I’m convinced that Jolene can read my mind. If you don’t know who Jolene is, you will have to go back a few days and catch-up.
Actually, I’m convinced that MBW can read my mind too, but I guess that is to be expected after being married to her for 35 years.
But Jolene and I don’t have that much history, so it’s freaking me out a bit.
I’ll tell you more about that soon.
Today was a bit warmer. 11°C was the temperature the first time I looked at my phone today – around 8.30am.
11°C is quite a reasonable temperature to start the day. Much warmer that -1°C, but still cool compared to Brisbane winter temperatures.
We discovered the reason for the warmer start when we left our comfortable Nashville AirBnB this morning.
Overcast. Rain. 🙁
Not enough rain to need an umbrella, but enough rain that I needed to use The Don II’s wipers … or to be slightly more correct, to find out how to use The Don II’s wipers.
After all of those big, wide, blue Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South & North Carolina and Tennessee skies, that run of luck had to come to an end at some point.
So I figured out how to use the wipers and we set off on a bit of a drive in the Tennessee countryside.
Specifically, we took a drive out to Leiper’s Fork TN.
Now, today’s post needs some participation from you good readers. The question is, what is significant about Leiper’s Fork TN?
I certainly knew of one thing that put Leiper‘s Fork on the map, but then today I discovered a second thing about Leiper’s Fork TN.
So the challenge to you is to post your thoughts on Leiper’s Fork in a comment at the end of this post. There is no prize – only bragging rights and the warm inner glow of knowing something that nobody else did 🙂
After exploring Leiper’s Fork – and believe me, it didn’t take long – we headed off to Belle Meade Plantation for a guided tour.
We travelled on some beautiful rural Tennessee back roads.
Belle Meade Plantation was originally built in 1807 by John Harding, and the significance of this estate is that they were famous for thoroughbred American racehorses.
In fact, their most significant thoroughbred was called Inquirer, and we learned that out of 142 Kentucky Derby races, only 32 winners were not related to Inquirer. Pretty impressive!
In fact, since 2003, every horse that has raced in the Kentucky Derby can trace its bloodline back to Inquirer. Not every horse that has won – every horse that has raced!
After Belle Meade, we headed over to Franklin TN for a(nother) Segway tour, this time through historic Franklin TN.
Franklin was a significant site for the confederate war between the South and the North, over the use of black African-American slaves.
The battle of Franklin was a particularly bloody war, with 20,000 soldiers from the North, and another 20,000 soldiers from the South. The North had something like 1,500 dead and injured, while the South had around 12,000 dead and injured.
Don’t quote me on the numbers – that’s what we were told.
At one place during the war, the casualties were so tightly packed into a particular area that they died standing up – there was no room for them to fall down.
We saw houses that still show evidence of bullet-holes from the war, and others that had cannon-balls go through ceilings and walls.
Much of Franklin is being restored back to its historical past.
I’m beginning to think MBW will start referring to me as Calamity Geoff … last night I needed to duck out to the car late – in the dark – and on the way back I stumbled into a hole in the front yard of our AirBnB and twisted my ankle.
The one thing that riding a Segway requires is excellent balance. The one thing that I don’t have is … excellent balance.
Today on our Segway tour, I clipped a concrete step with one of my wheels and the Segway lurched to the left, so I overcorrected to the right and fell off – onto the road 🙁
Twisted knee, twisted ankle, sore neck, hurt pride 🙁 I’ll live though.
After all of that excitement, we made one last stop at Carnton House – another significant historical landmark. Carnton House was used as a hospital during the Battle of Franklin.
We arrived too late for the last tour of the day, but stopped and had a quick look around anyway.
Tonight we had tickets for a Grand Old Opry show at the Ryman Auditorium in the heart of Nashville TN.
We got back into downtown about 5.30pm for a 7.00pm show, so we dropped into Pucketts Restaurant for dinner. We were told that their fried chicken and brisket sliders are very good.
Wrong!
Their fried chicken and brisket sliders were AMAZING! Worth the trip to Nashville just for the food.
The show at the Ryman Auditorium was a country and western concert featuring several well known (and some not so well known) artists – John Conley, Kendall Marvel, Eric Paslay, and Dionne Warwick.
We sat in the nosebleed section with the other cheapskates, but it was still a great show and we are really pleased that we saw it.
I know that I have spoken before about the interstates – they are both amazing and confusing at the same time.
Speed limit signs are only posted with the words “Speed limit 55”. No red circle to attract your attention like we have in Australia – so I tend to choose a speed that is somewhere between the slowest and fastest drivers around me.
Coming home tonight from the Ryman, the traffic was not too bad so we sat on around 70mph for most of the trip. We still had one turkey pass us at something close to the speed of sound, which is a bit concerning.
One of the things that I love about the interstate is that there are no traffic lights, so if you have a straight run from, say Knoxville to Nashville, Jolene will tell you to continue straight ahead for 298km.
I mentioned earlier that Jolene can read my mind. There have been several times now where we have been rolling along at 70-75mph, in the middle of 5 lanes of traffic, and knowing that I need to merge onto another highway in 2km. I have either thought to myself – or possibly said out loud – “what lane am I supposed to be in” and Jolene has responded with “you need to be in the second lane from the right”.
Spooky.
Anyhow it’s late, I’m tired, and my various injuries are starting to stiffen up, so it’s time for bed … and to have dreams of becoming a country and western star and performing at the Ryman Auditorium.
MBW often reminds me that things happen in threes – so tomorrow might be an interesting day 🙁
We are having such a fabulous time here in the South. Other than falling off a Segway and being at risk of being run over by passing traffic, today was a blast!
Driving through rural Tennessee, seeing Leiper’s Fork with my own eyes, eating fried chicken and brisket sliders for dinner, and a show at the Grand Ole Opry was the icing on the cake – hence today’s song: Don’t Stop Me Now (Queen).
PS: Don’t forget to make a comment with your answer on the Leiper’s Fork puzzle …
Ciao
#G&KTAKEUSA2019