Seven Points Campground, Nashville, Tennessee
“Very well then, “ he (Joseph’s steward) said, “let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave; the rest of you will be free from blame.” ~ Genesis 44:10 Well, that’s not exactly what they said, is it? But it certainly seems more reasonable. Maybe there was other dialog not recorded in Scripture. Are you a “blanket manager” in your home? Your place of work? I don’t know if that’s an actual term, but I’ve used it for years. In my usage, it means that you know there’s been an offense, but rather than root out and reprimand the person actually responsible, you inflict punishment (in whatever form that takes) over everyone. What do you think of this system of judgment? I don’t believe it’s God’s way, but it is the world’s way. I tend to be guilty of it myself on occasion, but I’m working on it. How about you?
We ventured into Nashville today, stopping at a few different places, the first one being the Gaylord Opryland Resort. Oh my! What an awesome place! There are 2,888 rooms and 9 acres of indoor gardens! We adored the garden areas! Our only problem was that once we found parking that wasn’t reserved for guests, there were no sidewalks to get you to the building, even though the parking was on their property! So we walked through several parking lots around this gigantic building until we found the front door.
I know ours hung open a lot as we walked around in here!
Then close your mouth again. : )
This is the restroom hallway!
The fireplace was putting out heat.
Once we finished oooing and ahhhing at the resort, we drove over to the Parthenon just to amble around the park for a bit.
Do you remember the Parthenon from four years ago? It’s a full-scale replica of the Parthenon in Greece that was built in 1897. It was supposed to be temporary, just for Tennessee’s Centennial Expo, but the city decided to keep it. They now have a giant 42’-tall gold statue of Athena. She was added in 1990, and took eight years to build. Enquiring minds want to know how they got her in here and upright and if she’s really made of gold, right?!?
Athena was cast out of gypsum cement in many molds and assembled inside the Parthenon. Each section was attached to a steel armature for support.
The Athena statue was constructed from 1982 to 1990. It stood in the Nashville Parthenon as a plain, white statue for 12 years. In 2002, the Parthenon gilded (gold leaf) Athena with Alan LeQuire and master gilder Lou Reed in charge of the project. The gilding project took less than four months and makes Athena appear that much closer to the ancient Athena Parthenos. In addition to gilding, the project included painted details on her face, wardrobe, and shield. ~ nashvilleparthenon.com
Here’s some interesting information I found their website about a tour they provide:
The Nashville Parthenon, originally built for Tennessee’s 1897 Centennial Exposition, is a replica of the historic Parthenon in Athens, Greece. Built between 447 and 438 BCE in the Age of Pericles, the Parthenon was dedicated to the city’s patron deity, Athena. This magnificent temple would become the largest Doric Greek temple, although it was innovative in that it mixed the two architectural styles of Doric and Ionic.
Our architecture tours focus on the original construction of the Parthenon in Athens, including its architectural features and advanced techniques. The tours explore the remarkable skill of the Athenians to construct their mighty temple in less than a decade and to work at a level of extraordinary precision without the benefit of modern tools. Additionally, the tours explain the 2,500 year architectural history of the Parthenon as it is set on fire, converted to a Christian church, converted to an Ottoman mosque, shattered by exploding gunpowder, and looted for its stunning sculptures. ~ nashvilleparthenon.com
And a few other interesting facts? Her spear is made from a McDonald’s flag pole! Ha! The 24’ double doors at the entrance are one foot thick and weigh seven and a half tons, but you can move them easily.
Okay. That’s enough information on something we didn’t even go in to see this time!
We then drove closer to downtown, parked and went looking for a light lunch. By now, you can probably imagine how that went. We can’t ever seem to manage ‘light’ when it comes to food. There will be no dinner tonight . . . we ended up at Chipotle, with each of us ordering one of their bowls. And just in case you visit a Chipotle near you? They charge $2.35 extra for about a quarter cup of guacamole, which we didn’t know. So not only was our meal heftier than we were planning, it was also carried a heftier price tag.
But it sure was tasty!!!! And I say, pretty dog-gone healthy, too.
Downtown Nashville presented a general sense of deep-seated ickiness, coupled with feelings of claustrophobia for me. Blaine had to ask me to free his hand because I was squeezing it so hard.
I didn’t care for Nashville four years ago when we were here, and nothing’s changed. It was early afternoon and there were so many people, you could hardly walk. Plus a bevy of scantily clad young (and older) women, and drunken girl parties being driven up and down the streets. I know my ickiness came from the Holy Spirit.
I tried not to take any pictures that included them.
There are two “Desert Storm” trucks, behind that is a “Tractor Pull” and beside that is one of those “Pedal Cars”.
I believe they were all loaded with drinking, loud women.
Most seemed to be bridal parties because each group was dressed alike.
Can you guess why? : )
In addition, there were yucky smells in some areas – like fermenting garbage. And one area, where you had to walk to get to the steps to the bridge, had lots of trash laying and blowing around, prompting me to mutter “They should call it Trashville instead of Nashville…”. The entire downtown area just has an aura of filth about it. But this is just my opinion. Obviously many, many others would disagree.
There were nice things in town – like the walk over the bridge where we listened to a cello player, and a visit to the outside of their capital building. Unfortunately, you can only go inside Monday – Friday. ☹ But outside was nice. It looks more like the 1700s, but the cornerstone was laid in 1845. For some reason, it wasn’t completed until 1859. Still, that’s 100 years before Blaine and I were born! 😊
This is a public restroom at the Visitor Center.
I stood there and looked at it for several seconds before deciding to try it. lol
The counter is tilted slightly towards the back and all the water flows into a crevasse behind the spigots.
But seriously, the town of Nashville has a lot of positive qualities, but I informed Blaine that I will never venture onto Broadway Street (where all the bars are) in downtown again.