Post #180099 by Mai Tai on Tue, Aug 16, 2005 3:16 PM

On 2005-08-16 14:31, thejab wrote:
Just from reading guide books I feel that Nashville may be disappointing for me as well, mainly because the big chains have taken over so much there. I could care less about the huge new Opryland casino, hotel, and mall.

They were in the process of doing that when I was in Nashville, and that was summer of 2000, so I imagine that the restructuring has grown. But for me the big disappointment was that their "downtown" strip was a small stretch of po-dunk nothingness. Really nothing to see or do, and really really run down, with only one or two refurbished and extremeley expensive hotels and the Hard Rock Cafe as the only points of interest. Think downtown Hayward Mission Blvd, only with one or two nice hotels. It made Park Street in Alameda seem like 5th Ave. I found more things to do in little towns like Henrietta Oklahoma than I did in Nashville. But then again, it was at night, and all of the major things to see where already closed, so that was my experience.

I can't believe they closed Dollywood amusement park and built a huge indoor shopping mall in its place!

Holy Shnikeys!!! I hadn't heard about that! Man, that is terrible! We didn't have a chance to make it to Dollywood on either of the trips that we made through there, and I really wanted to go. Bummer.

And it's been nearly impossible to find non-chain lodging in Nashville (with the exception of one very expensive historic hotel). I've given up so I'm just going to look for a cheap motel near the Omni Hut.

Yeah, when we wanted to cut back on lodging, we would stay at motels that were in nearby local towns about 30 miles away. You can usually stay in one of those for really really cheap, then get up in the morning and head into town to start your sightseeing.

I really don't understand the typical American tourist, who wants to eat at the same chains they have at home, stay in some boring chain "Inn", and shop at the same stores they have at home.

Yep, I hear ya. I definitely like to find where all the cool local independent shop, restaurants, etc are, and patronize those. Gotta keep those places in business, so the country doesn't become one giant Wal-Mart. Although we did frequent Cracker Barrel quite a bit, and would mostly stay at the cheapest places we could find whether they were a chain or not, as long as they were clean and safe. The cheaper our lodging price, the longer we could stay out on the road.

I'm mostly looking forward to the drives through the country and smaller towns like Macon. Their Georgia Music Hall of Fame sounds great. I'm also looking forward to seeing Chattanooga, Augusta, and Savannah. Athens sounds neat too but I won't have time to make the big detour from Macon to Athens and then Augusta in one day.

Yep, beautiful drives through the country there. I thought the prettiest was around the Chatanooga area, on the way to Lynchberg.

Another stop that I'm going to make is the Okefenokee Swamp, which sounds like a real beautiful spot.

Yeah, there are several cool swamp type places. Lake Okeechobbee is a good place as well. They have a few places over on the gulf side as well, outside of Tampa near Cypress Gardens. Make sure that you go on an airboat ride, they're definitely an "E" ticket! There is a great alligator farm place that gives great airboat rides down by Homestead and Florida City, but that is way south of Miami, and might be too far away from you. Lots of wildlife in the everglades - on top of wild alligators, we saw leatherback turtles, tons of poisonous snakes, and even a goat!

Have fun on your trip, wish I could go! Maybe we can together one of these days in Alameda before you head out, and talk about this stuff over a few drinks.