Nashville - The Iconic Recession Lunch

After the riverboat, I headed to an iconic Honky Tonk.  As one does.

Robert's Western World.

 

The place was jam-packed, standing room only, and barely enough room to stand. 

After a while, manged to get a seat at the bar. The bar tenders never stopped working for an instant, but they were attentive and friendly the entire time which was cool.

Great music,  a fun atmosphere, and it was time to order lunch. 

Probably the cheapest lunch on Broadway:

Yep, I ordered the famous Recession Special.

It arrived reasonably quickly as the cook was also jammed up with people ordering the special, among other dishes.

 

It's the iconic order there. 

But, the fried baloney served with lettuce and tomato was tasty, filling, and the included PBR worked with it,  as did the chips and Moon Pie for dessert. It was the cheapest lunch I've had out just about anywhere.

Stayed for some tunes and then decided to do a bit of a bar crawl.

Next stop was Tootsies Orchid Lounge, back in the day, prior to 1979, the hang out for the Opry performers as the Ryman Auditorium where the Opry had been located, was next door. 

A solid live band was performing:

 

Had a local brew, Hap and Harry's Lager, which was ok, and listened to some tunes. 

Then headed off to do some more wandering around. 

Nashville - To The River

The Cumberland River that is, for a riverboat tour.

 Walked on down Broadway to the riverfront. This should have been easy, but lower Broadway leading to the riverboat and the river was blocked and fenced off due to the America's Tailgate event.

So, there was quite an extensive detour to get around the stage area and then make the way to the boat. Quite a few people heading to the boat were all trying to figure it out, and while the setup people were helpful, a few gave contradictory instructions on how to get around the area to the boat.

 But we all did eventually get to the boat.

 

And a fine riverboat it is, a nice stern paddle-wheel steamer. We were checked in and welcomed on board. With three decks accessible it was easy to find space to relax and enjoy.  The bar on board didn't hurt the effort at relaxation either.

Soon we were off.

 There was a fair bit of history and information given during the tour about various buildings on the riverbanks 

Like Nissan Stadium, home of the Tennessee Titans and Tennessee State Tigers Football teams.

We also learned about the many barges and such that we passed along the way.

 

You can tell the difference between a concrete barge and a sand barge very easily.

Heading down the river, we also got to see a fellow on a Sea-Doo doing some impressive stunts.

 

In addition to jumps he did complete flips.

The fellow was able to do a series of complete loops as he flipped the Sea-Doo in the air multiple times in a row, landing successfully each time until:

 

He mistimed this one and then wiped out most impressively, leaving a splash behind as he completely buried the Sea-Doo and himself underwater.

He got up, shook himself off, got the Sea-Doo going, and headed on his way. 

Quite fun to watch and he did do 10 successfully, so a single wipe out is no diminishment of the skill demonstrated.

We then headed back to the dock and debarked in good order.

The River Boat tour was fun, informative and a great time. A highly recommended activity if you're visiting Nashville.

It was a darn nice river tour.  Then everyone was walking around the stage setup again, and it was on to Broadway for lunch. 

Nashville - To The Opry!

I spent this weekend in Nashville,  taking some time to enjoy the city.

Arrived there on Saturday after a pleasant flight and checked into the hotel.

I then walked from the hotel to the WeGo bus station which was about a 20 minute walk along Broadway and Rep John Lewis Way. It was sunny and hot in the low 90s.

On my walk, I passed by quite a few homeless people and meth-heads, of which there was a strong overlap.

One in particular was busy loudly arguing with himself most vociferously, and a but further on a meth lady was getting in another homeless person's face and barking like a dog at him which was interesting to watch as I strolled on by.  I decided not to remain around and see the entire interaction play out, as it was the very definition of "Not my circus, not my monkeys", leaving plenty of space between me and the meth-heads.

Got to the bus station and then hopped on the #34 bus to Opry Mills.  Pretty easy system to figure out and the bus ride was pleasant with few people on the bus.

Got off at the last stop at  Opry Mills.

Since this was the south, I had a meal at Mission BBQ, which was very good, with great friendly service and a nice atmosphere.  I made short work of the Brisket platter which was excellent.

Then it was off to the Opry.

Getting there was a tad complicated as the easy walkway from the Opry Mills Mall to the Opry was closed for some reason, necessitating a wide detour around a pretty trafficy road on foot without much room  for pedestrians.  But, I made it.

 

The Opry is a live radio show that has been running since the 1920s.

Went in and got seated for the show. 

The show is broadcast live on air and the announcer would announce the performers and also read out advertisements from sponsors in between performances in a most warm and welcoming voice.

Before the show officially starts, the announcer gave a nice audio/visual show giving the history of the Opry which was a nice introduction.

The On Air signs lit up and the show began. 

 We got to listen to some great performers:

It opened with Mark Wills:

Stefanie Quayle, who sang a Dolly Parton song -- and absolutely nailed it. Dolly had encouraged her to keep on singing early in her career and this was a wonderful tribute.

Medium Build did his debut at the Opry and you could tell he was all sorts of excited to do so, and he really gave a performance.

Charles Esten, who first performed solo and then in a duet for Islands In The Stream in honor of Dolly.

 Note he's not using a strap to hold the guitar in place.  He didn't use one the entire time he was on stage which was impressive.

Keith And Kristen Getty along with two of their daughters, for the daughters' first time on stage at the Opry and they did great. 

 

Tommy Emanuel, who dazzled  everyone with his amazing guitar playing.

 

John Conlee, who did a very meaningful and emotional rendition of A Lot of Things Different that brought down the house:

The Oak Ridge Boys who sang Elvira, with one of them sporting the most epic beard to grace the stage closed out the show

It was a great performance.

After the show, I went to the Opry gift shop, and then after having some after show beverages decided to take an Uber back to the hotel as walking late at night back through the meth-elated area didn't seem like the wisest decision.

It was a great first day in Nashville.  If you happen to be in Nashville and the Opry has a performance, be sure to go to it, it is really worth it.

The Weekend In Nashville

Drove to Nashville this weekend.

Did an tour (on our own with a "virtual tour guide") of Vanderbilt University, the Harvard of the South.

Abby is applying there so we wanted to show it to her and it was a nice weekend get away.

Weather leaving Michigan frankly sucked. Icy snow and sleet was coming down that morning and it made the roads a treat, and then a cold rain kept up all the way through Ohio. 

We arrived Saturday night rather hungry and checked into our AirBnB.  We then walked to Hattie B's Chicken for some Nashville Hot Chicken.  The place was packed, and the chicken was out of this world outstanding.  Great stuff.

Sunday morning we started touring Vanderbilt.

Nashville was cool in the 50s so sweaters were worn.  Still, it was sunny and beautiful and it was a fine opportunity to wander around the campus.

In short, the campus is gorgeous.

Right in downtown Nashville, but it's very green and feels secluded and away from the city in its own space, yet with tons of things to do but a few minutes walking distance in the city itself.

The campus is heavily treed with many old trees of many types and squirrels about.

 

Including the Squirrel of Judgment, who looked down upon us judgmentally from a tree mere feet away without flinching or being concerned in the least.

In short it's a great campus, has great programs that meet her interests, and Nashville is a thriving city where I'd think she would be very happy to attend college. Pity the acceptance rates this year are in the single digits percentage-wise, which makes getting in any elite school rather tough.  We will see what happens.

After the morning tour of the university, the kids checked out a local mall and Tash and I went to Belle Meade Plantation/Winery/Stud Farm.  Quite an interesting and historic place.

Did you know that every winning horse of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont from 2000 to 2021 can trace its bloodline back to a Belle Meade stud?  Pretty amazing.

Lots of historic buildings remain, including some of the original slave cabins, a dairy from 1884, and the 1892 carriage house, as well as the mansion itself.

The carriage house contains some rare carriages and a cannon belonging to The Harding Light Artillery, named after the owner of the Belle Meade farm at the time, a unit raised in 1861 in  Nashville.

After we had explored the grounds we headed in for a wine tasting.

The tasting experience was conducted by the Belle Mead's executive sommelier and we were in for a treat.

Learned an absolute ton about wine and food pairings in a fun and educational experience.    Started with learning how to properly open a bottle and it went from there.

All the wines were from Belle Meade's winery.  Starting with sparkling wine, the Lady's Cuvee,  that went well with the aged piece of cheese on the far left of the plate. Tasted great. 

Then tried the same cheese with the next white wine poured, and it tasted absolutely awful.  Then paired that wine with a more appropriate cheese to the immediate right of the first one and all was well again.  Learned a lot about food pairing from that.

Next on to red wine and why it needs to breathe and how to swirl it around in the glass to aerate it.  Tried the Iroquois  Cabernet Sauvignon right out of the bottle and then swirled it per instructions and it tasted completely different and much better as a result.  Then on to the Gentlemen's Blend which is a really big and tasty wine, and we had some great food pairings with it as well.

Then finished with the blackberry wine which is a delightfully sweet dessert wine that cannot be recommended enough.

It was a great experience and really enjoyable.

If you go to Belle Mead, sign up for the wine tasting experience, it is more than worth it.

After that, we wandered the grounds again for an hour as all that wine meant no driving until we had burned it off.

Then, once we were well and truly sober we picked up the kids from the mall, had some BBQ for dinner, and that was our visit to Nashville.

In short, I really hope she gets into Vanderbilt as I think it would be the perfect environment for her with both a top rated school and city.

So The Tenessean Takes A Gratuitous, Snide, And Unfounded Swipe At The NRA

So the Tenessean, an alleged newspaper, had the following headline to remark about this exceptionally successful and law abiding convention that has contributed tons of money to the city:

"Big conventions, like NRA, can draw sex trafficking".

And the factual basis for such a suggestive calumny of a headline showing any such activity going on at the NRA Annual Meeting is what, exactly?

Considering the police in Nashville have repeatedly remarked as to how law-abiding and well-behaved the attendees are, I find that suggestive headline rather unlikely.

A very nice way to insult a convention that has brought over 60,000+ law-abiding gun owners to your city, who have just contributed millions to the local economy.

After all, while this convention has a large law enforcement presence, it does not have a large Secret Service presence.

NRA AM: The HK P30SK

New and just revealed at the NRA AM from H&K is the P30SK.

All the features of the P30 in a smaller and more compact package.

The HK rep stated these should be hitting the stores in June.

All the P30 variants - with or without switch safeties, double action and LEM will be available.

The P30SK felt great in the hand, a nice compact variant that is very nice indeed.

Also, the HK rep let me know that the VP40 version of the VP9 will be coming out soon with the VPSK series to follow.

NRA AM: The Glock 43

Here at the show, I got to get a good look at the new Glock 43. Glock is definitely promoting the pistol here at the show and there's a lot of interest with a good crowd around them checking them out.

Fits the hand nicely, it is very noticeably thinner than the standard Glocks. 

So much thinner that it feels almost un-Glock-like. It fits the hand quite nicely and is just slightly bigger than my Kahr PM9 in both grip and length with a six shot capacity. The tang on the gun is nice and long for its size and let's you get a high grip on it.

Since I already have the PM9 which is a bit smaller and more concealable with 6 or 7 round magazines I don't see any need for a Glock 43 at this point.

For someone looking for a gun in the pocket category, with the appropriate pocket holster the 43 should do quite nicely. It should also do well as a thin and concealable pistol for more conventional carry.

NRA Nashville

Lots of blogging to follow, as since the wifi at our hotel doesn't work it hasn't been very conducive to bogging the events of the past few days,

The NRA Firearms Law seminar was great and highly informative.

Ambulance Driver's and Lawdogs class this morning was fantastic and a great refresher.

About to hit the convention floor with lots more blogging to follow.

Nashville Arrival

Made it to Nashville in good time.

While Muprhy's Law spent an inordinate amount of time complaining about my driving on his blog, but when he was driving it was similar 

and looked and sounded quite like this

But we made it in any case and met up with Mo and Dave, had some great BBQ, and then met up with. JayG and had a great evening listening to some live music.

On The Way To The NRA AM

Making decent time towards Nashville on the way to the NRAAM.  

We've been driving through lots of thunderstorms but overall no complaints as we're crossing into Kentucky from Ohio now.