Nashville, Tennessee

We drove three and a half hours to Nashville last night, the home of Country Music, also the home of Ken Yanicky.  Ken is from Pittsford and was John’s good buddy and partner in crime at Xerox before John retired and Ken left Xerox for greener pastures.   

Ellie, Andrea, Tex,Tyler, Ken & Ruby (in front)

We were able to stop at Ken and Andrea’s house, meet their two beautiful daughters, Tyler and Ellie and of course Tex and Ruby, the dogs.  We caught up with current news and John and Kenny shared laughs reminiscing about ‘the good old days’ (Ken is all of 34 years old).  We had a great visit.  

 We weren’t able to see a show at the grand Ole Opry but we did the next best thing ~ we went to the famous Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. 

 

 Tootsie’s has been a landmark in Nashville since the early days of the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium.  The history is that Tootsie’s is located right behind the Ryman Auditorium so many of the famous performers from the Opry would come into Tootsies before or after their performance.  Even today it’s not uncommon for Country Stars to show up unannounced.  We didn’t notice any stars but I’m not sure we would have recognized anyone because it was so crowded ~ even on a Tuesday night.  

Tootsie’s is located on Broadway, better known as Honky Tonk Highway, where you can just stand on the street and hear the country music pouring out from every doorway.  This area reminded us of Beale Street in Memphis but on this particular night it was much more lively and of course the music was country, not blues. 

Playing at the Grand Ole Opry that night, among others, was Keith Urban. 

I was disappointed not to be able to see him and even more disappointed when Andrea told me that she sees him with his wife Nicole (that’s Nicole Kidman) at Starbucks, down the street from her house,  every week!