Seven Points J. Percy Priest Dam Campground, Hermitage, Tennessee (Nashville)
Our new view!
Have you ever visited one of Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museums? We went to one a long time ago. They do some incredible work! So how long do you think Madame Tussauds exhibits have been around? Go ahead – – guess. You’ll never guess.
Over two hundred years!!!
What?!?!?!?
Another thing I didn’t know? She was a real person. She was born Marie Grosholtz in France in 1761, married Francois Tussaud in 1795 and died in England in 1850. She inherited a doctor’s wax exhibition in 1794 and took it on its first tour in 1802. I was going to include some basic information, but her very interesting and macabre life and work so fascinated me, at some point I’ll be doing a “Special Edition” page instead.
Let’s see who’s on display in Nashville! (and no, we didn’t take pictures of everyone)
Johnny was there to greet us at the door
Buying tickets
I have the descriptions of each artist first.
Notice how they’re shaped like guitar picks?
This was a room to watch a video about music over the years.
Very short. Very fast paced.
But they made it look like you were walking into someone’s home.
They “moved” the fireplace to show the video
Patsy’s recording studio
If you walked into the room, they started playing “Crazy”.
So I joined in!
George, on the other side of the “recording studio”
That’s Kenny Rogers in the background.
We didn’t think his was as good as the others we saw.
Guffawing with Minnie
Looks like Jerry’s accompanying Elvis. : )
Tickling the ivories with ol’ Jerry Lee
(on a real piano)
I remember Sooooooooul Train!
Right along with American Bandstand!
No guitar pick for them, but I think the girl working here said it’s a traveling exhibit.
Well now, that’s just silly looking! hahaha
I was trying to get him to loosen up a bit. He wasn’t really buying what I was selling.
We’ll chock it up to still being in some pain . . .
“What would you do if I sang out of tune . . .”
The girl who works here took this picture.
Motorcycle Mama!
Don’t know what this motorcycle has to do with the Beatles, but it was fun!
I really liked Justin’s pose!
That’s Bruno Mars and Beyonce behind him.
Perfect renditions, right down to the tattoos.
That’s his sons’ names.
They made Darius a “talking head”, explaining how they created his image.
We should have paid more attention to what Darius Rucker had to say. He was describing the process of creating a wax figure, but I assumed I could get the information on-line and Blaine didn’t seem interested in sticking around after the initial ‘Cool!-ness’ wore off. I did remember that they are wearing their own clothes, the only wax part is the face, the rest is wax first, then fiberglass, and they insert each hair individually.
We also learned that every figure is first made in London and then shipped to its display location. Each location has its own team of experts who maintain the figures daily.
I found what I’m certain is an abbreviated process on Madame Tussauds website. Keep in mind that they’re based in London, so some spelling is different. It’s not me, it’s them. : )
Take a glimpse at how a wax figure is made at Madame Tussauds.
New techniques are constantly being explored, but the fundamental process of creating a wax figure hasn’t changed since the world famous attraction was founded – the figure making team still even use processes employed by Madame Tussaud herself.
The Sitting: At the sitting up to 200 measurements are taken and photographs shot from every angle of a star to ensure their portrayal is 100% accurate. Their eyes, hair and skin are also all colour matched from samples, so the team has a complete reference to work from.
Sculpting: A metal armature is constructed to support the clay mould, which is then built up using meticulous detail. The head is worked on separately and can take between four to six weeks to sculpt and achieve an exact likeness of a famous face.
Moulding: A plaster cast is created from the clay sculpture then melted wax is slowly poured into the mould to avoid air bubbles. After 50 minutes, excess liquid wax is removed to leave a hollow head, into which the eyes and teeth are inserted. The body of each and every figure is moulded in the same way, but is then made from fibreglass instead of wax for durability.
Finishing: 10 layers of oil based paints are applied to the figure to create realistic skin tones. Real human hair is individually inserted into the wax including the eyebrows and eyelashes. The hair is then cut and styled to match the desired look. Finally, the complete figure goes through a rigorous number of critiques with key members of the team to achieve sign off before appearing in the attraction.
FACT: From initial sitting to press launch, a typical Madame Tussauds figure takes around four months to make, utilises a team of around 20 skilled artists and costs £150,000 (at the current rate of exchange, that’s $218,885.75!)
Now to finish the tour. . . .
Reba
Can’t leave him alone for a minute or he’s off chatting with the pretty girls . . . .
I think this one’s Jason, but not sure.
Carrie
Trisha
Keith
Sharing the stage with Reba!
I don’t know what it is that makes me look so tiny next to these figures, but they were all like that.
Except for Blaine with Carrie.
Maybe I needed to be out in front of or more directly beside them?
We enjoyed our time here. They had props, which included real guitars and pianos, costumes, motorcycles 😊, etc. and they encourage you to touch and use the displays, but we were also glad we had a BOGO coupon. It wasn’t much of a museum for a normal price of $20/person. But then, I think their overhead must be extraordinary.
The museum was in a huge mall called Opry Mills. It was 11:30 when we left the museum and hardly anyone was in the place. But there was this really neat restaurant across from the museum – I just had to take a couple of pictures.
The entrance to the seating area
This is outside and it’s huge and beautiful!
And yes. Those are real fish.
And Blaine tried to get some pain relief. It didn’t really help – it stopped working after it was only halfway through the time. But for $2, you get a $2 massage.
While we’d planned on hitting the Nashville Visitor Center next, we realized we surely had to be in the vicinity of the Grand Old Opry stuff. Sure enough, it’s right there! We just drove around the mall!
The back of Madame Tussands
This is as close as we got.
You can’t get in to see it unless you buy a tour. At an exorbitant price (in our humble opinion) of $31/person, it just wasn’t worth it for us. Of course, the other option is to buy a performance ticket, but those start at $40. I understand you see a lot of performers for that price, but the only people we were even remotely seeing while we’re here, performed on the night we arrived. Maybe we’ll have more luck at the Ryman – the original Opry House.
There’s so much construction going on in downtown Nashville, they should rename it “Crane City”! Even Blaine said he didn’t think he’d seen that many cranes in his lifetime of construction work! Besides these next few pictures, if you look, you’ll see construction in many of the others.
Driving into downtown
That’s the Ryman on the right. The old brick building.
We thought this would be the best picture of the Ryman we could get.
Our goal for today was just to walk around town and take it in. There were plenty of interesting old buildings, and a Visitor Center that’s nearly impossible to locate.
First Baptist Church – 1886
We loved the look of this building and were surprised to see it was a High School in 1912.
And even more surprised to see it’s still being used!
I’m assuming the dates on the bottom are building/restoration dates?
This is a Lutheran Church
The back of the Customs Building.
This building houses the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Look how the windows resemble a piano keyboard!
This is the Nashville Symphony building
The courtyard of the Symphony
Lunch was chosen from a list and based on our location at the time. Martin’s BBQ. It had bunches of rave reviews and has seating for 500. It operates like fast-food – you go in the door and order what you want and they bring it to you when it’s ready. Like Lawler’s was.
The sign is neon and the pig spins around
This place was nothing like Lawler’s. With the exception of the beans and macaroni (which wasn’t what we ordered), all the meat was room temperature. And they’re sauce is basically red-colored, vinegar flavored water with some spices in it. What you see on the plate? That cost us $40! (There’s one piece of brisket and a spoonful of beans missing, before I remembered to take the picture.)
This is the upstairs and also an exit to a street, which is the way we went out.
After lunch, we walked around town some more.
The hopping place is Broadway where all the Honky Tonks are located. Yeah. They call them Honky Tonks, but really they’re just bars. Mostly, all right next to each other. On both sides of the street. And they all have neon signs. And they all have bands that try to out-blast each other.
You know when you’re in a room and there’s lots of people, and the louder it gets, the louder people talk, and it just keeps getting louder and louder until you have to turn your ear directly to the person who’s shouting at you to even get a clue as to what they’re saying?
It’s like that.
We think this prominent street in Nashville seems sort of a cross between New Orleans and Las Vegas – New Orleans’ Bourbon Street with its music combined with the Vegas Strip’s neon.
And believe it or not, I’d choose New Orleans over Nashville any day of the week. For lack of a better explanation, New Orleans was much more respectful. No one there tries to out-do one another, and all the people who need help, work for their money doing something – singing, drumming on plastic tubs, writing poems, etc. In Nashville, it’s all just beggars. Some with signs, some slightly accosting you as you walk down the street and they ask for money.
: )
People from the Akron, Ohio area will get this. : )
They’ll get this one too! : )
This one has a spinning chicken
This is the Hard Rock Cafe
There are quite a few shoe and boot stores around.
Look at those fancy things!
Fancy price tags, too!
Some of the bars have a famous person’s name attached to them.
This is the original door to BB King’s Blues Club., which is still in open for business.
This building was originally a drug store and mercantile
When pigs fly!
Broadway ends at a Park on the Cumberland River, where you’ll see some modern art pieces, the Tennessee Titans football stadium and the Pedestrian Bridge. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it – – – tomorrow. : )
We ran across a reconstructed portion of a Fort that was mentioned as something to visit. Even that wasn’t much to see and it’s supposed to hold the history of how Nashville got it’s start.
So far our trip to town has not been particularly stellar – other than seeing the old buildings. Nice. Interesting. But not stellar. . . .
But then we found – – –
– – Ice cream!! In a candy shop! The ice cream was also homemade and seemed by all external appearances to be a Christian establishment. Blaine ordered Praline (which tasted just like the candy!) and I had Peach (because the Praline was just too sweet for me). Both were yummy!!
Time to head home.
Traffic jam! Ugh! We could see the expressway wasn’t moving and cars were lining up to get on, so we kept going straight until eventually we were able to get on with no problem. We heard later that it was an 11 mile back up due to an accident. Glad we weren’t caught in it! There was enough traffic as it was.
You’d think New Orleans would be the chaotic place, but that’s definitely Nashville. In addition to the very loud music, you’ve got the construction noise from multiple locations, and people talking loudly-sometimes yelling, and traffic. Lots and lots of traffic.
It’s crazy.
We’re going back tomorrow.
TOTAL HIKING MILES: 6
Year To Date: 261
Daily Average: 2.63