More Opryland and General Jackson's Showboat Cruise

The General Jackson is a 300 foot paddle boat, apparently one of the largest in the country. It has four large decks, a souvenir shop, a restaurant, a stage for a live band, and a huge theater in the center of the boat for musicals. We boarded the ship and found a nice seat with a lovely view in the back of the boat and took off up the Cumberland River. Since we were paddling upstream it took us about 40 minutes to travel maybe half a mile. We then turned around and headed back downstream. Don't know how wide the river is but it's wide enough for a 300 foot paddle boat to completely turn around with plenty of room from the bow and stern to the riverbank. It was a pretty weird feeling. It then took us about 10 minutes to travel back downstream the half mile plus another mile or so before we turned around again to head back to the dock. It took us over an hour and fifteen minutes to to get back to the dock. It was nice to sit back and enjoy the ride. A storm rolled in towards the end of the cruise but over all it was fun. I loved that the paddle was bright red. And my awesome do.



Next stop was they Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Resort. It wasn't too far from the dock for the cruise and after we got in the car and drove around in circles we ended up in the same parking lot we had just left. That was a slightly irritable ride! The hotel and convention center is HUGE! And it was packed full of kids there for a chess convention. Kids everywhere, in every nook and cranny! With very few adults, it was kind of weird. We finally found the atrium (the reason for visiting) and it was pretty amazing. It has 9 acres of indoor gardens that include a river (with a little riverboat), shops and restaurants (really expensive restaurants!). It was a bit of a maze inside. Especially when we were on a trail that was supposed to lead us to a connecting atrium and had to bypass a wedding ceremony and kind of got sidetracked. But later on I found these horse-people so it was all good.