Nashville, Tenn in Sept 2015.

The Phoenix Cruiser owners club will be holding its reunion at the Nashville KOA this Sept. 10-15, 2015. What is there to see and do in and around Nashville?

I know about the Grand Ole Opry and the night clubs for the evenings, but what about during the day time. My wife likes country music but I am not musically inclined. I will sit through 2 1/2 hours of the Opry if she really wants to go. I saw on the internet that the Tennessee State fair will be happening during the reunion time. The reunion will include an afternoon boat trip on the river.

Have you been to Nashville? What did you see or do that you liked? What is not worth the time or money to see and do?
If you have not been to Nashville, have you heard of anything that we should consider seeing or doing?

Thank you in advance for the information.

We spent a few days in Nashville last year and stayed at the Nashville KOA.  It's a good location just down the road a bit from the Grand Ole Opry and Opry Mills Mall. There is a Camping World right next door and a number of restaurants nearby.  Getting into downtown was easy and pretty fast. The KOA was very nice.  We had good services and a level site.  The sites were a bit 'cozy', some shaded and some sunny and all very well maintained and clean.

We love country music, live music, bars, honky-tonks, etc so our three night stay was not nearly long enough.  Some recommended live music joints: Nashville Palace, Bluebird Cafe, Tootsies, Rippy's, Legend's Corner, Robert's Western World.

The Country Music Hall of Fame is highly recommended...even for not-so-country-fans.  It is huge, well designed and lots of fun!

The Grand Ole Opry is another highly recommended stop.  Again, even if you aren't much of a country music fan I think most would enjoy the evening. Beautiful building, not a bad seat in the house and they serve drinks! Parking is easy in the adjacent Opry Mills Mall.

We enjoyed the RCA Studio B tour. The bus leaves from the Country Music Hall of Fame and takes you there for the one hour walking tour.  Thousands of country hits recorded there including 200 of Elvis' songs were mastered there.  Very knowledgable tour guides.  Original instruments and recording equipment.

There are many beautiful parks, gardens and plantations in the area and this little city is among the cleanest I've ever seen.  Oh, and don't forget to indulge in a Moonpie or two  (they're made in Chatanooga)!

Some of the places that were recommended to us which we didn't have time to see:

Lane Motor Museum
Belle Meade Plantation
Biscquit House (best breakfast)

The Hermitage (museum)
Andrew Jackson's home
(10 Miles West of Nashville)

Jack Daniels Distillery Tour
Lynchburg, TN (75 Miles South of Nashville)

 - Mike

Hi All,

Phoenix Cruisers Club in Nashville in September (10th to the 15th)!!! Nice. I have been researching RVs for about 6 months. I don't have an RV in my near future due to college tuition for two daughters. However, PCs are on my short-list, particularly the 2552s. Maybe I could crash the party for an afternoon and some folks could show off their rigs!!! If you are in Bowling Green and  want a pit stop let me know (jdeanmay@me.com). Lot's of places to eat along with the Corvette Musuem, Lost River Cave, and Mammoth Cave to the north.

Nashville is a wonderful city to visit. Lots to see and do as documented in this post.

Pax, don't worry too much about the drive from N-ville to Chattanooga. I have driven it many times on my way to Atlanta. Not my favorite stretch, but just drive the speed limit or slower (than you would in a car) and stay alert.

Take care! 

Dean

Tom, Shiloh Military Park is only 150 miles from Nashville http://www.nps.gov/shil/index.htm  While there are probably many wonderful things within 150 miles of Nashville, Shiloh has the civil war battlefield, the eagles and Hagy’s Catfish Hotel for some good food right along the Tennessee River. It is a beautiful battlefield with a good auto tour route. We toured it in one day but John went back for a second day and rode it on his bike so he could view more of the markers. The battlefield includes a loop with a hike through Indian Mounds so they are preserving two different eras of history. AND they have the Shiloh Eagles. http://www.shiloheagles.com/ We saw a bunch of people in lawn chairs with binoculars and cameras on tripods and wondered what they were looking at. As we neared, we realized a pair of eagles nest in a tree right next to the main road in the battlefield. The eagles ignore the humans and soar just overhead as they fly around the nest. Hagy’s Catfish Hotel had very good food and is just outside the park http://catfishhotel.com/. This battle included Corinth which is up the road a bit and has a very nice visitor center also. They also have a quaint, old time general store where you can get good food and all kinds of goodies from a real soda fountain http://www.borroumsdrugstore.com/.

We also enjoyed Andrew Jackson’s home, The Hermitage, which is 20 miles from downtown Nashville. The ticket price includes headphones for an audio tour. You wander the museum and grounds and stop at each marker then key in the number for that piece of the tour. Each tour stop had a number for adults and a number for kids. Being curious, I started listening to the childrens’ recording as well as the adults. It was great. The adult version is very informative and worth hearing. The kid’s version is narrated by Polly, Andrew Jackson’s parrot and its fun. I made John sit at a picnic table before we left so he could listen to Polly. http://thehermitage.com/

We hit quite a few Civil War sites in this general vicinity. If people are interested in doing the civil war tour, let me know and I'll get John to put together some info.

We never actually went into Nashville so we have no info on that. We stayed at Cedars of Lebanon State Park east of Nashville then moved down onto the Natchez Trace so we skirted around the bottom of Nashville.