Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Day 17 Summer 2011 Road Trip

A big day today, and an early to rise day.  The alarm went off at 7am, breakfast at 7:45am and then we were picked up at 8:30 am at the front doors of the hotel to go on our Homes of the Stars tour around Nashville.

We saw several dozen homes along the tour, too many to put them all on the blog, so here are just a few.  The rest you will find on our FLICKR site.

The Tennessee Governors Mansion.

8999 Nashville, Tennessee - Homes of the Stars tour - Governor's Mansion built 1929

This was Minnie Pearls home when she was alive.

9002 Nashville, Tennessee - Homes of the Stars tour - Former estate home of the late Minnie Pearl's in Nashville next door to the Tennessee Governor's mansion

Ronnie Milsap’s home.

9005 Nashville, Tennessee - Homes of the Stars tour - home of Ronnie Milsap

Ok, so these aren’t that interesting are they… I mean, what can you really see…   I think they should call this tour “The Gates, Fences and Trees of the Stars Tour”  Because you are really not seeing much of the houses.  Here are a few more.

The late Web Pierce’s house.

9009 Nashville, Tennessee - Homes of the Stars tour - former home of the late Webb Pierce now owned by Gaylord Entertainment CEO

Here is a good one…   Martina McBride’s Volkswagen Beetle.   She is home, lets go and ring the bell.

9015 Nashville, Tennessee - Homes of the Stars tour - home of Martina McBride

Little Jimmy Dicken’s house, out the opposite side out the window of the tour bus.

9025 Nashville, Tennessee - Homes of the Stars tour - home of Little Jimmy Dickens

Garth Brooks and Trish Yearwood’s home.

9028 Nashville, Tennessee - Homes of the Stars tour - home of Garth Brooks & Trisha Yearwood

Dolly Parton’s house.

9033 Nashville, Tennessee - Homes of the Stars tour - home of Dolly Parton

Here at Kellie Pickler’s house we actually got to see her Grandfather, he waved while he was working at putting down some new sod.

9060 Nashville, Tennessee - Homes of the Stars tour - home (and grandfather) of Kellie Pickler

Now this next residence was the most visible of all on the tour.  Taylor Swift’s penthouse.  Is that her waving to us?

9069 Nashville, Tennessee - Homes of the Stars tour - penthouse condo of Taylor Swift 9070 Nashville, Tennessee - Homes of the Stars tour - home of Taylor Swift (last three windows on right)

We arrived back at our hotel and had some lunch.  We thought we should go on a reconnaissance mission to scope out the situation for parking tonight and where the entrances are etc. at the Grand Ole Opry, so off we went.

It was actually a good idea to do this because the crowds were minimal and we got some unobstructed photos of the property.

9072 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry 9073 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry 9077 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry - Bill

9079 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry - Karen 9080 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry 9084 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry

It is hard to believe that back as recently as about a year ago, this was all under 10 feet of water.  The flooding in April 2010 got very little media coverage so in case you were unaware, here are a couple of “You Tube” videos to show you the damage and destruction.

Nashville Tennessee Flood of 2010

Nashville Tennessee Flood of 2010

I am surprised at how quickly everything has returned to normal.  I heard that The Opryland Gaylord Hotel complex was offered 50 million dollars from the insurance company, but they just went ahead and did the repairs themselves at a cost out of their pockets of 281 million dollars.  The Grand Ole Opry moved back to the Ryman Theater, not missing one show and did their own repairs and re-opened their doors several months after the floods destroyed everything inside.   The show must go on.

We went back to our hotel for a bit and then at 6pm we went back to the Opry to get into our seats.   Here are my first photo shots as we sat in our seats.

9091 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show 9092 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show 9093 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show

And then the curtain came up.

9097 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show 9098 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show

We have quite a line up of stars this evening.. Starting with John Conlee.

9099 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - John Conlee 9105 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - John Conlee and band 9103 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - John Conlee

Now I don’t know who among you have ever been to the Grand Ole Opry, so you may or may not know this, but there is actually a radio show going on and in between the performers a radio announcer comes out and reads the radio commercials.  Then he will announce the next performer.  You can listen to The Grand Ole Opry on the radio, or through live streaming on the internet.

9111 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - radio announcer 9113 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - radio announcer

The next performer was Brett Eldridge.

9118 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Brett Eldredge 9121 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Brett Eldredge & accompaniment 9123 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Brett Eldredge

Then Sunny Sweeney.

9135 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Sunny Sweeney 9139 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Sunny Sweeney & accompaniment 9154 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Sunny Sweeney

Steel Magnolia.

9160 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Steel Magnolia 9166 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Steel Magnolia 9167 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Steel Magnolia

Mandy Barnett.  She sings a lot of Patsy Cline’s songs and is starring as Patsy Cline over at the Ryman Theater.

9177 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Mandy Barnett 9184 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Mandy Barnett & accompaniment 9178 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Mandy Barnett

Ricky Skaggs and his band Kentucky Thunder.

9210 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Ricky Skaggs 9205 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Ricky Skaggs and his band Kentucky Thunder 9214 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Ricky Skaggs

Probably the most popular guy around the Opry these days is 90 year old “Little Jimmy Dickens”  I hope to have half his energy when I get to 90.

9229 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Little Jimmy Dickens 9227 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Little Jimmy Dickens 9245 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Little Jimmy Dickens

And the finale of the evening… Dierks Bentley.

9261 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Dierks Bentley 9269 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Dierks Bentley & his band 9274 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Dierks Bentley

9297 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Dierks Bentley & his band 9301 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Dierks Bentley & his band 9282 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry radio show - Dierks Bentley

When the show was over we had back stage passes.  We were told that it would be unlikely that the stars would hang around, but you never know.  So we did the tour, got to see the dressing rooms etc, but no stars.

9332 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry - Opry House Backstage Pass Tour 9349 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry - Opry House Backstage Pass Tour - artist dressing room # 9 9355 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry - Opry House Backstage Pass Tour - artist dressing room # 16

When the Opry built this larger facility, in an effort to maintain continuity with the Opry's storied past, a large circle was cut from the floor of the Ryman stage and inlaid into the center of the new Opry stage.  Here is a photo of Brad Paisley and Little Jimmy Dickens laying that round piece into the stage.

9363 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry - Opry House Backstage Pass Tour

And here we are on that same piece where so many stars have stood and performed.

9375 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry - Opry House Backstage Pass Tour - the six-foot circle from the stage of the Opry's famous former home, the Ryman Auditorium 9376 Nashville, Tennessee - Grand Ole Opry - Opry House Backstage Pass Tour - Karen & Bill on the six-foot circle from the stage of the Opry's famous former home, the Ryman Auditorium

Wow, what a great evening.  Live from the Grand Ole Opry… Bill and Karen.

We took over 300 photos today, so be sure to go to our FLICKR site to see them all.

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