I've never been a beach person - nor much of a water person for that matter - there are only lakes and rivers in the land-locked Prairies scoured out of the ground by the glacial action of the last ice age and the meltwaters of the Rocky Mountains .
But, I think I could be... Place name links like Carolina Beach, NC go to Wikipedia. Place name links like Carolina Beach use the local tourism or government website.
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| 2012.10.12 |
Nashville Night |
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Met TFS in Nashville. In searching for somewhere to have dinner near our hotel we headed downtown and stumbled upon Broadway Street, and Honky Tonk Row.
Lights!
Action!
Crowded! | |
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Full of people wandering the streets, in and out of bars, each with a different band or group of musicians playing country music of some sort or another, dancing, stumbling around, guys chasing girls, girls eying guys, very southern cosmopolitan. | We stopped for dinner in Rippy's Smokin' Bar & Grill, with three guys and their guitars, each taking turns playing and singing while one of them went around with a bucket soliciting tips. |
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| 2012.10.13 |
Nashville Cars and Country Music |
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Today is going to be a busy day, a mix of cars, country music, and travel. First up, some cars.
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The Sunbeams
<-- 1961 Harrington
<-- 1969 Fastback |
Along with Sunbeams there were many other British cars, several of which I'd never seen in person.
1924 Rolls Royce
Silver Ghost | |
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MG-TC/D/Fs | |
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Jaguar XJ-220 | |
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2012 Aston Martin DB9 | |
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1952 Aston Martin DB2 | |
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1956 Jensen 541
#93 of 176 | |
2002 Morgan | |
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TVR | |
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1957 AC Bristol | |
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Jensen-Healey | |
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1952 Singer 4AD | |
Nash Healey | |
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Austin Seven | |
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1926? Rolls Royce | |
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There were lots of other cars I didn't photograph because I've seen them at other shows: MGBs, Triumphs, Minis, scattered around the park, not necessarily grouped together. |
Now we go downtown to the Country Music Hall of Fame. I'm not much of a country music fan, but my friend PM is, and since we're in the neighbourhood we ought to see what the CMHoF is about.
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Dwight Yoakam | |
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The CMHoF is on 3 levels: 1. The early years, 2. Bakersfield and Nashville, and 3. the Hall of Fame. The exhibits are pretty static, without much interaction. About as much country history as I'll ever need. I didn't bother getting pix of the most-modern exhibits because they are country music only in a marketing sense. |
Suitably countrified, we set off to see even more cars, at the Lane Motor Museum, tucked away in a warehouse in a light-industrial area of Nashville. I had seen the museum on an episode of My Classic Car and was drawn to the museum's focus on unusual foreign (to the US) vehicles. I'd really recommmend visiting their website for a full view of what's there, with descriptions, but in the meantime, here's a wall of all the pictures I took.
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The museum is located in an old Sunbeam Bread factory with lots of space to walk around and look in the vehicles. |
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Several vehicles are one-offs, or from Eastern-bloc countries. Or just plain odd, but inventive. |
Two cars | |
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from Poland | |
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BMW Isetta | |
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Messerschmitt | |
Vespa | |
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Morgan | |
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The museum has a lot of unusual motorcycles. Can't beat the Monowheel for weirdness though. |
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For when you really like the wind in your hair. |
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The Lane has a small collection of foreign military vehicles, all of which could be stored on the deck of the gigantic LARC amphibious transporter, which merited a video about the process of getting it to the museum under bridges and power lines and down narow streets. Collecting military vehicles takes some crazy commitment. |
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That was it for a day of cars, guitars, and cars. Now we headed off to Pigeon Forge via Knoxville to begin our journey beachward. It was dark already, and though I had warned TFS that Pigeon Forge was not your average sleepy mountain retreat, she giggled like a schoolgirl at just how cheesy the place was, especially lit up with neon in the dark. Like Las Vegas, but in the mountains, complete with a Hatfields & McCoys dinner theatre, a Titanic exhbition with half the ship crashing into an iceberg, live bear feeding, Christmas stores, and easily a dozen pancake houses. Fun for the whoooole family! |
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< Previous
Into the South Again |
|
Start
........................................ |
|
Next >
Through the Great Smoky Mountains to the Beach |
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