We were up early and headed over to Mammoth
Cave National Park. We had reservations
for a 8:45 Dome and Dips Cave tour, so wanted to see the visitor’s center
before that. A very well done visitor
center with lots of good videos, hands-on exhibits, and lots of background
about the World's largest cave system. As
of this month, it is 405 miles in length, all over just a seven mile in width
area. The map shows its tunnels looking
like a pile of spaghetti. It was first
explored by white people and opened for tours over 200 years ago. There is evidence that the Native people used
it long before then. At first, the cave was privately owned by a slave holder. We discovered a sad truth that the first
really proficient explorer and guide was an enslaved man, Stephen Bishop. And they are still actively exploring and
mapping out new sections all the time.
Our guide was a young ranger who did a fine job keeping the
group together and sharing interesting facts and stories about the cave. Although there was a big crowd of people, we
made a point of staying right up at the front, so we heard all the best
stories. She was also great at answering
our many questions.
Our tour of 110 people was one of moderate
difficulty, including climbing nearly 500 steps up and down. Some of it was a bit narrow, but no crawling
was required.
Our tour was actually typical of most of Mammoth Cave. Most of the cave is what is known as a “dry
cave.” This means there is not water
flowing down through the ceilings of the passageways. When water flowed in the cave, it flowed
along passages in the form of underground rivers. But, now we were high above the water table
so nearly all of the cave was dry. What
we primarily saw were with flat ceilings, pits, and high domes, with passages
coming out in many directions.
Although this tour did not focus as much on
fancy rock formations, we did pass into a “wet cave” area shortly before we
exited. Here we saw examples of
stalactites and stalagmites, plus columns and curtains. These were quite lovely and more of what we
had seen in other caves such as Carlsbad Caverns, Wind Cave, and Jewel
Cave. We both like caves and appreciate
a good cave tour. We took a lot of
pictures…surprise! But, because it was
so dark down there, only a few came out okay.
After our tour, in lovely 58 degree cave temperatures, we
came out into the heat and humidity which would be our lot for the next number
of days. Our eye glasses immediately
fogged up as we tried to adjust to the 90 degree temperature and find our way
to the bus to take us back to the visitor center (fogged glasses).
It was around a two-hour drive south on I-65 to get to
Nashville, TN. Dick had driven by Nashville
several times, but had never stopped to see anything. We had only one Sunday afternoon, so wanted
to do our best to get a good taste of the city where so much music was born. Nashville
known as “Music City.” It is, in many
ways, the capital of Country Music.
We had thought we would go visit the
Grand Ole Opry and see an evening show.
However, Sunday it was dark, with nothing happening there. We made a different choice and to the Ryman
Auditorium, which opened in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle to give a
rivalist preacher a permanent home. Unique to the times in the South, the
church was open to everyone. Even when
the church could no longer support the building, in spite of Jim Crow laws, most
future events were inclusive. Upon the
death of the man who raised the money for the building, Thomas Ryman, the
building was renamed in his honor.
To keep the building open, it was frequently rented for
other types of events. The auditorium
became known for its fine acoustics, sometimes called the Carnegie Hall of the
South. W.C. Fields, Will Rogers, Charlie Chaplin, Bob Hope, Harry
Houdini, and John Philip Sousa (among others) performed at the venue over the
years. Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard
Taft spoke at the Ryman. Eleanor
Roosevelt spoke there in 1938.
It was a big deal when the Grand Ole Opry
moved there in 1943. This show was being
broadcast on radio each week. Although
not intended to be a stage show, increasingly, people wanted to attend these
weekly events. The show needed more
space, eventually settling on the over 3000 seat Ryman. Characters such as Minnie Pearl, Roy Acuff,
and Hank Williams were regulars. Blue
grass music reached a broad audience for the first time through this show. All the country music stars made sure they
appeared on the Ryman stage.
When the Opry left for new custom facilities, the Ryman
was left abandoned. Facing demolition, a
community group rose to protect their Ryman Auditorium. They raised the money to purchase and
renovate the Ryman. Artists who love the
old place rallied to support it’s saving.
Today, the building appears to be secure, lovingly restored, and the
venue for a wide variety of events. Of
course, our tour fee contributed to the support of the building. The interpretation was excellent in the
auditorium and we both really enjoyed seeing, hearing and reading all about
this amazing building and what happened there.
Following this, we walked a few blocks to another fine
musical museum, this one dedicated to Johnny Cash. We both were Cash fans, but were unaware of
many of the things he had done during his long career. Something that was really interesting was
that he had recorded on reel-to-reel, vinyl records, 8 track, cassette tape,
cd’s and mp3’s. One of the exhibits
allowed you to listen to him sing the same song in each of these formats. Fascinating!
And we both found the best richest sound was on vinyl.
The place was filled with fun artifacts, hand written lyrics
to his songs, lots of videos, and interactive exhibits. One section focused on all of the different performers
who had recorded his music, from Hank Williams and the Staler Brothers to Leonard
Nemoy and Miley Cirrus. Over 150
different groups had recorded covers of “Ring of Fire” alone.
There was
also an interactive exhibit of the mixing of a recording prior to releasing a
song. We had earphones to hear the impact
of raising and lowering the volume of the different tracks of a song. Dick had worked sound boards at several
churches so he especially had a good time mixing and remixing the songs.
And, as we expected, there were several sections with video
of Cash performing. Although Dick is not
much of a country music fan, both of us enjoyed watching and listening to Cash
sing his songs in concert. We left this
museum delighted with having found it.
We poke our heads a bit into some of the bars along the famous
Broadway Avenue and hear lots of live music being played and spilling out in to
the streets, but we were ready to stop for the day and so drove on to our
hotel, filled up with music.
No comments:
Post a Comment