NASHVILLE

It seems like all these southern cities have a single main drag where all the action is. In Nashville, it’s Broadway. The northern end of Broadway is an entertainment district, full of bars with live country singers, shops selling cowboy hats, and the Country Music Hall of Fame. Incongruously, a rather futuristically cool AT&T tower looms along side it.

Broadway is capped on its northern end with a Hard Rock Café full of country crap, and the Titans stadium is right across the river.

Oddly, the southern half of Broadway is full of these big stone buildings. Tons of them. Here are just a few.

This castle-looking one’s a high school. I’m serious.

Then I headed down to check out Opryland. There was a big bowl game the next day in Nashville, so all the touristy places were super crowded. Blue shirts everywhere. I think the whole state of Kentucky was in Nashville that day and every single one of them was wearing their bright blue shirts.

The Opry House wouldn’t let you in the auditorium without a ticket.

More interesting was the Opryland hotel, which was bigger and fancier than anything I’ve ever seen in Las Vegas. Inside the hotel is a little jungle with a river that you can ride a boat on. On the other side of the river is a small mall with fancy little shops. The other wing of the hotel had a jungle with a waterfall.