Fun times in Nashville

When I last wrote 2 days ago we were getting ready to continue on to Nashville. Well when yesterday finally ended, it was actually 1 am. this morning and I didn't get to writing my daily blog.

Jack Daniels

Yesterday started early again so that we could try and avoid some of the heat. We made it most of the way to Nashville when we decided to take a little side trip trip to Lynchburg Tn. What a good idea that ended up being as the road to Lynchburg was a nice country road with a lot of protection from the sun and some really beautiful views of the Tennessee hill country.  Many of you will remember that the Jack Daniels distillery is there but there is also a Harley dealer that we needed to get our books stamped. Lynchburg is a neat little town with 4 corners around a town square. Today most of it caters to the tourist business that is generated by the distillery so there is more than ample opportunity to buy mugs, t shirts etc. We found a neat little restaurant that advertised "good country cookin" and they really delivered that for our lunch. After lunch, we paid a visit to the distillery and were surprised to find that even though they make the whiskey there they cannot serve it because they are a dry county! Now the one tidbit of information that I found out there and that will be of interest to my family, is that each day Jack Daniels used to take his noon meal at an establishment that was run by the Bobo family!
After we finished with Lynchburg, we headed to Murfreesburg, Tn and another dealer visit. As we came down from the hills and back to the main highway, the temperature became brutal. When we stopped at one light the temp gauge on my bike that measures ambient said it was about 125 degrees on the highway. We got our books stamped at the dealer and headed for Nashville, arriving at rush hour so we had to spend some time tied up in traffic on our way to the hotel.  After a unpacking and a quick shower, it was on to a welcoming party followed by a trip to the Grand Ole Opry for the late show.
I had been to Nashville before and to an Opry show at the Ryman Auditorium but had never been to the "New Opry" theatre. It is a beautiful theatre and we were treated to performances by Martina McBride, Carrie Underwood, The Oak Ridge Boys, Darius Rucker Bill Anderson, Jerrod Nieman and Lady Antebellum. It was a great show and we arrived back at the hotel well after midnight.

This morning was for doing laundry and washing the bike before heading out to a dealers breakfast and staging for the CMA Festival Parade. About 300 hundred of the bikes from the tour led the parade down Broadway in downtown Nashville.

Patti and Elvis in Nashville

After the parade, there was another tour party, this time at The Crazy Horse Saloon. It was a really nice lunch with a lot of country music thrown in. Then we had passes to the CMA Block party but we were simply worn out from the heat. We opted instead to set up camp for a quiet afternoon and evening around the pool at the hotel. Seven straight days of 90+ degree temps is wearing everybody down some. In fact as I write this at 9 pm. it is still over 90. As we start to make our way north towards Cleveland, it looks like we will get some relief.

So, this ride has some characters on it as you might imagine. One of them is this guy that walks around with this dog on his shoulder and on the road the dog is always on the bike. We haven't quite figured it out yet, but you can imagine that we are finding a lot of humor in it.

Tomorrow will be basically a travel day with a destination of Charlestown, West Virginia.