NashvilleTennesee

We had to go through flooded areas to get to Nashville. But the roads were clear. That is why we went all the way to St. Louis so that we could cross the Mississippi River safely. (See picture)Made it to the largest country music town in the US. We took a city tour and the operator showed a lot of interesting sites, where they record the music,etc and also the homes of many of the country music stars. The homes are very large as expected but they sit on land with horses grazing and look actually quite homey. It is nice as the music stars raise their familes here and are sited at the supermarkets, home depot, etc and just treated like regular folks. The city isn't all that large really and it was very nice here. We of course went to the Grand Ole Opry and saw several singers. I don't really know who they were as we are not country music fans but we enjoyed the experience and just the fact to be in this famous place. It was something to see as they just finished refurbishing it after having a huge flood a year ago in which the whole bottom floor and the stage were under 4 ft of water. They have done an amazing job of fixing it all up like it used to be. The building is actually the second Grand Ole Opry as they outgrew the original site. But they saved a piece of the original floor of the first building and have installed it in the new stage floor. So the artists feel very honored to be standing on a piece of flooring where so many famous performers before them stood. 

Enough with the country music. We moved on to Alabama. The terraine has finally changed. It is quite flat here but with lots of trees along the highways. We have been just south of Birmingham for the last few days. Just stopped and smelled the roses (as they say). We were so lucky. They had a terrible tornado here just 3 weeks ago. There is a swath of destruction where it leveled everything. Along the highway there are many fallen huge trees and lightpost which are bent right in half. Awful to see and we feel so sorry for so many peole lost just everything. We met some nice people in our campground from New York. They gave us advice on where to go/stay etc when we head north. Everyone we meet is so friendly. It is funny because some of the locals sound just like Gomer Pyle. And everyone greets you with "How are y'all".

We are in south Alabama tonight. It is 5:30 and 35C outside. So guess we will be using the air conditioner tonight.