Touring Nashville Tennessee with our Daughter…

We awoke really early to leave Charles and Sandy's beautiful farm. We left by 6:00 am which was by far the earliest we had ever left a site! Why were we leaving so early? Well I had my very first ever Veteran’s Affairs Hospital (VA hospital) appointment and we had to be in Murfreesboro, TN for the 8:00 am appointment. We pulled the motorhome into the Equestrian Center nearby which had ample parking and un-hitched the CRV to drive over to the VA hospital. My appointment went splendidly and now I am finally in the VA system even though I was honorably discharged from the Air Force over forty years ago.

I was impressed with how efficient the VA was with my three appointments. They graciously gave me a free breakfast voucher in the cafeteria after my fasting blood work which was really nice. By noon I was done and we left Murfreesboro to travel a short distance north to Cedars of Lebanon State Park near Lebanon, Tennessee. We didn’t like our originally reserved site and when we asked the ranger if there had been any cancelations for this July fourth weekend we were surprised to hear there were.  He gave us a list and we picked a great pull-through site on the outer loop with a nice wooded view and no neighbors… score!

The cost here is about $23.00 per night with all fees included.  It is only water and electric, but at least it is 50 amp. The weather was thunderstormy the day we got there. Our daughter and her roommate were slated to arrive by car later in the night. We did have a bit of bad weather that evening and there was even a tornado near Lebanon about 10 miles NE of us. Thankfully, Katie and Heather made in in safely and we began to plan for the weekend.

The next morning we made breakfast and a picnic lunch to take along for our tour of nearby Nashville TN. Our first stop was at to Centennial Park to see the Parthenon. This is such a neat replica that we simply had to show it to the girls. Next we went over to see the state capitol building. We parked at the base of the hill where there is still 2 hour free parking and walked up the hill to tour the building. Sadly, it was closed this July 3rd so we strolled around the capitol grounds and looked at the panoramic view of the city from atop the hill.

Next we went over to nearby Bicentennial park and had a nice picnic lunch.  This is a large park with many historical tributes to the State of Tennessee. After lunch we stopped by Vanderbilt University as it is one of our favorites.  After a few photos we headed to downtown Nashville and luckily found a roadside parking meter with a broken ticket dispenser so we got to park free again in Nashville which is unheard of! Once parked we took the girls along music row where we visited many of the well known music establishments including Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, Legends Corner, Second Fiddle, The Stage, Layla's Bluegrass Inn and many other honky tonks.

We even saw a guy walking around town with a goat on a leash. Everyone on the streets of Nashville looked at the pair as though they were weird. Although they may appear to be weird we had more in common with them than we first thought. Why? I later read in the local newspaper that the fellow is trying to visit every state with his goat that he rescued. Looks like he is doing the same as most full time RV’ers.

We heard a lot of great music but were getting pretty thirsty so we drove over to check out  Nashville’s 2014 Reader’s Choice Awardee for Best New Brewery, Tennessee Brew Works. This was a pretty good brewery and the best we have had in Nashville. They even had live music! Katie ordered an appetizer of stacked onion rings made with a stout beer batter accompanied by a really yummy dip.  We tried just about every beer they had and liked most of them. Soon thereafter the day came to a close and we headed back to the state park: but what a delight it was showing the girls Nashville, TN…