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Mal Beaton
Across the road from where we are staying is the "Grand Old Opry", a very famous Nashville concert hall. Next to it is Opryland Shopping Centre with a massive Outdoor Centre in front of the shopping centre, Karen beelined for the shops and I made for the outdoor centre. Outside was heaps of fishing boats and ATVs. I think I have found a new toy, an Artic Cat Wildcat (see photos). This would be so much fun. As you walk inside the sports store, the entrance looks like a hunting cabin complete with the stuffed animals. There is a sign at the entrance "Please check your weapons or crossbows". Oh well this is Tennessee. Walking inside the store, it is massive, probably the size of a Costco store. From the entrance you walk down s big aisle until you get to a massive fish tank, the top is made to look like a flowing creek with a small waterfall, a full size stuffed bear next to it and several large fish in the tank. I have no idea what the fish were. I headed towards the weapons section (of course) The first aisle of interest was the BB gun aisle, these are very realistic. There were m4 bn guns, assortments of pistols, the only difference is the red plug out into the barrel. I can see why police could mistake these for real weapons. Next to them was a slingshot complete with little ball bearings claiming a range of 200m. The next aisle was completely dedicated to pistol holsters. You can never have too many holsters. Got to the weapons section, holy snapping ducks***, three cabinets just of knives, included in the knives section are police type extendable batons including a pink one, handy for the ladies handbag. Moving to the pistol section we start with zap sticks (including pink ones) and lipstick pepper spray. The pistol section very impressive with Glock, Smith & Wesson, Browning, Walther, Remington and Heckler & Koch. Probably the most impressive were the Smith & Wesson revolver cannons (see photos) bit like a Dirty Harry pistol but bigger. On the back shelf was an assortment of shotguns, hunting rifles and automatic weapons (including M4s). There is so much stuff in this store including Ghilie suits. There was even a camouflaged pair of crocs (the ultimate hunting shoe ????), crosdbows, hides (for want of a better word, seats that are affixed up a tree), different pattern cam clothing, MREs, Cylum sticks and the list goes on. Had my outdoor shop fix so we drove into Nashville City to check out the action. Depending on how you look at it or if you don't like huge crowds Saturday afternoon may not be the best time to visit. The place was heaving, any place that had music was chokas. For example all three floors of Honky Tonk Central was overcrowded. Most places flowing out on the streets. We came across Coyote Ugly so had to go downstairs for a look, for the army blokes think of scums or wintergarden and you will get the smell (stale beer, smoke etc). It really wasn't much chop so we moved on. Had a wander around and checked out a few places but decided to drive back to our hotel. Within walking distance to our hotel we had four restaurants/bars that had good live music on. Next to the "Nashville Palace" is "Cooters Place Dukes of Hazard Museum and Shop" and yes I found Daisy Duke, she is on the front of several T-shirts. We went around the back to try a new bar, it was a steakhouse with a music deck. The musician was a young lady and she was really good, doing a mixture of rock and country. A few beers (again) and ribs (again) and we retired ready to scoot to Memphis tomorrow.
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