Tour of stars homes and tourist attractions in Nashville
May 29 to June 3, 2008. We normally look for 1/2 price PPA Campgrounds COE Campgrounds or National Park Campgrounds. But in Nashville, over the Memorial Day weekend Two Rivers Campground is our choice.
Visiting honky tonk row is one of the main attractions in Nashville but there are other things to do.
Hen Turkey at Seven Points Corps of Engineers COE Campground
One day we rode out to Seven Points Corps of Engineers Recreation Area & Campground to check things out. While checking out the campground we spotted this hen turkey keeping the place insect free.
Percy Priest Lake near Nashville
This is Percy Priest Lake just above the dam. It is a good size body of water and just 10-miles from downtown Nashville.
Joyce won a door prize at Two Rivers Campground's Memorial Day party. Part of her loot was 2-free tickets to Tommy's Tours of Nashville. We did a tour of Nashville the last time we visited now we are about to take our 2nd tour, this time with Tommy's Tours. Tommy has a nice 20-passenger van that he does his tour in. Tommy is a comedian & tour guide and gifted at both. Tommy's Tour van picked us up at Two River's Campground. We had an international group of extroverts on the tour and Tommy was working the group like a pro. One couple from New Zealand was eager to engage in verbal banter with Tommy so he worked it into his routine.
Tennessee State Capitol Building Nashville
As we rounded a corner near the State Capitol building Tommy had the group look to the left and asked the lady from New Zealand if she could tell if this was the front door or the back door. From where we were on the street this doorway appeared between a series of massive columns. This was an impressive entrance in anyone's book but looking closely through this door and you can see several more massive columns and that statue.
This is a closer look at the statue. Quickly the New Zealand lady identified this as the "back door".
Tennessee State Capitol Building Nashville, Tennessee
This is the State Capitol building. The above statute was located in the midst of those columns on the left. The pictures were taken from the street on the back side of that building.
Ronnie Milsap's home in Nashville
From downtown Tommy took us to look at some of the Stars homes. One of the first stops was Ronnie Milsap's place. For those of you that might need a memory jogger Ronnie Milsap is the blind songwriter & piano player.
Martina McBride's Home in Nashville
Not far down the street was Martina McBride's estate. Martina was on the road. Tommy knew that because he keeps track of her by keeping track of her Prevost bus. He did tell us that the black vehicle in the pictures was Martina's and wondered aloud why it was not in the garage. Martina parks her Prevost out back by her tennis courts. We had already driven by the back side of her estate which borders the Tennessee Governor's residence. That is where he told us she parks her touring bus (the Prevost) when she is in town.
Martina McBride's Home in Nashville
Tommy told us that Martina got her Nashville break by employing a healthy dose of moxie. Knowing that RCA Records was looking for new female talent and knowing that RCA did not accept unsolicited mail and not having any contacts she resorted to pure moxie. She sent RCA a large purple envelope marked "Requested Material" with a biography, some pictures and two demo tapes. Her husband dropped it off at RCA. Three weeks later they got a call asking her to come in for an interview. The rest is history two weeks later she did her first opening gig for Garth Brooks.
Keith Urban & Nicole Kidman's home
The next home that I was able to get a picture of was the estate of Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman. This was a long distance shot from the entrance to the gated community.
Lee Ann Rhyms home
This home belongs to Lee Ann Rhyms. In the background on the mountain you can see Keith Urban & Nicole Kidman's home. Lee Ann was born with a set of magical pipes. She was performing at an early age and even cut a few albums that didn't go anywhere but did attract the attention of disc jockey & country songwriter, Bill Mack, who was fascinated by Rhyms's Patsy Cline-styled voice. Besides being a well known national country radio disc jockey Mack is known as a top songwriter and promoter. His best known song is "Blue," one of Lee Ann Rimes' biggest hits. The song won Mack the Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1997. Now you are hopefully getting the connection! In 1995, Mack arranged a recording contract for Rimes and sent out a demo release of the song "Blue", a song Mack had originally intended for legendary country-pop music singer, Patsy Cline to record. Cline's death in March 1963 stalled this plan. The DJ claimed that he had been waiting over 30 years for the right singer to record "Blue" for him. Soon, Rimes was recording her newest album (also called Blue), which was released to the general public in 1996. The rest is history.
Now you know the story behind the owner of this house. VBG
Faith Hill & Tim McGraw's home
This is Faith Hill & Tim McGraw's home. This is the home of two of the most successful artists in Nashville.
Ronnie Dunn (Brooks & Dunn) owns this fine estate
This beautiful home and front yard belongs to Ronnie Dunn the lead singer for Brooks & Dunn.
Ronnie Dunn's home
This is a close up of Ronnie Dunn's home. I would say Ronnie has done good. VBG
Alan Jackson's barn
This is a "long-distance" shot of Alan Jackson's barn. Yes his barn! The barn has a "guest house" apartment built in up stairs. I suppose those windows in the middle are for the "guest-apartment" as Denise describes it in her book: It's All About Him: Finding the Love of My Life.
Alan Jackson's home
This the house that goes with that barn. This house and that barn are part of an old 140-acre horse farm. Of course that barn is about 1/4 mile from Allen's home. Even those of you not familiar with Country Music probably know who Allen Jackson is but are not likely to know exactly how accomplished this singer/songwriter really is. His accomplishments keep piling up but I think he has 52 number 1 hit songs. George Strait has 46. The difference is that Allen wrote 40 of his number 1 hit songs! As far as royalties go singing a number one song is a home run. Writing the song and performing it is like a bases loaded home run and Allen has 40 of these! No one else comes close.
Sweetbriar, Alan Jackson's estate
When you have a home like that it demands a name and Sweetbriar is that cognomen.
Alan Jackson's mansion
And one final look at Allen Jackson's 27,000 square foot estate where he lives with his wife and three daughters. One thing you can't see in this picture is the 19-car garage. Tommy (our tour guide) says that Allen likes to drive an old green Ford pickup truck and on occasion will stop and visit with people on the tour. Denise tells some good stories about Allen and his love of cars in her book. . Tommy told us Allen and his wife moved to Nashville after graduating high school and Allen began working a day job and playing the honky tonks. He did this for 8-years before his wife, who was working as a stewardess, met Glen Campbell and told him about her struggling husband. Glen gave her a business card for his publisher and told her to have him a call. Of course Glen called his publisher and greased the skids but the rest is history.
Dolly Parton's estate
And the last star's residence we visited was none other than Dolly Parton.
One day we went for an afternoon cruise on the General Jackson Showboat that boards jusd down the road from where we are staying at Two Rivers Campground. Check these links to read about our adventure on the General Jackson Showboat: Peking Acrobats, Delta Queen, General Jackson, Joyce touring the wheelhouse on the General Jackson.
Until next time remember how good life is. Click here for more Nashville Attractions Click here for Nashville Honky Tonks Click here for Nashville Musicians Click here for more of our Tennessee Travel Adventures
More Tennessee AdventuresSome of our Miscellaneous Subjects ** More 2008 Travel Adventures
Mike & Joyce Hendrix
Mike & Joyce Hendrix who we are We hope you liked this page. If you do you might be interested in some of our other Travel Adventures: Mike & Joyce Hendrix's home page Travel Adventures by Year ** Travel Adventures by State ** Plants ** Marine-Boats ** Geology ** Exciting Drives ** Cute Signs ** RV Subjects ** Miscellaneous Subjects
We would love to hear from you......just put "info" in the place of "FAKE" in this address: FAKE@travellogs.us Until next time remember how good life is.
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