Yesterday we left Laurel and continued to drive north in our sleek, black Nissan Altima. Actually we stopped at Walmart in Laurel first and bought a few new clothes as well as an esky and some supplies. We stopped for lunch at the tourist rest area as we crossed the state line into Alabama and picked up a few brochures. We decided to visit Barber Motorsports Museum on the outskirts of Birmingham. It houses five floors of displays, mainly motorbikes but also Lotus race cars. The motorbikes were amazing - 1350 of them spanning 100 years of production. Everything in the museum is in running order and most have been restored. There were race bikes, a collection of military bikes and many historic bikes.
We finished our travelling in a little town north of Birmingham called Fultondale and ate dinner at a local sports bar.
Thursday saw us leave Fultondale, cross another state line and travel to Nashville, Tennessee. We are staying out near the Opry which is about 8 miles from downtown Nashville. Nearby there is an outlet mall so we spent the afternoon there and then ate at a little place called the Nashville Palace that is within walking distance of our hotel. There was a band to listen to so we enjoyed the country sounds for a few hours.
This morning we drove into downtown Nashville and parked the car. We walked to Ryman Theatre, home of the original Grand Ole Opry and saw the stage where many famous performers have entertained. There we're displays of the history as well as clothing worn by some of the stars like Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn. From there we walked and saw the stars on the Walk of Fame then went to the Country Music Hall of Fame where there were displays of artists, instruments and costumes of the stars as well as huge film archives of early performances and memorabilia - truly amazing. We stopped for lunch along a street that was filled with bars and restaurants and it seemed that each one had an artist performing - the music sounded generally good, all artists playing just for tips. After a bus trip up to the Farmers Market at the top of town we got back in the car and headed for home before our trip to the Opry tonight!