By: Samie

Travel Dates: July 12th-19th, 2018

Nashville

(Gaylord Opryland Resort, Downtown Nashville, Grand Ole Opry, Belle Meade Plantation)

By popular demand, this leg of an entire south east road trip is being written first. However, it will be linked to any previous or upcoming parts of the trip as they are published!

This part of the road trip brought us into the Volunteer State of Tennessee after departing from the part of our adventure that had taken us through the Bluegrass State of Kentucky. We drove through the beautiful scenery that took us south about an hour and a half from Mammoth Cave National Park to the state capital of Nashville.

At this point in time, that point being 2018, I had been through Nashville one other time three years prior in 2015. It hadn’t been an extensive stay, and I believe it had just been a day trip on our way through from North Carolina. This time, however, my mom was being brought to the city for work, and we were being put up in what some would argue, the nicest and fanciest hotel in the city. We were going to have the opportunity to stay at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. It is difficult to describe how expansive and intricate this resort is, but you will get a sampling soon enough.

After arriving and getting checked in, we it was around supper time, and we were ready for some food! Within the hotel, there is a Jack Daniels restaurant that we just had to check out since we were in Nashville after all. For an appetizer, we decided to try fried green tomatoes. As far as fried foods go, they were just okay, but that bar is set pretty high.

In 2018, I would’ve been 23, so I was able to order an alcoholic beverage as well! I got a drink called a Front Porch. It came with Jack Daniels Honey, peach tea, lemon, Angostura Bitters, and soda. It was absolutely delightful. A perfect summer southern cocktail.

For my meal, I wanted to try to order something that would be much harder to find back home in the Midwest. This lead me to ordering a southern classic of shrimp and grits with bacon. I’d never had grits before, and I definitely enjoyed them more than I thought I would because I can be a very texture-picky eater, but the taste was awesome, and the texture didn’t bother me! The bacon was also some of the best bacon I’ve ever had in my life, another high bar.

Overall it was a very pleasant experience at the restaurant. Although I wasn’t the one footing the bill, it was definitely a stepper priced eatery, and I can’t say it stood out so much that you absolutely have to make the stop. However, trying a Jack Daniels restaurant located outside the hotel would be something worth considering adding to your Nashville to do list.

After supper, we did some initial exploring of the hotel. When I say initial, I mean it. We walked through just one of the enormous atriums throughout that are all incredibly landscaped with building and water structures and live plants. Plus, they are all air conditioned, so we didn’t have to worry about any of the summer Nashville heat and humidity!

Most of the areas that don’t house accommodations have large glass ceilings that allow the natural sunlight to filter in and illuminate everything as if you are walking through an enchanted world, sometimes forgetting you are inside a building. However, when the sun goes down, they instead opt to light up everything with a soft purple glow to avoid harsh yellow and white lights. It bathes everything with a magical ambience that sent calming waves of peace through us so that we were ready for sleep by the time we made our way back to our room for the night.

The next morning, while my mom headed off to do the conference part of her work here and while Rebekah and Bruce relaxed in the room, Alyssa and I wandered out to do some more exploring of the hotel. We made our way through different gift shops and atriums, trying to find everything there was to see or do. We even found a Garden Conservatory. The entire area was walkways over a large and varied assortment of plants to take a scenic walk from one part of the hotel to another!

Later in the day, we came ventured out again, this time with Rebekah. This hotel is so large, they actually have a little boat tour that takes you around in the river forged through parts of the hotel. How often do you get to take an indoors boat tour through a hotel? So, we of course hopped on to take the ride around and see things from the river below much of the lifted walkways and structured areas. We floated past many more absolutely gorgeous landscapes and waterfalls. If it weren’t for the railings and glimpses of balcony rooms, it would be easy to forget that we were actually in a hotel and not floating down an actual river.

Then, for the evening, after my mom had wrapped up her work hours, we had a chance to hop on a shuttle bus from the hotel that would drop us off downtown, right on Broadway where all the music and action was!

We started with finding a place for some supper and came across a place called the Wildhorse Saloon. Just like about every other place, it was a mix of a concert and a restaurant, especially at night! They had a big stage for live bands up front with a large dance floor below the stage and more seating the further back from the stage you get. There is also a little gift shop off to the side to give you something to do while you wait for your table.

Once seated, we started with an appetizer of fried pickles. Despite fried pickles being at the top of my list of favorite fried foods, these were some of the best fried pickles I’d ever had. I also got myself a moonshine margarita, and it came in a cowboy boot glass that I was even able to purchase and take home! For a meal, I ordered some of the best buttermilk fried chicken around with a solid side order of southern coleslaw and mac and cheese.

Then we started to walk around and check out more of downtown. I don’t recall if we popped into any other places or not, but I remember being amazed by all the people and bright lights and just the vibes of the area. It was busy and loud and fun, which is very different from most nights back home. They had pedal pubs and even horse-drawn carriages clopping around!

The following day was arguably our most eventful day in Nashville. It started off with Alyssa and I venturing out after our mom had left for her work responsibilities for a morning tour of the Grand Ole Opry, which was only about a 10 minute walk from our hotel.

Part of our tour was seeing a large number of dressing rooms that performers use. Each room we saw definitely had its own unique style and theme. After getting the backstage tour, we were lead out onto the stage of the Opry itself! We were able to stand on the iconic wooden circle where a long list of legends have performed and get our photo taken! I had done the tour and gotten the picture 3 years earlier, so it was fun to relive it with Alyssa this time!

From 1943 to 1974, the Grand Ole Opry was actually broadcasted from the stage of the Ryman Auditorium, the Opry’s original home. However, attending crowds grew larger, and the original venue was no longer a proper accommodation. Despite the obvious need, there was still a fear that changing locations would take away from some of the Opry’s legendary charm. When the Grand Ole Opry House became the official home to the Grand Ole Opry in 1974, a large 6-foot circle of wood was cut from the original stage of the Ryman and placed on the new stage to forever remember the legacy of the Opry’s start.

We then snapped a few photos outside in front of the sign, using a timer and the very supportive ground to capture the pictures for us since Rebekah and Bruce had stayed at the hotel, and it was just us making do with the resources we had.

After trekking back to the hotel and meeting back up with Rebekah and Bruce, we went to find some lunch within the hotel and settled on The Fuse Sports Bar. I ordered some Nashville hot wings, and they were delicious! I was discovering that I was a big fan of the Nashville hot flavor. It had a nice kick but with a really good flavor!

Then, we spent the afternoon making the drive to another area of the city to tour the Belle Meade Plantation. This large, southern plantation became well-known for its business in boarding racing stallions. If you’ve ever heard of the famous race horse Iroquois, he was from this plantation! In fact, a lot of famous racehorse lineage can be chased back to a horse named Bonnie Scotland that was housed at Belle Meade. Some of these horses include Seabiscuit, Secretariat, and Bramble.

Before the plantation’s mansion tour, we waited out on the porch of the mansion for our tour guide. There were some oversized rocking chairs under the gorgeous overhang of the mansion and faced out into the front yard. Unsurprisingly, it was a very hot day, but I quickly got comfortable relaxing in these chairs.

There is not photography allowed within the mansion itself, but it was a very fun walk-through, and our tour guide was very knowledgeable about the plantation’s history. After the tour, there was a complimentary wine tasting since the Belle Meade has its own winery. There was a very good Blackberry wine that I liked, but my favorite was the Red Muscadine. It was so good that I bought a bottle to take home with me! It’s made with the native muscadine grapes that only grow in this area of the country with additional flavors of raspberry and cranberry.

For supper, is girls were on our own, so Alyssa, Rebekah, and I stopped at a place called Stax Burgers within the hotel. After figuring out how to order, we sat down at a table on the patio overlooking the hotel’s fountain show. The burgers weren’t that particularly spectacular, but the kettle chips were incredible! Then we got to enjoy the fountain show while we ate.

We spent the final stretch of our evening in the pool. Well, for about 20 minutes at least. Then, the radar picked up an approaching storm that was within 10 miles, and we had to clear out of the pool area. Back in the room, we watched some tv and goofed around a little bit before getting ready for bed and calling it a night after our very busy day.

Chattanooga

(Ruby Falls, Lookout Mountain/Rock City Gardens)

The next morning, it was time to say farewell to our luxurious stay at the hotel, and we checked out and hit the road for the next stop on our road trip. This took us through the charming Tennessee city of Chattanooga.

Our first stop was one of my all-time favorites from my destination experiences while traveling. Ruby Falls is an underground waterfall in Ruby Falls Cave that drops down from an 85 foot tall recessional gorge within Lookout Mountain.

There was an elevator that took us down to the cave where there was a short cave tour and history of the discovery of the cave. The cave is commercialized with electric lights and paved foot trails, so it’s a very accessible and moderate little hike and tour. Along the way, we saw several fun-named formations based on the shapes they resembled. Some looked like animal’s feet, one like a mummy, a donkey walking away, foods like bacon and a potato chip, and landmarks like Niagara Falls or a western sunset.

I thoroughly enjoyed and fell in love with the story of Ruby Falls. Before this cave was discovered, there was a nearby cave called Lookout Mountain Cave. In 1905, the natural entrance to the cave was closed during the construction of the railway tunnel. In the 1920s, a cave enthusiast named Leo Lambert wanted to find and reopen the cave as a tourist attraction. He formed a company to do so and planned to make an opening farther up the mountain to transport tourists via elevator.

For this reason, the company purchased land on the side of Lookout Mountain and, in 1928, they began to drill into the limestone until they hit a passageway about 18 inches high and 4 feet wide. Lambert went in and was down for 17 hours exploring this new cave. When he finally came back out, he brought the news that he had discovered an underground waterfall. On his next trip to the falls, Lambert took his wife Ruby to see it and told her he was going to name it after her. Hence, Ruby Falls.

As we arrived into the area that housed the falls itself, the cave that had been well-lit up until now, was dark. There was enough light provided to safely find a place to stand. We could hear the water of the falls but couldn’t yet see it. In true showmanship, they had set up to make Ruby Falls a big reveal. Music started to play, and suddenly colorful lights illuminated the gorgeous waterfalls right in front of us!

Our next stop took us further up Lookout Mountain. It was only about a 10 minute drive, and while Ruby Falls was located in the Tennessee part of the mountain, our next destination actually technically takes us into Georgia. However, I am going to keep it included within the Tennessee post because not only was it within the same day and trip, but we could’ve genuinely walked across the state borders, they were so close.

We had made our way over to Rock City. Rock City features a 4100-foot walking trail lined with gardens containing hundreds of labelled local trees and plants. The trail also leads through a variety of unique and bizarre rock formations, including the 1,000 short tons Balanced Rock and Fat Man’s Squeeze. The area is also designed with a very whimsical and enchanted feel, and you kind find trails leading to several different themed paths marked by different colors. Each smaller trail does loop back to the main Legacy Lane that connects to the Gardens Gateway entrance and exit.

The yellow trail takes you on The Hall of the Mountain King Path. This path blends art and nature and winds through Fat Man’s Squeeze, a narrow passage. It also takes you to the serene Standing Stones Garden. Continue your way to Rainbow Hall and the impressive Balanced Rock.

The blue trail takes you on The Bridges Path. This path takes you along breathtaking views out and overlooking the mountain. Along this path there is also a Wild Bird Observation Deck and many bridges such as the swaying Swing-A-Long-Bridge or solid Stone Bridge. Observation Point has some panoramic vistas or explore the Cave of the Winds. If you aren’t a big fan of heights of swinging bridges, this may not be the path for you.

The red trail, the one we took, takes you on the Grand Corridor Path. This path includes towering rock formations that create a magical passageway. You have to squeeze through the Needle’s Eye and make your way to the curious formations of Mushroom Rock near the fountains. Along the way, you encounter the enchanting art installation, Villa Aviana, where the charm of nature meets artistic imagination. Then, you pass through the shadowy depths of Goblin’s Underpass.

The green trail, which we circled back to later, takes you on the Fairyland Caverns Path. This path allows you to step into a world of enchantment. The whimsical path leads through the legendary Fairyland Caverns and Mother Goose Village, where nursery rhymes and fairy tales come to life in vibrant displays using black lights.

All paths and trails lead back to Legacy Lane, which leads you to Lover’s Leap and a lookout view of seven states. At the Seven States Flag Court, you can gaze out on a clear day and see seven different states of the surrounding area; Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Then, you continue your way on to the breathtaking cliffside view of Lover’s Leap.

The Lover’s Leap lookout offers views of the High Falls, a manmade waterfall that is 140 feet high and empties into a base which appears as a small pool. It made for some gorgeous pictures for us!

After our time exploring Rock City, it was time to hit the road and make our way further into the state of Georgia, where we would be exploring the city of Atlanta! But that’s for another time.