duright

We left Pidgeon Forge on October 4th, after a wonderful breakfast at the Apple Barn and a visit to their great giftshop. We dropped out of the Smoky Mountains and into more open ground as we headed to Nashville. We drove through Knoxville and passed a sign that said Cumberland Trail. There is so much history around here, I am making dozens of notes about things to look up when we get home. Needless to say, I'm driving Wayde a little crazy but that's okay, he's used to it. We got to Nashville that afternoon and ate supper that night at a restaurant called the Aquarium that had a 250,000 gallon tank full of salt water fish. It reminded us of home. It was in the Opry Mill Mall and would be as close as we would get to Opryland. The next day Wayde dropped me off at The Hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson. I saw everything from the original cabin President and Mrs. Jackson lived in (it was later used for slave quarters) to the house which was built in the 1830's. It has been kept in excellent shape with many of President Jackson's original furnishings and personal belongings still in the house, even the original wallpaper! It is one of the best museums I have ever been in. That afternoon we went to Nashville and toured the Country Music Hall of Fame. It amazed me how old we are and how much we knew of country music history. They even mentioned Cliffie Stone and Spade Cooley, whose shows I could remember watching when I was young in El Monte, California.