World United States Tennessee Nashville

North by Northeastish

Nashville TN Sep 8, 2011

Today was another tourist day, this time south of Nashville around Franklin TN. We left the bus around 10:00 and headed through Nashville on Hwy 31, through Brentwood and into Franklin. We cut through town on our way the Carnton Plantation on the outskirts. The main house was built in 1826 by the McGavock family and was part of the Battle of Franklin in the Civil War in 1864, which is called the “bloodiest 5 hours of the war”. It served as a field hospital after the battle, and is the site of a cemetery that holds the remains of 1,481 Confederate soldiers. Very neat place with a ton of history – I bet walking the grounds with a metal detector and a shovel would yield some neat stuff. From there we headed back into Franklin and had lunch at H. R. H. Dumplins’. It was a very good homecookin’ kind of place and we highly recommend it if you ever get to Franklin. From there we wandered Main Street a bit, and then we got on the road towards Nashville with a stop at the Belle Meade Plantation. It is another old south plantation, but this one has a long history of raising thoroughbred horses and a more recent history of making wine. In fact, some famous horses such as Secretariat, Sea Biscuit and Barbarro can directly trace their bloodlines back to one horse named Bonnie Scotland from this plantation. We toured the mansion and bought some wine, then headed back via the Briley Parkway to the Opryland Hotel. We parked across the street and walked to the hotel to wander around – it’s a huge place with numerous restaurants, bars, shops and a convention center. It has 2 huge atrium areas with shops and restaurants mixed into the landscaping. They also have a river with boats on it running through the Delta Atrium. It’s the kind of hotel that you could be there for days and have no reason to leave. After we got done there at about 6:30, it was back to the bus for some food, some TV and an update. We are scheduled to leave Nashville tomorrow but have no plan on where to go other than southish. Anybody have any suggestions?

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