Our Airbnb apartment is just a few blocks from Vanderbilt University. So in addition to the small number of tourists in the area we are provided with plenty of students for our people-watching activities.

Vanderbilt was founded in 1873 by the Methodist Church using an initial $1 million endowment from Cornelius Vanderbilt, the shipping and rail tycoon.

​There’s evidence that on-campus activities are very different due to Covid-19. A mask is required everywhere, indoors and out. Students are allowed to remove them in their dorm rooms. 😁 Even the statue of Vanderbilt wears a mask. Huge tents have been setup in the Commons for students to social distance while eating their meals or studying. It may be the time of day that I normally walk through, but I rarely see them used. Mostly I see students with cafeteria take-out meals headed back to their dorm room. A bellwether of the times is a sign encouraging try-outs for an a cappella group - which will be conducted virtually. Let’s hope that the school doesn’t have an outbreak which causes administrators to require all classes to go virtual.

It’s a pleasant morning as I pack a picnic lunch for our outing to Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage. Like many tourist locations in these Covid-days, tickets must be purchased in advance online, so I also take care of that detail and around noon we jump into the car for the short 14 mile drive.

Beginning in 1804 Hermitage was the home of Andrew Jackson, who became the 7th President of the United States. From 1804 - 1821 he and his wife Rachel and their family lived in a log cabin on the estate. There were also log cabins for their slaves and work buildings such as a smokehouse and barns. We walk through this section of the property listening to a self-tour while we wait for our 1:30 pm tour of the mansion.

Following the tour we stroll through the garden and visit the tombs of Andrew and Rachel as well as the small family cemetery.

​We’re getting hungry and it is easy to find a table under a nice shade tree. We pull out our picnic and enjoy the lovely estate on a pleasant day.

William’s foot is feeling better and he thinks it’s time for a longer outing. It’s good to have a rewarding destination, and William chooses the cigar lounge "Casa de Montecristo" on the eastern edge of The Gulch as the reward.

​We take our time on the walk to the lounge. Once inside William consults with a salesman and chooses a cigar from humidor room while I settle into a comfortable chair.  We order drinks and the Travel Trolls make a visit. We talk and people-watch while the size of William’s cigar diminishes. When it’s just a stub we gather ourselves and make the mostly uphill but shaded walk back to Music Row. It was a rewarding, relaxing destination.

On my walks I like to explore neighborhoods near Music Row. Today I walk further into the area known as The Gulch. It is filled with chic hotels, high-end fashion boutiques and trendsetting restaurants and bars. The Frist Art Museum and the Union Station hotel anchor it firmly on Broadway Street to the north and Interstate 65 to the South.

​On weekends the area is usually filled with people, especially at night. The volume of abandoned scooters left on or beside the sidewalk speaks to their popularity as transport to the start of an evening.  Saturday mornings there is an outdoor yoga class. Along with all the restaurants and bars one of the major tourist draws is the Nashville What Lifts You Wings Mural by Kelsey Mountague. There is queue for taking photo’s in front of the mural even on a Sunday morning during these reduced-tourism Covid times!

It’s Sunday, fun day. This afternoon we load up the Nashville Downtown Public Art and Murals walking tour on my smartphone and drive to the Bridgestone Arena to begin our tour.

During the two mile tour we not only see art and murals but also Nashville sites such as Music City Center, the Walk of Fame, Symphony Center and the Ryman Auditorium.

​We cross Broadway a couple of times, chuckling at the number of people overflowing into the streets outside the bar-restaurants which are hosting live music. There are lines of people waiting to get a seat and other people just partying on the pavement. If this is what it’s like on a Sunday afternoon during this low-tourist time it has to be absolutely crazy on a Saturday night in normal times. Everyone is supposed to be wearing masks and there are people handing them out on street corners as well as Police asking people to wear them.
Our walk with all of it’s stops and our slow pace (especially going up the hills) takes us just under two hours - enough exercise for an afternoon.

As we researched and built a list of cities to explore in Tennessee, Chattanooga kept coming up, so of course we have to go take a look!

Chattanooga is a two hour drive and we hit the road around 8 am with plans to have a late breakfast somewhere along the drive. As I search for restaurants I keep coming up with chains - not what we want. Finally I find Dixie Lee Diner in the town of Monteagle and just five minutes off of I25. It’s a cute little diner with just one other patron. The menu is basic, but our omelettes and the biscuits are very good.

Our next stop is Ruby Falls which now requires online advanced sale tickets timed every 15 minutes. As we drive along I go online hoping to buy tickets for 11:15 or 11:30. I am surprised to see that the first tickets now available are for noon. I quickly buy them...only to then realize that Ruby Falls is in the Eastern, not Central time zone. Crud! We have 30 minutes until the start of the tour and Google Maps says we have a 24 minute drive through mountains to get there. With much luck we walk up to the ticket counter right at noon and the woman points us to our tour group which is just beginning to assemble.

Ruby Falls is a 145 foot waterfall found within an underground cavern. Our tour starts with an elevator ride to the floor of the cavern. The guide takes us through almost a half mile of paths to reach the falls, telling the history of the cave and it’s owners along the way. Once at the falls we are given 10 minutes to look around and take photos. It is interesting, but 10 minutes is sufficient. Then we backtrack much of the same way to reach the elevator. I am intrigued, seeing some of the cave formations from the reverse angles makes them just as interesting (or more so) as the first time we walked the path. After the tour William and I agree that it was worth the $20 admission.

We drive through some of the neighborhoods of central Chattanooga, checking out the housing. One thing is certain - Chattanooga is a hilly city. Some of the roads and driveways feel like they are at 45 degree angles. The downtown itself, lying along the banks of the Tennessee River has 10-12 square blocks of relatively flat land. The town is nice, but our first impression isn’t one that says we need to spend a lot of time here.

Marathon Village is a series of early 1900’s buildings which once housed Marathon Motor Works. Today it is a combination of eclectic shops, distillery tasting rooms, entertainment venues and museum. One of the shops is Antique Archeology, a second store for Mike Wolfe of American Pickers.

​We wander through the buildings, observing that perhaps half of the shops are closed due to the impact of Covid-19 and related restrictions on the tourism and entertainment industries.  Hopefully most of these businesses will survive.

Fort Negley was built by the Union troops in 1862 after they captured Nashville. It’s on a high hill less than 1.5 miles from Music Row. On this hot, humid afternoon we swing by the park for a short walk and and view of Nashville’s skyline.

The park has a stone archway which was built by the Civil Conservation Corps In the 1930’s, however none of the fort has survived. We enjoy the walk through the park looking at some of the plants and animals we encounter. They are using goats to manage the grass - a creative approach and appropriate for this hilly park.

We also get a decent view of downtown Nashville, so the 45 minutes we spend at the park is worth it - even in the heat and humidity.

​One of our goals this month is to check out some Nashville towns for a potential future home. We have heard good things about Franklin, 16 miles to our south and today (Saturday) we decide to do a little exploring.

We drive through the downtown area which is filled with small shops and a lot of mostly mask-faced people walking along the sidewalks. I’ve used Zillow to search some available properties and we drive through the neighborhoods. After looking at six or seven properties we return to Main Street to do some exploration using our feet.

The town is very cute, and feels a bit touristy. To it’s advantage it has good schools and an Irish Pub right downtown. But, it’s property costs reflect this as well as it’s location so close to Nashville. We put Franklin on the desirable but somewhat pricey list.

William and I expand our exploration of Nashville during our walks (okay, so I do a little more walking, but William joins me for one walk on most days). The Scarritt Bennett Center is just a few blocks up the hill from our Airbnb. It was a college for Christian workers from 1924 to 1980 and a graduate school until 1988. It’s now a retreat center. The tower of Wightman Chapel stands out against the Nashville sky and reminds me of the chapels in the English countryside.

​To the east along Broadway is Union Station, which was completed in 1900. It closed as a railroad station in the 1970’s and has been converted to a hotel. William and I stayed in the hotel about twenty years ago when it was a Marriott property. The rail lines still run on it’s western edge. On it’s eastern edge is the Frist Art Museum, occupying Nashville’s former main post office.

A little over a mile to the west of the Airbnb is Centennial Park with a full-sized replica of the Parthenon. It was built as part of the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition originally as a temporary structure and replaced with a permanent building in the 1920’s. We walk around the Parthenon and also enjoy Centennial Park one afternoon.

​Nashville is a city of music, which is unfortunately subdued due to the Covid-19 restrictions. Live music can still be found at some of the restaurants, but for most it has stopped, at least in our neighborhood. A smile comes across my face as I see a man riding a bike with a trailer holding his two guitars. I am not sure if he’s a street musician, on his way to a lesson, or about to start a set somewhere, but it’s uplifting to see.