Saturday, March 23 2024 – Nashville

On previous visits to Nashville I have focused on the typical tourist theme of music, visiting the Country Music Hall of Fame, Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium, Broadway etc. The only exception being a visit to the Capitol Building in 2008. Today I decided to see more of the city itself and had a very enjoyable time.

I started by visiting the site of the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition. held in 1897 to commemorate 100 years of statehood. This is now Centennial Park and one of the buildings built for the exposition, a full sized replica of The Parthenon in Athens, remains and now houses a museum with art and exposition exhibits.

Nashville is known as “The Athens of the South” due to its focus on learning, higher educational institutions and appreciation of art. Despite the sunshine and blossoms it was cold and windy but that did not deter the crowds everywhere I went.

Inside the Parthenon are two levels. The lower level contains a small art gallery, including this modern interpretation of Greek pottery, as well as traditional oil paintings.

The second level is much larger and contains this gilded statue of Athena and, because it was Saturday, activity stations for kids. While I was there the children were being read a story about Greek clothing and fabrics while being shown a related hands-on craft activity. Families register in advance to receive free museum admission and each child gets the activity kit they were shown to take home and make their own creation. Elsewhere kids were learning now to create mosaics.The program is called KidsVille and has dozens of other activities relating with music, play, financial literacy, nutrition & fitness, equity & inclusion and sustainability.

After spending some time walking around the rest of the park I moved on to the Tennessee State Museum.

As in West Virginia, the main exhibit was a timeline of the State from the Ice Age to the present. It was, however, done on a much grander scale.

The final room represented Tennessee musicians such as Tina Turner, Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton as well as those who made their careers here such as B. B. King, Elvis Presley and countless blues and country artists that called Memphis or Nashville their home.

Connecting the State Museum to the Capitol is another park which opened in 1996 to celebrate 200 years of statehood – The Bicentennial Capitol Mall.

A 1,400 foot (427 m) long granite wall, called the Pathway of History, describes significant events in sections representing each decade between 1766 and 1996. The columns on the left show the starting year of each section.

This is half of the 1836-1845 section of the wall.

This is the back of the Tennessee Capitol building.

To get there you have to climb 200 steps and I did not bother to go around the front for a photo. There is a good one here.

At this stage I had walked as far as I wanted to and needed some food and refreshment so I headed to the Tennessee Brew Works to have an early dinner, some good beer and hear some good music.

I was not disappointed as I enjoyed fresh IPA and a selection of country and blues songs from this talented Australian duo while savoring a tasty burger.

I’m not sure if it’s just a spring break thing or happens year round but I saw many party tours today, some in limos, some in converted mini buses, some on trailers being pulled by tractors and all were stopping at the different music and drinking establishments. While I was having dinner two groups came in, sampled the music and quickly left. Nashville is certainly a lively city with plenty to do and well worth a visit.

Sunday, March 24 2024 – And on to Memphis

Road video and map

Of my long list of places of interest in Nashville only two are open on a Sunday morning and I decided to visit Lane Motor Museum before driving the 230 miles to Memphis.

This museum specializes in collecting international and prototype vehicles that are rarely seen in the U.S.

They have a collection of over 500 cars, together with some planes and motorcycles. The presentation is mainly grouped by country and the museum is unusual in that there are no stands or ropes put around the vehicles which enables visitors to get close to see details, especially the interiors. However, there is no touching or getting in vehicles, except one that is designated for selfies. I saw vehicles in the British section today that I have never seen before, even in the UK.

The prototypes that people developed to try to sell their ideas of a good vehicle were the most interesting to see.

This is the Aeroluge prototype, developed (under duress) by the Czech vehicle company, Tatra, in 1942 for the German Army. The Germans were anticipating having to cross snowy plains and roads as they invaded Russia. Each ski has a small track that is used to get the vehicle going and at low speed and the propeller provides additional speed if crossing smooth snow. Top speed is about 48 mph (77 kph). When the brakes are applied the front skis skew inwards to make a snow plow.

The famous Citroën 2CV was well represented but here is a one-off. When a French fire department needed a vehicle that could traverse narrow lanes and tracks that had no place to turn around they welded two 2CV front ends together to create a car with four wheel steering that could be driven in either direction. To avoid confusing other drivers they covered the headlamps at the “back” of the vehicle.

Almost all of the cars in the collection are in running order and many are street legal in the US including this 1932 Helicron prototype which was being demonstrated today. Unfortunately, the sound is poor on the video below but the guy is starting it up and then gradually increasing the throttle up to 50%. It had many issues, the main ones being: it is incredibly loud at 50% and, apparently, deafening at full throttle and the propeller throws rain, insects, dust and debris at the occupants at dangerously high speed. Needless to say, it never went into production.

After two interesting hours exploring I drove to my hotel near Memphis airport to await the arrival of Rita and Christian tomorrow morning.