Nashville The General Jackson Showboat
On other pages: Nashville - Historic Homes
Nashville - Grand Ole Opry
The HitchHiker
International Rally
At the rally we met many nice people and had a good time at all of the scheduled events and tours offered. The rally was held on the grounds of the James E. Ward Agricultural Center. Most of the 76 rigs were parked in a horseshoe arrangement, some were parked in a little side cluster.
Evening entertainment and a game afternoon were included in addition to the optional bus tours. The games were enjoyed by all. The broom hockey game fell victim to time constraints.
During
one of the tours, our group (only 15 people) had lunch at the Hermitage House Smorgasbord
restaurant. The the food was excellent, especially the fresh, hot
apple fritters. The private room they put us in provided a nice
secluded lunch.
This was our first experience attending a rally sponsored by the manufacturer of a RV. We were impressed by the way the NuWa people (Mike, CeCe, Ron and Clay) handled the comments, complaints and suggestions from the HitchHiker owners. They arrived prepared to provided some on-site repairs and parts. Our responses on a survey they asked us to prepare will be used in their product development decisions. The suppliers of the refrigerators, stoves, furnaces and air conditioners, as well as the other vendors, were very helpful and cooperative. This interaction was very much appreciated. Our thanks to Elaine, Marv, Nancy and Tom for arranging a successful rally.
Fiddler's Grove Historic Village
Included on the grounds of the James E. Ward Agricultural Center is the Fiddler's Grove Historic Village. It captures what life might have been like in a farming community of Wilson County. It consists of original and replicated buildings.
The City of Nashville has much to offer visitors. We learned that although Nashville is Music City USA, banking and printing are of major importance to the area. There are over 800 churches in the area. Nashville is sometimes referred to as "the buckle of the Bible Belt". Most of our touring was by bus.
The
capitol building in the center of Nashville is on top of a ten story underground
state office complex.
Across from the capitol building, is the Tennessee Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. One feature of this mall is the Tennessee Map Plaza. Here a 200-foot granite state map highlights the major roads, 95 counties, rivers, interesting geographic formations and every city and town in the state. The map is very impressive. The first photograph shows the size of the map and the second the detail. The map was made in sections inside a warehouse over a seven year period and moved to this location.
Also at this location is the Tennessee Zero Milestone.
The
Rivers of Tennessee Fountain contains 31 vertical water fountains, one for each
of the predominate waterways in the state. The riverwalk is accented with
a bowed and arched granite wall with inscriptions about Tennessee waterways.
Along
the west side of the park is a 1,400-foot Wall of History. It is engraved with
historic events that have occurred over the past two centuries. The wall
"breaks" at the time of the Civil War to represent the divisive nature
of the war on the state.
This
World War II Memorial is a 18,000 lb. granite globe of the world that floats on
1/8" of water, which allows visitors to physically rotate the globe in
order to view all areas of the world as it was during World War II.
Unfortunately, the bus did not stop so we could spend time in this section of the park. There are many other commemorative features in the park. It is a reason to revisit Nashville.
This Parthenon replica stands in the Centennial Park. Originally built for Tennessee's 1897 Centennial Exposition, it is the only exact replica of the ancient Greek temple in the world. Inside is a 42' sculpture of Athena, goddess of wisdom and an art museum of permanent and changing exhibits. Again, the bus did not stop for us to explore.
The
General Jackson Showboat paddles past downtown Nashville on the Cumberland
River. We had a good lunch and enjoyed the stage show. The showboat turns around
and returns to its dock. We discovered, after seeing most of the same shoreline for the second time, that we could sneak into the
balcony area for
the second lunch sitting's show. It was a different show than the one we
saw. Both were great shows.
The shoreline included city and rural views.
We hope you enjoyed this page. One could spend several days in Nashville visiting the many interesting and historic places in the area. We will be back.