Nashville Trip: Sunday

We were greatly looking forward to attending worship with the members of Bethel Primitive Baptist Church. Here is a picture of their current meeting place, and we were especially happy to visit with Sister Velda, her daughter Kathy, Elder and Sister Lawrence, Sister Galda (Elder Jim Ridings' sister), Brother and Sister Stubblefield, in addition to meeting several of Sister Velda's cousins. Elder Ronald preached on grace - grace in all forms and the blessings we often overlook. They were wonderful services (singing and the sermon), and we were very blessed to attend. Because Sister Velda and her daughter were going to go visit Sister Edgie for a pre-birthday celebration, we set off on our own for the afternoon to explore the downtown area for a little while.

We had 3 items to take care of that afternoon:
1) Purchase our Total Access Passes to use during the week.
We had such a nice man help us at the visitors center and give us a grand welcome to the city. If anyone else goes to Nashville soon, these passes provide a great savings in seeing the city's main attractions.

2) Eat lunch.
We explored the 2nd Avenue area where we saw the Sun Studios store and Mom and Dad were able to pose by Elvis. Just down the road, we saw BB Kings Blues Club and headed in for some genuine southern food. We had fried pickles! And, the crazy waiter took our picture.












3) Explore at the Tennessee State Museum.
I've heard that the this place isn't necessarily a favorite of visitors, but we loved it. And, I would recommend it to anyone who likes history. We could have spent all day there reading about the lives of Presidents Andrew Jackson and James Polk, the civil war, southern art, music, and so many other topics. There was one room dedicated to quilting (which of course was a hit with me!) And the special exhibit focused on the clothing within country music. While most of it was donated by and centered on Marty Stuart, I was also able to see many famous costumes. Here are the dresses you may remember seeing Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn wear.

Here, Mom walks through one of the exhibit's many displays.

We couldn't stay as long as we would have liked because we knew we had to get movin' back to the hotel to get ready for the evening. We had tickets to ride on the General Jackson Showboat. We decided to just purchase a ride on the outer deck so we could enjoy the scenery along the river. I'll include some pictures here of some of the sights along the way - including the downtown area, Home of the Tennessee Titans - LP Field (Louisiana Pacific, home building company as sponsors), some very expensive sculpture recently purchased by the city ("Ghost Ballet of/for the East Bank Machineworks"), and bridges along the way.



It was a hot, hot evening, and we did our best to stay cool. The water views were pretty, and several folks were out fishing. It was nice to just sit and talk while we traveled along. However, as the evening progressed, we kept seeing two men walking around the outer deck in circles to exercise and knew right away - from their outfits - that they were musicians. (A dixieland band greeted us as we boarded the boat.) Dad struck up a conversation with one of them, realized that they had many common musician acquaintances, and had a great time talking. This very kind man, Mr. Larry Crew (2nd picture down left side on link), then asked us if we would consider being his guests to the show that was about to start in the center of the Showboat. We were thrilled and had a wonderful time enjoying the outstanding musicians and singers. It was a great ending to a full day! And, we were overwhelmed by our new friend's generosity. Thank you, Mr. Crew!