Day Trips

Our first night was going to be a cold one, confirmed by George, I was worried about our pipes freezing. I had read on forums that by putting a high wattage light in the basement area (where all our water pipes are) that it would keep the area warm enough to stop the pipes freezing. I was discussing this with George and he asked if we had lights to do the job? Umm no we don't, he then offered one he had but it was a tad large. He then said he was going into the hardware store to get paint, I quickly asked if he would grab me a light for our basement area, no worries, thanks George he was onto it. He returned with three options for us, I used two 75 watt lights that night and it worked, that and my previously impromptu insulating job had got us through, no frozen or broken pipes that night.

Insulating our pipes in the basement area.


Our first day and first visit was to Nashville, that's why we were here, the country capital of the USA if not the world. So we headed into Nashville and headed for the old downtown area as this is where it all happens. Parking was easy and what we thought was pretty cheap so we headed off to the visitors centre. We walked around the area and past the many bars with budding musicians playing in them, and it was only 11am. We "happened" upon a bar called "Layla's" the music was playing and beer was a dollar a can, I'm in! You have to remember these are not some hip night clubs, but what appear to be rather run down shop fronts, bare bricks, graffiti on the tables and in the loo, but it had a good atmosphere so we went all out and grabbed two beers. We enjoyed it so much we were there almost two hours.

The Jones's were playing


We then went to another "World Famous" bar called Tootsies, I kid you not it was around well before Robin Williams made the movie. We had a beer and nachos, $20, if we were staying we would have gone back to Layla's better prices, better band, and better atmosphere in our opinion. Ok we were done home we go.

The next day was a visit to the town of Franklin in TN, and of course first stop is the visitors centre, there we met a delightful young girl who on hearing us speak said, "keep speaking I love your accent". We said what accent? We were informed that there was a plantation house called Carnton built in 1815 nearby, which played a significant part in one of the deadliest battles of the civil war which occurred on November 30th 1864 at 4pm, exactly 148 years to the day and we were doing our tour on that day and hour! John our guide was the best guide I have ever seen or heard, he was so passionate and knowledgable I didn't wander from a single one of his words.

The part this house played was it was converted into a make shift hospital and they crammed upward of 300 injured soldiers into its 8 rooms, including a number of operating tables, planks on trestles! Outside was teeming also with wounded and many died of exposure over night. The battle ended up with 9,500 casualties, 2000 dead, 6,500 wounded and a 1,000 missing all in five hours of battle. There are still blood stains on the floor near where the operating table was.
Carnton Plantation House



The Slaves Quarters




We really enjoyed our tour and Nashville visit but we must move on, yesterday we had our hosts, George and Jane over for a BBQ as a way of saying thanks, and today, Sunday we are off to Birmingham Alabama for a few days.



- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Nashville and Franklin Tennessee