Keli travels Nashville part 27 May 2015

My friends Eric and Laura were nice enough to drive me by the Nashville, TN temple..

and one day when the time is right and I am ready.. I will go back and go inside and do a session..

until then

Keli travels Nashville part 26 May 2015

While waiting for my friends Laura and Eric to come and get me.. I came upon this park.. It was full of homeless people lying around on benches. I could hear loud music from nearby bars getting ready for the big fight that night...

but I was there.. and so was this cool statue.. and some lady walking by took pictures.. so yay..! 

 here is the statue... look at...

 This guy is a songwriter..

 I had to sit by him..

 and on his arm..

 and pose with him... 

I always find something to do. 

 

Keli travels Nashville part 25 May 2015

When I toured RCA Studio B. We went to Music Row. It is where all the recording studios and such are. 

I knew I wanted to go back. So one day while Melinda was in her conference I walked there from where the shuttle dropped me off. It was two miles. I had a lot of adventures along the way, which I have already blogged about and several people I came across told me there was nothing there. I really wanted to go and take pictures though. All of the recording studios put out posters when people that they represent win things or hit number one. 

It was also much cheaper than going to the George Jones museum. That thing was $20! I do not even know who George Jones IS/WAS...so um yeah.. I skipped that... they did have some liquor for sale I was going to buy my friend but they told me it was just water and they would not sell me the bottle.. even though I begged..

so Music Row it was.

 This is a statue when you are coming into Music Row. It is at a roundabout. It is called Musica.

 Here is another view of it. The people of Nashville ( which is part of The Bible Belt were not happy when it was unveiled a few years ago. It is because the statues are naked. They dress up the statue for big events.  

When "Red Solo Cup" hit number one. They gave each statue a red solo cup.

When the hockey team plays each statue wears a jersey. ( Nashville custom made jerselys for each one)

When they had some race there each statue got a tutu and tiara.

Maybe next time I go they will be dressed up. 

 Here was one sign.. for Lee Brice.. He is a member of THE DRINKING CLASS!!!!!!! 

 a record studio..

 SHOTGUN RIDER! 

 a record studio! 

 HOMEGROWN HONEY!!! 

 I had no idea something like this even EXISTED....

 BABY YOU AINT WORTH THE WHISKEY !!!! 

 historical sign...

...............even though I have never drank whiskey..... EVERY TIME I KISS HIM IT IS LIKE SUNSHINE AND WHISKEY!!!!!!!

 a record company..

 He had TWO signs! 

 another place..

 CAUSE WE NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 historical signs..

 I can drink to that all night! 

 a guitar outside RCA studio B.

 tons of signs! 

 historical sign.

 Automatic! 

 SONY! 

you can not tell me all of this is not cool... I mean you just CAN NOT!!!!!!!!!! and totally worth the two mile walk! 

Keli travels Nashville part 24 May 2015

I do not think that I EVER.. EVER want to drive in downtown Nashville... I mean besides 

cars

tourists

drunk people

musicians

filming crews

horse and carriages

pedi cabs

there are these..

 I do not even GET this

people buy beer.. and then PAY to ride around on these while someone serves them the beer they provided.. all while pedaling and listening to loud top 40 music...

nah... I am good... I mean I know I am cool... I don't need to pay to ride on this thing with loud music while drinking.. I am good..

While I was roaming around I came across their "office building" 

 There were SO MANY people with cases of beer so excited to do this..AM I TOO OLD???????????? is that why I do not think this is cool???

 oh and this sign was outside their headquarters..

..... It is official.. I guess I am an old stick in the mud.. or maybe I am just super confident and cool and do not need to ride around on one of these and spend tons of money.. I got other things to spend tons of money on you know..

Keli travels Nashville part 23 May 2015

While wandering around Nashville I came upon this art museum.  It is called The Frist. I had nothing else to do.. so I went to it. I went and saw it was TWELVE DOLLARS to tour...

By this time in my vacation I had gone to SO MANY MUSEUMS that cost SO MUCH MONEY and bought SO MANY SOUVENIRS... I did not have $12  to spend on a museum I was not even sure I would like...

so I need to admit something....

I just walked around it anyway...I did ...I thought if they say something I will just leave...

nobody said anything.. I guess a white woman in her 40s does not look like someone that would "sneak" into a museum...

They had an exhibit in town from England a bunch of furniture and paintings..I am not really into that stuff.. so I think I was in there.. MAYBE.. and mean MAYBE 15 minutes and that includes taking pictures.. and buying a magnet in the gift shop and a pair of cheap sunglasses I later left in a hotel in ghetto Memphis...but I digress...

 This robot was cool..

 plus this flower thing outside .. if the whole museum was like this kinda stuff I totally would have paid $12.. maybe or maybe I would have just felt a little more guilty..

 I thought WHY COULDN'T THE PERSON THAT TOOK MY PICTURE GET THE WHOLE FLOWER IN????? then I realized I could not really either.. the sun was in my eyes...

 but I took this cool close up..

Keli travels Nashville part 22 May 2015

While I was roaming around Nashville I came across this random protest.. for what what was going on in Baltimore, MD.. this protest was in Nashville, TN?????????

This lady was talking about "the white man" and all this stuff about white people..but all the people helping her were white ??????

except I guess this lady.

I asked for permission to take these picture. I respect what they are doing I just wish they did not lump all us white folk together like that ya know..

Keli travels Nashville part 21 May 2015

The next day I was looking for something to do while Melinda was at her conference and was looking through brochures and came across a 

HOME OF THE STARS TOUR...

I am not going to lie I have ALWAYS wanted to go on one of those..

THAT TOUR COST $60.....SIXTY DOLLARS!!!!!

I was picked up the next day at my hotel by my tour bus driver an older man who walked in the breakfast room and loudly proclaimed...

" I am here to pick up Miss Keli Wright" ...

We went to other hotels and picked up other people.. the tour was mostly old, overweight women and overweight couples. 

the brochure said we would see all sorts of peoples homes... I was excited...

after picking everyone up we drove for a long time because it turns out most celebrities live in a town next to Nashville called Brentwood.. which is in one of the richest counties in America..

In between the bus driver making sexist jokes...that nobody laughed at or just telling OLD jokes that I heard YEARS ago.. and passing them off as his own.. we drove by celebrities houses....

I should have known better from living in California.. MOST CELEBRITIES HOUSES YOU CAN NOT SEE FROM THE STREET!!!!! they have tall trees and big fences.. some of the people on the tour were not happy about this..but oh well.. here are some things I learned..in no order..

1. We got to see a big pile of dirt and some bulldozers and such.. ONE DAY Dierks Bentley is going to live there because the house he is living in right now that has x amount of square feet.. well that is not big enough for him and his wife and his three children... all of which this dude knew the names and ages of..

2. We got to see a house that Reese Witherspoon and her husband recently bought and and are planning on renovating.

3. You can see Martina McBride's house from the street.. This dude has her car memorized...He was like Martina is home... there is her red car...! 

4.We went by some dudes house named Charles Kelly that I guess is in the band Lady Antebellum. He said well he is home that is his red Range Rover..but I have not seen his wife in 3 weeks..she drives a silver BMW I have not seen her car in three weeks... .......because it would be impossible for this lady to park in the garage.. or have a job.. or ANYTHING... 

5. Minnie Pearl lived next to the governers mansion.. now a member of The Kings of Leon does..

6. We saw a lot of houses that people that are dead lived in when they were alive.. We saw THREE of George Jones houses..He said his widow now lives in a house an hour from here but it is a big house and I don't know if she can keep that up now that George Jones is dead. I said that I was going to go the George Jones museum but it costed TWENTY DOLLARS to get in.. I said I did meet his widow there though... He said well I guess she was in there counting her money...

7. We saw a house where Hank Williams wife died and Hank Williams Jr. found her.. then someone else died there...maybe Tammy Wynette... and sometimes you can go in that house.. but the bus driver said no way  is he ever gonna go in there.. he feels creepy just driving by it. 

8. Anyone that was rich or had a huge house... or an interesting house.. and lived in the vicenity of the tour was automatically on the tour.. like the owners of Dollar General.. their compound is MASSIVE..

9. Some dude MAYBE from Lady Antebellum has his awards displayed in the front window for us to see... not even kidding you...

10.Ronnie Milsap has a huge brick fence around his massive property.

11. The bus driver also talked a lot about how so many of these people have HUGE YARDS that they then have to keep up with..and well he would not want to have to do that..

12. He also talked about how a lot of them have several garages..  he said that is a good thing cause your kids will just leave all their junk in your garage anyway.... I felt like crawling under the seat then like um... uh I surely don't do THAT... hahahahahh 

13. We saw Dolly Parton's 65 acre property and her house that her wig maker lives in..

14. Kellie Pickler's house is in a neighborhood that you can actually see the house no gate, no fence no nothing.. and this guy was like well... Kellie is home she is a country girl so she drives that big black truck..He said that Kellie Pickler does not like him and one time she was outside on her porch talking on the phone to her cousin ( No idea how he knew that) and that when Kellie saw him she walked right inside.. He said another time Kellie was cleaning windows and when she saw him she got down off the ladder and walked right inside...He said that Kellie's husband ( his name might be Kyle) he said that he will come right out to the tour bus and talk to him.. He was like but he thinks he is a comedian... I THOUGHT UM KINDA LIKE YOU DO!!!!?????

15.He said that a couple of years ago they went by Trace Adkins house and he lived in a house kinda like Kellie Pickler no gate or security. One guy wrote down his address and when the tour was over WENT BACK.. Trace was not home but his wife answered and this guy was like is Trace here? His wife said no.. he said well I will come in and wait and pushed past her.. She called the police....and well they are not allowed to go by Trace Adkins anymore.. and then Trace bought a house in a gated community.

16. He said there were several people that have contacted the tour and said to NOT GO BY THERE HOUSE ... he said he can not tell us who they are..

17. We can't go by Brad Paisley's house he lives way far up on  a mountain.. and you can't get anywhere near it..He said he has a lot of farm animals and stuff for his children both of which he knew the names and ages of to play with.

18. We could not go by Tim and Faith's house same reason to far up and we can not get anywhere near it.. he did say it was for sale though.. only 18 million...my friend Laura is a realator she said if she sold that her COMMISSION would be 350 grand.. I said if I had that... I would be DONE WORKING for the next couple of years..

19. We could go buy Garth and Tricia's house... that they lived in FIVE YEARS AGO...

20 we went by several gated communities..and he told us who lived in them.. some he even told us the street.. like Keith and Nicole live in there 3rd house on the left... or Carrie Underwood and her hockey player husband  Mike Fisher live in there with their new baby and he knew the babies name and birthday... He also showed us how one gated community was not really keeping out anybody.. and pointed out the fence was easily scalable..

21. We went by Taylor Swift's house.. It has a HUGE fence around it and security EVERYWHERE... like EVERYWHERE walking around... driving in golf carts.. He said Taylor needs all this security and FOR WHAT???? Martina and Faith do not do this..you see them picking up their kids and then he told us the schoo their kids went to and what time they go to pick them up and how they do not need any security they go all by themselves... I thought well um most of their fans are older... and less crazy.. Taylor Swift is in her hey day she needs all of that..

22. We drove by another house that Taylor Swift owns... I guess she bought that for her mom but her mom did not like the color so no one is living in it... what a waste.. I would live in that house OR the one that Reese Witherspoon is redoing... It would be a courtesy to them really.. you know so the house would not stand empty..

23. We saw a huge house that is JUST EMPTY they use it for movies and videos like it was in the Taylor Swift Blank Space video.. If you have seen that video you know exactly what house I mean.. it is impressive..

24. We went into downtown Nashville and saw a condo building where Taylor Swift owns a condo and has BOUGHT part of the street parking to park her tour bus.. TAYLOR SWIFT HAS THREE HOUSES IN NASHVILLE... there is such a thing as TOO MUCH MONEY...seriously... 

25. He said Kelly Clarkson also has a condo in that complex but he has not seen her lately since she had her baby, which dude knew the exact day and the babies name..

When my tour was over I COULD have got dropped off downtown..but for some reason I was just EXHAUSTED... I went back to the hotel and slept a couple of hours before I went back out..

In retrospect I wonder If I should have taken another tour Nashville offered...but hey I had an adventure and that was good.

oh and there are not really pictures cause most of the pictures came out looking like this...

 so yeah no pictures..

Keli travels Nashville part 20 May 2015

When I met Melinda that night. We went to Martin's BBQ. It had a LONG line and was very popular. 

I got their famous "redneck taco" 

 just basically BBQ with slaw and sauce on a cornbread pancake. The mac and cheese was just OK and the hushpuppies had onions in them, so that is a no for me. 

I guess I was not a huge fan of Martin's 

Keli travels Nashville part 19 May 2015

While roaming around and waiting for Melinda I happened upon The Nashville Visitors Center. They had  so many cool things there and they really played up Nashville being music city. 

 more cool soaps for sale..

 and more..

plus they had this whole set up where you can pose with props and get your picture taken.. FOR FREE.. of course I did that..

 here is one..

 and here I am begging for money ... all I got so far are kids instruments though.. hahahahha 

The dude taking the pictures said that, that pose was a first for him and that I am very creative..

Keli travels Nashville part 18 May 2015

So I was done with The Country Music Hall of Fame. I had browsed around the cool gift shop. It was still not time to meet Melinda. 

The Bridgestone Arena was right across the street so I went to it. I went in their shop and learned about their hockey team that plays there. 

hockey is big in Nashville. 

 

Carrie Underwood's husband is a hockey player on this team. I would have bought something if it was not super expensive but again, I had just spend so much money at The Country Music Hall of Fame... 

I also have nothing with The Washington Capitals on it.. so I guess it would have been a bit weird if I bought something... but it was a good time killer and another thing to mark off my list like 

BEEN BY THERE! 

Keli travels Nashville part 17 May 2015

One of the things that I love to do is to browse through cool gift shops. 

When I was done at the Country Music Hall of Fame I just kept walking down a hall and it turned into a hotel. The hotel had a very cool gift shop. I did not buy anything because I had just spent so much money at The Country Music Hall of Fame gift shop. 

I did however take some cool pictures. 

 no idea what this horse is made out of but it sure is cool! 

 These guitars were cool too..

 This was huge and so cool...neat way to display all that boring stuff...

 plus this.. I need this.. I don't know why but doesn't everyone need a cast iron guitar pan..?

I love browsing around stores....especially by myself when I have all the time in the world.