My favorite aspect of the house was the wallpaper in the central foyer on both floors. Notice the faux half-wall that gives the appearance of greater height when viewed (properly) from the front. This side shot demonstrates the wings that were added to both sides by Jackson’s daughter. A major interior restoration was completed in 1997. The house was dramatically updated and expanded twice before 1850. No photography is allowed inside, but a few photos are on the website.Ĭostumed docents guide visitors through the house, pointing out features and providing a historical reference. After standing in line for 45 minutes (in the off-season! Ugh!), I was allowed into the house. I picked up a nifty hand-held audio tour unit, skimmed through the museum, and launched myself toward the house. This means that, barring the reproduced floor coverings and draperies, the house and its contents are nearly 100% original and reflect plantation life in the 1800s.Ī $20 admission fee allowed me to view a brief movie about Jackson’s life, military career, presidency, family and home. Ownership and custody of the 1,000-acre Hermitage, outbuildings, and contents passed directly from Jackson’s descendants to the Ladies’ Hermitage Association (now the Andrew Jackson Foundation) in 1889. A 10-minute history of this presidency and major accomplishments is on this page of The Hermitage website. However, he is known as “the people’s president” for his championship of the rights of the common man, and refusal to allow corruption in his cabinet. ![]() Jackson is a controversial president for his ownership of slaves and the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1831. I absolutely had to make a trip to The Hermitage, President Andrew “Stonewall” Jackson’s home. We enjoyed our 2-mile walk through the muddy woods, admiring the spring wildflowers and splashing in the creek. There’s also a free hiking trail sponsored by Mars brands. It’s now a pretty large recreation complex, with a winery, restaurant, zip lines, and outdoor concert venue. The best hiking we did was at Fontanel, a large estate outside Nashville formerly owned by Barbara Mandrell. There is an excellent large, clean dog park which we visited two or three times to play ball. Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed on the walking trail (first time I’d seen that in a public park!) so we had to walk the internal streets with other dog walkers instead. Moss-Wright Park in Goodlettesville is a terrific, 146-acre recreation facility just 10 minutes from the RV park. As usual, Shawn worked roughly 8-6 Monday through Friday, so Elvis & I primarily explored the local parks. On the plus side, Goodlettesville was a great base from which to explore Nashville. The site they gave us was a nice long pullthrough – but we had swampy ground on the off-side, and we were literally five feet from our neighbor on the door side! Our campsite was the closest one to the aforementioned highway, so we got the brunt of the noise. This meant that every 30 seconds, engines would rev as modified pickups, semi trucks, and commuters vied for first place to the next stoplight. The highway actually would not have been an issue, except that a stoplight was immediately adjacent to the park. The park is sandwiched between a VERY active train track and a busy 4-lane highway, the main thoroughfare through town. While the park is very clean and the staff is friendly and capable, we were not thrilled with the location of the park or our site situation. ![]() I made reservations almost two months in advance at the Grand Ole RV Park in Goodlettesville, about 20 minutes north of the city. Just one of the many HUGE building sites we saw downtown. ![]() So, even this early in the season, finding a park/site was challenging. Construction cranes and metal skeletons fill the air downtown, and I imagine that the suburbs are exploding at an even faster rate. We were told that Nashville is growing at a rate of 150 people PER DAY, or about 50,000 per year. There aren’t a vast number of RV Parks in the immediate vicinity of Nashville. But we did enough to keep me “busy.” Here are the highlights. We spent three weeks in Tennessee this spring, beginning with two weeks in the Nashville area and a week at the 2018 East Coast HDT Rally.Īs I recap the first two weeks, it doesn’t seem like we did a lot in Nashville. If this blog seems a little disjointed, it is it took me three months to write in fits and starts.
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