Our second day in Nashville started a little slow. We went to the Belle Mead Plantation which is a working farm and an antebellum southern plantation. It was okay, but I’ve done plantations before and I get confused over all the names and dates. I guess I’m not a history nerd.

The good thing about Belle Mead was that there is a winery there, and I love wine tastings, so we did that. It’s the only winery in Tennessee and I loved the wines so I bought two bottles to take home.

Yes, I realize that bottles of wine take up more room than mugs but I’m going to be okay with my suitcase!

Then we went to a mall that the tour book said was over a million square feet of shops, which might be true but it seemed like a good quarter or more of them were closed. We finally found an O’Charley’s and had lunch.

After lunch, we decided to go to the Grand Ole Opry and it was a great decision! We loved the backstage tour so much we decided (or rather Elizabeth decided, as she’s the one who paid) to stay and see a show!

We had about an hour and a half to two hours to kill so we went to the Gaylord Opryland Resort to look around.

Last year, before the big flood, RWA was holding its annual conference there so I was supposed to stay there and even had a reservation already. I wanted to see what it was like.

It is, of course, magnificent, but I wonder how long it would take to figure out how to get in and out and where to go if I had gone to a conference there.

We ate dinner, which was super expensive, but super yummy. Elizabeth paid again and I had gotten her some music jewelry as a thank you for this trip and all. She is a bell ringer so the music symbols were appreciated.

Then we went to the show. Fabulous. We had third row seats and had a wonderful time. I signed up for a Opry Visa (which I do not need) but I got a free t-shirt and a chance to go backstage during the show. Didn’t win, but I have some new and old stars I think I will be following.

Tonight, I’m tired, but we have one more full day here so I think we’re doing another mansion and then the Country Music Hall of Fame.