We received word in mid September that Bill’s first cousin had passed away. Bill really wanted to attend the funeral in Illinois, so we headed north with a few quick stops along the way to break up the trip.
The first night we stopped in Acworth, Georgia where we met Bill’s niece and her family for dinner. We hadn’t seen them in several years so it was a nice chance to catch up. Boy, her children are growing up fast!!
The next day we headed towards Nashville, Tennessee. We traveled on the treacherous stretch of Interstate 24 that passes over Monteagle Mountain. There is a song called “The Legend”, played on the opening track in the movie “Smokey and the Bandit”, which tells the story of the Bandit surviving brake failure on the Monteagle Grade. Johnny Cash also had a song called “Monteagle Mountain”. We survived the mountain, though road work caused backups and slow going.
We wanted to visit Nashville’s state capitol building to add to our list of state capitols visited. Somehow during our RVing years we missed Nashville.
Many state capitols provide some type of visitor/guest short term parking. Not so in Nashville. In fact they make it very inconvenient! First challenge was finding reasonably priced parking within walking distance of the capitol. I despise paying exorbitant rates at parking garages. We finally found some on street meter parking.
Andrew Jackson our seventh president of the U.S.
Next challenge was getting to the capitol. The complex sits on a high hill called Capitol Hill, the highest point in downtown Nashville. There are many many steps leading from the street up to the building. I counted all the steps.
I have forgotten the number, but it was a lot! Funny story. Bill forgot he had a pocket knife until we were on our way up the steps. We knew it would never get through security, so he found a place to hide it. And yes, it was still there when we came back down.
We did a self guided tour of the capitol because we really didn’t have time for anything too involved. Opening in 1859, it is one of twelve state capitols that does not have a dome.
It is Greek Revival Architecture, with the appearance of a temple. Both the interior and exterior are built with limestone from a quarry about a mile away.
We saw several busts: David Crockett, Andrew Johnson, James Polk and Andrew Jackson.
The senate and house chambers.
My favorite room was the library with the spiral staircase.
Nashville’s historic War Memorial Building had a quote from Woodrow Wilson’s 1917 address to a joint session of Congress in which he asked them to declare war on Germany. This resulted in the United States’ involvement in the Great War later called World War I.
We will have to go back to Nashville someday since we didn’t have time for any of the country music attractions.
We drove by Vanderbilt University.
We stopped by the Parthenon, a full scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens. It was built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, held in honor of Tennessee’s 100 years of statehood. Today it is an art museum.
Next up: Mammoth Cave in Kentucky