Pat’s Wildways: Nashville

It’s not every day you see a real live brawl and have the opportunity to call 911 about it. In fact, never has this happened to me. I’ve never seen anyone punched in person and (happily) never had the reason to call 911. But this trip to Nashville with my brother Ken was a first.

Ken and I pick a city once or twice a year and fly there from our respective homes in Philadelphia and Fernandina, and this time, what the heck? I picked Nashville. Neither of us is a country music fan, so what would we do? Plenty, it turns out. Ken was not interested in the Grand Ole Opry, but I was, so I booked it anyway. When in Nashville ...

Our first morning at our hotel in downtown Nashville, we were quietly eating our free breakfast in the hotel when excitement broke out. Someone off the street managed to get into the breakfast room, invaded the staff-only area and wouldn’t leave. The harried server tried to get him out, but no luck, and she ran down to the hotel desk to get the manager. He ran in to help, and the dreadlocked guy came out of the room throwing punches. Other guests rushed out to see the commotion. The server yelled "call 911" and I did. An exciting start to the morning for sure.

The rest of our four-day trip was fantastic. Ken and I took a short paddlewheel cruise on the Cumberland River, watching barges tow sand and fuel to supply the building surge in Nashville. We had lunch on the rooftop of Ole Red. We walked down Broadway and stopped for beers at Tootsies and the Lucky Bastard and gorged on Nashville’s famous hot chicken at Prince's in the massive Assembly Food Hall. Everywhere there was music, and you didn’t have to be a confirmed country-western fan to enjoy it. We sipped our brews and tapped our feet and watched people doing the Texas two-step and a little kid playing a dynamite air guitar. We took a self-driving Waymo taxi, had dinner at fine restaurants and ended up in the Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar with a well-known local band energizing the crowd. Fun!

After two days downtown we switched hotels to one near the Grand Ole Opry. Despite Ken’s hesitancy I was determined to see this place I had long heard about. But once out of downtown we had lots to do in addition. We spent a few hours touring Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage mansion and riding a horse carriage around the grounds. We drove along the Natchez Trace Parkway admiring the views and then drove through antique-shop-filled little towns and shared a lunch table with a local couple who gave us more travel hints.

And then it was time for the Grand Ole Opry. Our hotel had a shuttle to the venue (the reason I picked this place), and it was easy to get there without worrying about parking and crowded night driving. The tickets were steeply priced, and price gouging on drinks was over the top, but here we were. And what a time it was! The seats I had pre-purchased turned out to be in a hard-to-get-into sunken section and, with Ken’s mobility issues, were impossible for him. But no problem. When it became clear we were having problems, the staff moved us into great accessible seats right in front of the balcony section. Perfect. And really, any seats in the venue were fine. The sound was phenomenal; the show production was the best I’ve seen anywhere, and dark-clad photographers roamed unobtrusively around the stage, filming the show from all angles and projecting it onto large screens.

And the music! It was a show focusing on performers from the '90s — The Gatlin Brothers, Clay Walker, Jo Dee Messina and others that the 4000 people in the audience all knew. Everyone sang along to the familiar favorites and at times, when the performer’s mic was turned off, the whole auditorium resonated with the sound of the crowd singing along. The vibe was fantastic!

At the end of our trip Ken told me that he really enjoyed the show! “The Opry was worth the entire trip!” And I agree. If you ever get to Nashville, this should be on your bucket list. And Nashville itself is a lot of fun. Check it out.

Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D., is a zoologist on Amelia Island. She welcomes your nature questions and observations. patandbucko@yahoo.com