From Chattanooga, our next stop was Nashville about 120 miles north and one time zone away. It was interstate all the way. Nice easy drive through some beautiful Tennessee Mountains. We had reservation at a COE (Corp of Engineer) campground, Poole Knob J. Percy Priest Lake just 20 miles south of Nashville. The campground website stated in red that check-in time was no earlier than 3pm, “Strickly Enforced!” We arrived at 2pm, hoping for forgiveness…the lady in the check-in booth pointed to a ‘3PM Check-in’ sign and gave me the evil eye. With an attitude, she said she felt gracious today and we can enter early. From that moment on, our experience at this COE campground was very unfavorable. I had to use 4 wheel drive to park the 5th wheel into the muddy site. After three days, we moved on to Cedar Creek COE on the Cumberland River, 15 miles north of Nashville. “Very Nice!”
On a positive note, we met a very nice couple adjacent to our site that just sold their house, just started full-timing, had a 5th wheel just like ours; same year, same model, same size… an engineer and worked for the same company as I did….Wow…
Our first stop in Nashville was at Centennial Park. The park is large with many artful tributes to the State of Tennessee. In 1897, the city of Nashville constructed a neat full-scale replica of the original Greek temple Parthenon in Athens, Greece. This gave the city’s reputation as the “Athens of the South.” The city purchased a plaster cast of the original Greek goddess Athena, goddess of wisdom with Nike, goddess of victory perched on Athena right hand. The city also purchased a set of cast of the Parthenon pediment fragments.
The weather finally turned to a nice comfortable 82F with low humidity and bright sunny skies. It was a perfect day to have a picnic lunch at a local winery. We picked up two box lunches from a nice deli and drove out to Arrington Vineyards. For a weekday, at noon, the place was packed. We found a nice outside table with a great view of the vineyard valley and bought a picnic wine sample tasting of 4 wines. Afterwards, we had a tour of the winery. The winery is about 13 years old. Its character is much like the west coast wineries. Big, bold and looks expensive! Our guide told us that one of the founders is the Brooks in Brooks & Dunn.
Finding a place to park downtown is very expensive ($15/hr). So after a little research, Nissan Titan Stadium just across the Cumberland River has free public parking in lot R. It’s about a half mile walk to downtown across a very nice pedestrian bridge. The capitol building is perched on a hill overlooking downtown. After passing through security the guard guided us to the information desk where we could choose either a free guided tour or follow a self guided tour utilizing free brochures.
We chose the self guided tour so that we could go at our own pace. The tour was very enjoyable and the restoration was beautiful. Gaslight chandeliers made in the 1800’s had been carefully updated to electricity retaining the craftsmanship and charm. All materials from the building are from Tennessee and so proud were the architect and building commissioner that they both, per their wishes, are entombed in the building! One of my favorite story described on the tour was of a slavery argument between government officials that erupted in gunfire which dislodged a big chunk from the handrail in the main stairway.
My very first drone video. Aerial view of Cedar Creek Campground along the Cumberland River just northeast of Nashville.
