USA 2014: DAY 17 - Guitar Pickin' and American Pickin'

Howdy ya'll; welcome to the Day 17 Blog coming to you fresh from Music City, Nashville.

Today started with a huge laugh during breakfast...and I swear it's true. We had had some interaction with the cook/waitress and noted that she was very personable and friendly with all of the diners in the breakfast room. Then, a little while later she walks up to our table and says, 'so where ya'll from?', to which I reply 'Australia'. Then she says, 'Well, I didn't want to be rude and assume, but my guess was pretty close; I assumed you were from Germany because of your accent n'all and it turns out that I was real close'. Then she walked away. When she left Maureen and Schuyler had this puzzled glazed look on their faces, so I looked at them and whispered, 'I think, that she thinks we are from Austria'. I think they both nearly snorted whatever they were eating through their noses.

The weather today was horrible, with drizzle or rain all day long.

After breakfast, we organised ourselves to visit a Boot Shop and a number of Record Stores including the world-famous 'Third-Man Records'. Third Man Records is Jack White's (he was the lead singer of the White Stripes) own store and it has a Grammy Award for the world's Best Record Store. While we were there we even managed to cut our own Vinyl recording, but I have reservations about it making Platinum, let alone Gold, Silver or Cardboard for that matter.

Third Man Records

Inside the store

Maureen and Schuyler in the Recording Booth

Check out our new album

After this we headed deeper into the city to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. But first we had lunch there and I ordered the most awesome Pulled Pork Burger...ever. The ambiance was also great with some very soothing guitar picking in the background.

Yum! Pulled Pork Burger at Two-Twenty Two Restaurant at the County Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Whilst we are neither Country, nor Western music fans we were especially impressed by the displays and even more for Elvis' Golden Piano and his car with various Gold components. Most impressive; however were Dolly Parton's dress/costume collection which left mouths agape pondering over the cup-size required to adequately fill out those dresses.

The ticket queue at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Elvis' Golden Piano

Elvis' car

Taylor Swift's guitar

Platinum Records...not including our own recently cut vinyl record

We also went for a walk around town including the area known as the District and walked the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge catching views of the AT&T Building and the Fifth Third Centre, the tallest and second tallest buildings respectively. We walked past (but didn't go in) the Johnny Cash Museum...not big fans...the boys don't even know who he was.

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Nashville's finest

A fountain outside the Schermerhorn Symphony Centre

The Cumberland River runs through Nashville

Downtown Nashville from the Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge

The Schermerhorn Symphony Centre

Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge

The Gateway Bridge over the Cumberland River

The District

After this we checked out the Nashville Store of the American Pickers. Don't you just love that show? The shop is called Antique Archaeology and is situated just out of the city to the North West. The store was crowded with tourists, but was very funky nonetheless.

The boys on the couch in the Antique Archaeology store

Maureen and I on the couch at Antique Archaeology

Maureen entertaining the crowd...again

We then headed back to our Hotel to recuperate before heading out to dinner at Hooters. We have never eaten there before and the boys and I convinced Maureen that it was a "family" restaurant...nyuk, nyuk. The meal was pretty good and the girls very pretty. Meagan, our Waitress who's name tag said 'Bree' was asking us lots of questions about Australia. Guess where she really wants to go?

Meet Meagan who wants to visit Australia

Checking out the menu

After dinner we headed back into the city to Bridgestone Arena to catch an Ice Hockey match between Nashville Predators versus the Philadelphia Flyers at Bridgestone Arena. It's been 19 years since Maureen and I caught an Ice Hockey match when we watched the Pittsburg Penguins beat the Washington Capitals at US Air Arena. The game was really great and the atmosphere just brilliant. I lost track of the amount of times that the crowd chanted "YOU SUCK" at the Flyers. The Predators won the game 4-1, which meant we got a free Frosty from Wendy's.