Nashville beckons. . .

We left Dale Hollow Lake early (for us) Sunday morning. We had to be out by 2 p.m. and couldn't check into Nashville until 3 p.m., but we decided to leave early anyway. The campground was pretty full over the weekend with lots of wacky campers and we thought it better to get out and get our tanks dumped while there wasn't a line. Later in the morning there surely would be a line which we have seen here before and we wanted to avoid all that.

We stopped at a rest area on I-40 and I got out my computer and started working on re-configuring the router for the aircard. It had been giving us fits and then stopped working altogether, so I took a shot at it. I got it up and running, so we got caught up on our reading and Facebook while we were there. We also ate some lunch before heading out. We just really needed to kill some time as we only had about 100 miles total to drive.

When we drove into Seven Points campground on J. Percy Priest Lake, the attendant told us our site wasn't ready yet, but they were wrong. It had been vacated. We drove on around and unhooked the car, then we backed into our site and set up. Shortly after that it started blowing something fierce. I had read that there might be a thunderstorm and we did have some rain and wind, but nothing major. The best part of that is that the temps dropped from the 90's to the mid 70's!

We got our laundry together and went to the laundromat. After a week at the lake without full hookups, we had a lot of towels, the bedding, etc., so we got that all done. But we will have to find another laundromat if we come here next year. We have used this one for several years, but it was absolutely filthy. There was no attendant, many of the machines had "out-of-order" signs on them and there were actually some unsavory characters hanging around. So we asked at the front gate and they told us of another that they are now recommending.

Today we decided to go downtown. We have never been in downtown Nashville and we found a parking place and walked up and down Broadway. It was pretty neat actually. Some souvenir stores, lots of restaurants and some venues with live entertainment. They are getting ready here for Music Fest and they were setting up sound stages on Broadway and on the waterfront. We decided to eat at Rippy's, which is a rib and BBQ place. We got a sampler platter which we split and brought half home. It was very good food and the place had a lively atmosphere.

One thing we saw were custom Prevost buses. One was just down from the Ryman, two more were parked on Broadway in front of "The Stage," and three were in front of another venue area. One had the name Randy Atkins on it, but none of the others bore labels. I wonder what famous people were watching us as we walked by.

We are thinking of going to the Hermitage tomorrow. I don't think we want to go back downtown. The traffic was horrendous and it is very hot. We are here every year, so we may go back another time.

Till next time. . .

Dale