Chattanooga
Posted by Donna on October 1, 2009
1 October 2009
Morning! I’m not quite sure what day this is of Motherdear and Ronald’s Road Trip Adventure. I could count it out, but I don’t feel like it… oh bother… don’t you hate it when you decide not to do something then realize you’re just being lazy? Okay… today is Day 13.
We are in Chattanooga, TN… near the end of our travels. It’s sad to know that tomorrow we’ll be flying back to Maine and returning to everyday life. We’ve had a grand and glorious adventure together. But rather than get bogged down in the doldrums let me share what we’ve been up to…
Tuesday, September 29th… we headed to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. The ticket window opened at 10 a.m. and we hoped to get seats for that night’s show. So we arrived shortly after 10 a.m. Had no problem getting tickets (and later discovered what excellent tickets we got!).
We took a Backstage Tour of the Opry which was another good decision. We saw the time clocks that workers punch in and out of; the water cooler jugs that were waiting to be picked up and replaced; and we saw desks covered in papers that indicated someone actually had to work there.
The more glamorous aspects of the tour included seeing the entrance performers used to enter the building. They come up a walkway with bushes shaped as stars and a water fountain that Minnie Pearl gave the Opry. We walked through the security area that stars and their guests must pass through to get into the dressing room area. We saw the dressing rooms that entertainers use and the green room they can hang out in while waiting to go onstage.
We saw a TV soundstage that was used to tape the final 14 years of the show Hee Haw. My mother and I were standing where the cornfield was located on the show. 
We then got to walk out on stage at The Grand Ole Opry. Center stage there is a circle about 5 or 6 feet in diameter. It was cut from stage right of the original Opry House (at Ryman Auditorium). This is a circle that all the country music superstars have walked across… Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, Roy Acuff, etc. etc. They say that they did it so that today’s performers and those in future generations will have the opportunity to stand where their role models/music heroes stood. Nice sentiment.
Now the Grand Ole Opry building is located just behind a huge mall. So rather than return to our hotel (which was only about 10 minutes away), my mother and I decided to just spend the day there. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about parking when we came back for the show.
We went to see the Sandra Bullock movie All About Steve. Then returned to the the GOO and sat outside to read our books. At around 3:30 p.m. we went for dinner at a 50s diner type restaurant in the mall. I had a bacon cheeseburger and a chocolate shake. Yum yum!
After we ate we sat in the car to read our books until the GOO opened at 6:15 p.m.
This auditorium is beautiful. Because the original Opry House was an old church building, this building also uses church pews. Because my mother was in her wheelchair, though, I got a regular seat. More comfy, I think.
The show started promptly at 7 p.m. The GOO is a live radio program. They do shows 3 days a week. There were 7 or 8 performers and each performed 3 or 4 songs and did a bit of chatting or joke telling too. Between performances, while the announcer read commercials (for Humana, Cracker Barrel, and Martha White) the stage was set up for the next act.
I hadn’t heard of most of the performers, but the first group, Riders in the Sky, did the Woody’s Roundup song from Toy Story 2. The final act was The Charlie Daniel’s Band. He can really burn up his fiddle. The show ended with The Devil Went Down to Georgia. When the show was over (at around 9:20 p.m.) the big red curtain came down and it was over.
If you’re ever in Nashville, be sure to catch a show at the Opry. They have shows on Friday, Saturday, and Tuesday nights. Big name performers (Brad Paisley, Trace Adkins, Carrie Underwood, Dolly Parton, etc.) are on stage here. It’s funny that the big names have as much stage time as the lesser known or old-timer performers. To be invited to join the Opry, performers must make a commitment to a certain number of performances each year. Thought that was interesting. Some big country names are not members because they don’t live near Nashville or tour so often they can’t make that commitment.
Now let’s move on to Wednesday… yesterday… if my brain is working right. I’m in end-of-vacation denial so I may try to bump things back to Monday or Tuesday.
So yesterday we got back on the road. This time our destination was Chattanooga. We crossed the time zone again and are now back in Eastern time. In the blink of an eye we lost an hour. Sad when that happens.
An interesting thing on Highway 24. There are several steep declines on this highway… 6 percent according to the road sign warnings. Trucks and autos alike are supposed to reduce their speeds. I didn’t notice much of either of that. The interesting thing is that there were “runaway truck” ramps available for, well, runaway trucks.
These truck ramps are located off to the left side of the road. Which is weird because the trucks were supposed to stay in the right two lanes. However, if the ramps were placed to the right, they would have gone over the banking so I guess the road designers knew what they were doing.
However, the fact that the ramps were to the left meant the truckers would need to cut across the lanes to reach them. I decided to play it safe and let the trucks have free roaming access to whichever lanes they wanted.
Only one truck was a bit worrisome as we cruised down this highway. His tires were smoking all the way down the hill. I gave him clear access to the ramps as we followed him, but he made it okay without using one. That was disappointing, would have liked to see how far up the bumpy ramp he would have made it.
We arrived without incident in Chattanooga. Met my friend Jan for dinner at Cracker Barrel which was located right next door to our hotel. Funny though… we didn’t know it was right next door until we got in our car, pulled out of the driveway, drove up the street to the Cracker Barrel sign, turned into the driveway, followed it around the building to the handicapped parking area and saw our hotel’s entrance (and our hotel room window) staring at us.
We considered driving back to the hotel and walking back, but decided that since we were already there, why not just park it. So we did.
My friend Jan laughed and laughed when she saw that our hotel was right next door. She had offered to meet us at the hotel and let us follow her to Cracker Barrel. I had assured her that we’d been on the road for almost two weeks and could certainly find the Cracker Barrel. No duh…
After dinner Jan took us to her house for a visit. We got back to our hotel at around 8 p.m. Walked next door to Cracker Barrel for dessert, but they didn’t have any more chocolate Coca-Cola cake or blackberry cobbler. So we came back to the room and ate Little Debbie brownies instead. Not a good replacement dessert, but we needed to eat them before we leave on Friday anyway.
Today we are going to go downtown to the Riverwalk. We plan to meet up with Jan for lunch and then we’ll get on the road for Atlanta. The final leg in this amazing adventure.
Hugs from Chattanooga,
–Donna
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