'American Pickers’ – Nashville Tennessee

American Pickers is an American reality television series that premiered back on January 18, 2010, on the History channel.  The show is now entering its 5^th season with more than 85 episodes to date…

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the TV series, it follows Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz as they travel around the United States, (mostly in the Midwest and South), buying or "picking" antiques and collectibles.  Danielle Colby-Cushman runs the office and home store for ‘Antique Archeology’, Mike’s business based in Le Claire, Iowa.   Frank sells what he acquires through his own website. 

 

In December 2011, American Pickers revealed that Antique Archaeology had leased space for a second store in a former 1910s car factory in Nashville, Tennessee.  The Marathon Automobile plant is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

It was our last day to explore Nashville’s attractions…and with both Laurie and Dawn being fans of the TV show, Mike’s store was on our list for a visit.

It was Sunday…and despite the store being located in an old auto plant a bit off the beaten track, the store was busy!  Lots of tourists were coming and going, looking and buying…and just plain gawking during our visit. (Laurie and I remember the show when the boys bought the pig’s head…and Frank tried it on!)

Mike and Frank explore people's homes, barns, sheds and outbuildings…anywhere where they’ve stored or hoarded junk, antiques and collectibles. They search the country for potential picking goldmines.  Much of what they buy during these forays into the country side wouldn’t get a second glance from the casual passerby.  Mike has a particular interest in antique motorcycles, air-cooled Volkswagens, old bicycles and penny-farthings.  Frank has a fondness for antique toys, oil cans, and old Hondas.  They’ve purchased old advertisements and commercial signage, film posters, motorcycle parts, bicycles, railroad lanterns, a rare 15-gallon visible gasoline pump, and even some old cars that appear to be total wrecks. 

The shop in Nashville is interesting and definitely eclectic!  We noticed that many of the items aren’t for sale…just part of the décor.  Gloves, t-shirts and souvenirs make up a lot of the business… It was $25.00 for a t-shirt at Antique Archaeology.  We understood that we'd just missed a visit by Mike to his store.

This is one of the treasures on display in the store… It’s one of the most famous characters in the history of American advertising. It was the Fisk Tire Company's sleepy boy.  He shouldered an oversize tire while dangling a lighted candle.  The ad came with the slogan "Time to Re-tire".  We know that this image is pre-1929, because the yawn was turned into a smile in that year and 2-piece pajamas were added in 1930.  In its day, this character was so popular that Norman Rockwell did a series of paintings based on the little boy who was ready for bed, lugging a large Fisk tire on his arm.

The Fisk Tire Company was founded in 1898 by Noyes W. Fisk and his son Harry.  Originally a manufacturer of bicycle tires, the company soon became a major producer of automobile tires.  By 1916, Fisk was producing 5,000 tires per day.  In 1940, Fisk was acquired by U. S. Rubber, which changed its name to Uniroyal in 1967 and then merged with B. F. Goodrich in 1986.  Michelin bought the company in 1990 and Fisk-branded tires are still sold today through the Discount Tire Company’s 850 + stores in 25 states. 

Laurie loves carrousel and hobby horses… Forget the horse!  Just the price of this horse’s Roy Rogers Child Saddle gave me palpations!  However you can pick it up for 'only' $650.00!

I don’t know what this wooden cutout was for…obviously to promote some event many years ago. Maybe a shooting gallery target stand-up?  When  you aim at him & shoot, his eyes light up? One of many guesses...Laurie and I both remember the show when Mike and Frank picked up this item… It is indeed a bit strange, albeit eye-catching. 

There are Facebook and all kinds of Internet connections for Mike, Frank and the Antique Archaeology stores.  For information re: the stores, go to http://antiquearchaeology.com/index.html.  This particular store is located at 1300 Clinton Street, Suite 130 (Marathon Village), in Nashville Tennessee. 

FYI, Mike and Frank’s able assistant on the show, Danielle Colby Cushman, a former roller derby skater and burlesque show entrepreneur, has her own clothing boutique, ‘4 Miles 2 Memphis’, in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago.  To learn more about this TV Reality Show, you can go to http://www.history.com/shows/american-pickers.

One more photo inside the Antique Archaeology Store… They have a little stage area set up just to the right of the entrance to the store and there is a bit of live entertainment offered…probably on weekends only…but I don’t know for sure.

In any case, this is “A Man Called Bruce”.  Reflecting the musical heritage of his home in Cleveland Tennessee, A Man Called Bruce’s music is rooted in rock, country, and blues.  Laurie did buy one of his CDs… For more about “A Man Called Bruce”, (I couldn’t find his real or original name anywhere), check him out at http://www.reverbnation.com/amancalledbruce or https://www.facebook.com/AManCalledBruce.

Marathon Motor Works was an early automobile manufacturer based in Tennessee. It grew out of an earlier company called Southern Engine and Boiler Works founded in 1889, which made industrial engines and boilers in Jackson, Tennessee. As such, the firm had metal-working and power plant experience which could easily be transferred into the then-new and rapidly expanding automobile industry. From 1907 to 1914, the company manufactured the Marathon automobile.  This particular plant was opened in 1910…

This is a very rare Marathon automobile.  I borrowed this photo from Wikipedia… Allegedly, although thousands of Marathon autos were built, only 8 or 9 examples are known to exist today.  At least two of them are can be found in the old Nashville plant facility…the same building that houses Antique Archaeology.  For more information on this site and its comeback as a 'go to location' in Nashville, just go to http://www.marathonvillage.com/zenphoto/album02/.

This coffee shop is in the old Marathon plant facility just down the way from the Antique Archaeology store.  Appropriately, it’s called the Garage Coffee Company.  We stopped here for a break and a cup of coffee before taking Dawn Marie to the Nashville airport for her flight home.  Check out the Garage Coffee Company at http://garagecoffeecompany.com/photo-gallery.

Well…here’s Dawn Marie raising her coffee cup to our busy, fun and interesting 2-day exploration of the Nashville Tennessee vicinity and some of its many attractions and restaurants.  From here we were all off on our journey’s home.  Laurie and I only had about 2 ½ hours of driving ahead of us…

(Note: There will be one more Nashville related blog published that will complete our tour of the Lane Motor Museum)  

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for joining us on our weekend adventure!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Automobiles, Motorcycles and More! (Part 3)

Once again, this is a continuation of our tour of the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville Tennessee.  Prepare to see a combination of weird and wonderful motor vehicles…

This is the facility that houses the Lane Motor Museum… As mentioned previously, the exhibit space covers 132,000 sq. ft.  There is a covered/indoor parking area, (off to the left of this photo), which also contains other motor vehicles, many of them related to military use.

One more motorcycle… This is a NSU 501 Konsul II- 1952    NSU began producing motorcycles in 1901, four years before they began producing cars.  By the mid-1950s, NSU was the world’s biggest motorcycle maker.  It’s suspected that the name “Konsul” was selected for this motorcycle because it incorporated the company’s letters “nsu.”  An advertising slogan they used was “Intelligent heads buy Konsul.”  This motorcycle was often used with a sidecar.  For those who know about these things, NSU also built the first production car powered by a Wankel engine–the Wankel Spider Convertible.  FYI…the Lane Motor Museum has a variety of NSU cars in their German collection. 

The 1952 NSU 501 Konsul II was manufactured by NSU Motorenwerke AG.  The engine is a single cylinder unit that produces 21 HP, which will produce speeds of up to 76 MPH.  Roughly 6,000 units were produced between 1951 and 1954.

This rather unusual auto is a 1950 Martin Stationette.  It has a rear mounted 4-cylinder engine, a 3-speed manual transmission and it could reach 60 MPH.  This is a one-of-a-kind or a one-off prototype, but the plan was to sell these cars for $995.00 each. 

James V. Martin was an inventor who spent a lot of his life trying to design cars that someone would like to produce.  This was his final attempt.  The Stationette is an all-wooden monocoque construction.  There isn’t a propeller shaft and there aren’t any axles or shock absorbers…which were intended to hold down the cost of building the car. (Apparently, he had never driven on Chicago streets in the pothole season!) The Stationette was shown at the 1954 World Motor Sports Show as “America’s Economy Car of the Future”…optimistic to say the least! 

OK…I didn’t know what monocoque meant either so I had to look it up!  It is a structural approach that supports loads through an object's external skin, similar to a pingpong ball or egg shell. The term is sometimes used to indicate a form of vehicle construction in which the skin provides the main structural support.

Note: Martin invented applications that advanced aircraft design as well.  For more about James V. Martin, go to http://earlyaviators.com/emartjam.htm.

This sleek futuristic vehicle was also designed by James V. Martin…back in 1928!  The Martin, despite heavy promotion, was never produced.  Only 3 prototypes were built.  This model is another one-of-a-kind automobile.  Martin’s idea was to produce a streamlined car with four seats based on a Paul Jaray’s streamlining design principles. Paul Jaray was a forward-thinking Hungarian designer who designed autos for many auto companies both in the US and in Europe.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Jaray.   

The Martin Aerodynamic car has a pontoon-shaped underbody, fully covered rear wheels, and a deep-sloping front with the body tapering toward the rear.  It is powered by a 4 cylinder, water cooled rear engine that was capable of speeds of 107 MPH.  It has airplane-type suspension–which means no springs. The aluminum body has just one door that opens into the back seat.  This particular Martin, which cost $17,000, was built for Air Force General William “Billy” Mitchell of World War I fame.  The Martin was presented at the 1932 National Automobile Show in New York but with the Great Depression upon the USA, the Martin was never built.

FYI… General Billy Mitchell is generally recognized as the founder of the US Air Force.  To learn about his life, his career and his impact on US air power, just go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mitchell.

What the heck!!??  These boats are mounted at one end of the Lane Motors Museum exhibit space.  They were provided by Chuck Webb, and since they seem a bit out of place, he must be or must have been a good friend of the Lane family or of the museum.  Chuck’s great grandfather had a boat building company called the Hafer Boat Company in Spirit Lake Iowa.  Chuck got into the business too and for some time he apparently operated the Waterloo Wooden Boat Company based in Austin Texas.  For more about the old Hafer Boats, go to http://www.acbs-bslol.com/BobsBoatHouse/hafer.htm.

These boats on the wall are built from strips of Red Cedar with pieces of Cherry and Mahogany as either accents or as structural elements.  The stems are either steam bent ash or an ash laminate.

This powerful and very attractive automobile is a 1933 Panhard Levassor X74.  Panhard and Levassor was a French company founded as an automobile manufacturer back in 1891.  Over the years it has changed ownership as well as the products it manufactures.  The company produced its last automobiles in and now it builds military vehicles. 

The Panhard Levassor X74 was built between 1933 and 1937.  Only 27 copies of this 6-cylinder automobile were ever produced.  It could reach speeds of up to 80 MPH.  For more on Panhard and Levassor, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panhard.

This is another overview of the auto exhibit area at the Lane Motor Museum.  We took photos of just a fraction of the autos that comprise the total collection.  Auto makes or brands in the museum include: A.B.C.; Aero; Alfa Romeo; Alvis; AMC; Austin Healey/Austin; B.S.A.; Berkeley; BMW; Bond; Buick; Burton; Caterham; Citroen; Cumuta-Car; Croco; Crofton; Crosley…and these are just most of the makes that start with A, B or C!!

This is a 1951 Hotchkiss-Gregoire. A total of 247 of these autos were produced in France during 1951 – 1952 by S.A. des Anciens Établissements Hotchkiss et Cie.  With its 4-cylinder engine, it could cruise along at 80 MPH.

Benjamin B. Hotchkiss, an American, was asked by Napoleon II to establish an arms factory in France in 1867.  Hotchkiss already had plants in New England and New York and he was a major supplier of weapons and ammunition during the Civil War.  He patented the Hotchkiss revolving cannon in 1872.  Supposedly, an embarrassment of profits from the weapons business by the turn of the twentieth century prompted the company to move into the car business so they could avoid attracting too much attention from the French government. 

By the turn of the century and with the advent of automobiles, the auto industry began relying on the company’s knowledge of special steels, high precision methods and machinery, as well as skilled machinists to build crankshafts, pistons, rods, gears, and valves.  Hotchkiss introduced its first car in 1904 and produced successful road and rally cars.  In 1948, the board of directors voted to buy a front-wheel drive car designed by J.A. Grégoire.  However, this car was priced higher than other Hotchkiss models and sales were slow.  Consequently few of them were built before all car production discontinued.

This little beauty is a 1949 MG TC Midget Roadster that was built by the MG Car Co. Ltd. in Great Britain.  My grandmother had a slightly later model of one of these for a short time in the early 1950’s.  I still remember my brother and I being terrified as she hit 60 MPH + in a 40 MPH zone near our home in Jackson Michigan!  We told our mom that we would never ride with grandma again… The model pictured above was built between 1945 and 1949.  It had a 4-cylinder engine and it could achieve speeds of up to 78 MPH.  About 10,000 MG TC Midget Roadsters were built.

In 1936, the MG, (which stands for Morris Garages), Car Company began production of the T-series. The MGTA Midget and the MGTB were produced pre-WWII. After the war, MG was back in production much faster than most British companies. The first MGTC came off the line in 1945.  About 2,000 of these cars came to the U.S.  In terms of both mechanical specification and appearance, the Midget found a ready market here and it generated new enthusiasm for sports cars and motor sport in general.

For more on these MG sports cars, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MG_TB#TF_and_TF_1500_Midget.  There are several US MG car clubs.  For more information regarding these organizations, go to http://www.mgcars.org.uk/clubs/clubus.html.

That’s about it for Part 3 of our tour of the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville Tennessee.  There will be one more blog about this interesting museum.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for joining us on our tour!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Tried Tennessee Greek Food Again…

We really love East Tennessee…but there are few things that we miss from our years in the Chicago area.  As I’ve mentioned before, quality Greek food is one of those missing items.  But, as they say, “Try, Try and Try Again!”

This is Athens Family Restaurant in Nashville Tennessee.  It was Sunday and it was time for Brunch…or Breakfast.  The Trip Advisor rating ratio was solid…84 Excellent/Very Good vs. 8 Poor/Terrible.  On top of that, Guy Fieri, from the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-In’s and Dives had recently featured this restaurant in one of his segments!

A good sign… The restaurant was very busy.  The good news is that we had a table before too much time passed!

I had the fortune of sharing Brunch with these 2 lovely ladies…Laurie and Dawn Marie!  The restaurant was bright and cheery.

Checking out a nearby table where their breakfast had just been delivered… Lots of food!  Looks pretty good…

OK…so I didn’t go for breakfast.  I wanted Greek food for Brunch.  This is the famous Bacon Lamb Burger, Double Patty with French Fries. It was a bit pricy at $12.99 but what the heck!  The sandwich is described as grilled and lightly spiced ground lamb patties wrapped in 2 strips of bacon topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, melted Swiss cheese and a pinch of crushed red pepper.  This is the Chef’s original creation and it was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network.

Maybe it was just my personal taste… While it sounded good, this sandwich just didn’t do it for me.  I love lamb and the sandwich was filling, but it didn’t make my flavor buds sing… I left the onions off my sandwich, a personal preference.  When I returned home, I reviewed this show on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  I learned that they put Thousand Island dressing on the sandwich…not one of my favorites and that may explain my negative reaction!  In addition, the French fries were certainly nothing to write home about.

Dawn Marie ordered Breakfast.  She ordered a Greek omelet with toast and a side of fruit.  She added gyros meat to her omelet which came with feta cheese, diced tomatoes and onions. ($9.49) She gave it 3.5 points out of a possible 5.0…in other words, it was average or OK…

When Laurie ordered, she went for one of our favorites, GYROS!  She ordered the Gyro Platter. ($10.99) All Platters are served with Greek salad, pita homemade Tzatziki, Greek dressing and your choice of French fries, Dina’s creamy potatoes, home fries, rice pilaf or fresh vegetables in a light tomato sauce.  She opted for Dina’s creamy potatoes.

Where to start…?  The gyros and the accompanying tzatziki sauce lacked any garlic flavor.  The gyros were prepped on the griddle which was good…but we’re used to the chefs slicing them off the perpendicular spit…instead of these preformed slices.  This was not a real side Greek Salad…no way!  Four little pieces of pita…really?  I didn’t mind the creamy potatoes, but Laurie thought that they were overwhelmed with dill.

Our waitress was awful… She was totally scatterbrained and seemed to randomly forget about us…and our various needs/requests.  So…we didn’t like the food or the service!  Sorry Guy, but then again, this wasn’t the first time one of the restaurants featured on your show has disappointed us…

If you would like to check out the Athens Family Restaurant for yourself, it’s located at 2526 Franklin Pike in Nashville Tennessee.  Phone: 615-383-2848.  Website: http://www.athensfamilyrestaurant.com/?pg=home. However, if you’re looking for a nice breakfast in Nashville, try the Pancake Pantry at http://www.thepancakepantry.com/.  Warning… The wait time at the Pancake Pantry can be horrendous… 

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

We Love Animals and Zoos!

Our 2^nd and last day in Nashville…what to do? We were worried about the heat as it was scheduled to be a very hot and humid day.  But we decided if we went to the zoo early enough in the morning, we’d avoid the heat and the crowds…

So off we went to the Zoo at Grassmere in Nashville Tennessee!  It opened at 9 AM and we were there…

The Nashville Zoo at Grassmere is a 200-acre zoo and historic plantation farmhouse located 6 miles southeast of downtown Nashville.  The Zoo was founded in 1996, as the result of a merger between two competing facilities, The Nashville Zoo and Grassmere Wildlife Park.   The property still maintains the original historic plantation house, called Grassmere or the Historic Croft Home.

Visitors to the zoo can tour the 19th-century historic house museum, its gardens and the associated Grassmere Historic Farm…

These 2 beauties are Hyacinth Macaws.  They are the largest parrots in the world, reaching a length of 3.3 feet.

Here’s Laurie, feeding a bevy of hungry Lorikeets.  This was about our first stop after starting our tour of the zoo and we were the first visitors who fed the birds.

Dawn Marie was smart… She took the photos while we feed the ravenous Lorikeets.  Take a good look at the photo.  What do you see?  Did you notice that #&*^%#*(^%#@ Lorikeet taking a bite out of my hand?  I made the mistake of trying to move the cup so another bird could have some nectar. 

That &*%#$@^#$ bird did draw blood too!  Laurie didn’t take this photo until we got home that night.  Sorry for the blurry photo!

We can’t recall the name of this tropical bird…but we certainly liked his ‘look’.  What a handsome bird!

I think that this was a SE Asian pheasant…fabulous feather pattern!

These are Red River Hogs…or Bush pigs.  Red River Hogs are from Africa, with most of them being found in the Guinean and Congolian forests. It’s rarely seen away from rainforests and generally prefers areas near rivers or swamps.

Red river hogs eat grasses, berries, roots, insects, mollusks, small vertebrates and carrion, and are capable of causing severe damage to farms. They usually live in herds of 6 to 20 members led by a dominant boar, with sows rearing three to six piglets at a time.  The boars can weigh up to 250 pounds.

We really liked the African Elephant exhibit!  The elephants had a very large savannah-like enclosure with pools, mud, grass and shade.  There was quite a bit of room for them to roam.

We’ve always been drawn to this largest of all land mammals.  A bull elephant can grow to 13 feet tall at the shoulders and they can weigh up to 13,200 pounds.   African elephant’s society is based on a social matriarchal community. The matriarch is the oldest female who leads a clan of 9 to 11 elephants. Only closely related females and their offspring are part of the zoo’s herd because males wander alone once they reach maturity.

Giraffes are the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant.  Giraffe’s have the longest tails of any land mammal. They can be up to 8 feet long.  A giraffe’s tongue is roughly 18 inches long.  Giraffe’s can grow to a height of up to 19 feet.  Males average of 17.4 feet and females average 14.1 feet.  The record height is 19.3 feet.  An average adult giraffe weighs about 1,763 pounds.

Up to nine subspecies of giraffe are recognized.  Giraffe subspecies are distinguished by their coat patterns.  For more about giraffes, the various subspecies, their habits, diet, etc., just go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giraffe.

 

I don’t know if anyone ever watched “Meercat Manor” on TV… It was a story about meercat’s in the wild and how they survived…or didn’t.  This one is on look-out duty!

Adult meerkats are 10-14” long and weigh about 2 lbs.  Meerkats are highly social animals that live in "gangs" or "mobs" of up to 3 family groups in a matriarchal society. There may be as many as 30 individuals in a group with each group having one adult breeding pair.  Meercats are not cats nor are they related to cats.  They are really a small mongoose.  In the Zambian/Zimbabwean region, the meerkat is also known as the ‘sun angel’, as it’s believed to protect villages from the moon devil/werewolf which is believed to attack stray cattle or lone natives.

I ‘borrowed’ this photo from the zoo’s website.  We love Red Pandas but we didn’t get a good photo during our visit.   The red panda is also called the lesser panda and red cat-bear.  It’s a small mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China.  It’s more closely related to a weasel than it is to the Giant Pandas.  The Red Panda is about the size of a large housecat…

Laurie likes anything that resembles a horse…and Zebras are impressive and eye-catching either in a herd or up close.  These are Damara Zebras.  There are 3 species of zebra with several subspecies.  I learned that studies have shown that not only are the stripes effective in confusing predators, they are also effective in attracting fewer flies, including blood-sucking tsetse flies and horseflies!

This is a pair of Bobcats, one of which is white… Bobcats are a fairly common but rarely seen North American predator.  Males can be as large as 40 pounds with females as large as 34 pounds.  Bobcats keep on the move from three hours before sunset until about midnight.  Then they are on the move again from before dawn until about three hours after sunrise.  It will move from 2 to 7 miles along its habitual route every night.  With the exception of parts of the Midwest, Bobcats can be found throughout the USA.  Laurie and I actually saw one a few years back as we drove down the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia…

 

This large bird with what looks like a ‘banana’ or ‘melon slice’ perched on his beak, is a Rhinoceros Hornbill.  These birds are found in SE Asia.  The purpose of the casque on his bill has yet to be determined.  This bird is about the size of a swan.  It eats fruit, insects, small reptiles, rodents and smaller birds.

This photo was taken looking down at the top of a Double-Wattled Cassowary.  They are native to New Guinea and Australia.  They can be as tall as 6 foot 6 inches and they can weigh as much as 129 lbs.  See that middle claw?  Cassowaries are very shy, but when provoked they are capable of inflicting injuries to dogs and people, although fatalities are extremely rare.  The nail on that middle toe can cause serious injury.  When we visited Australia, we noted signs warning us to avoid nesting Cassowary’s…as they can be aggressive.  We heard one ‘thumping’ in the jungle not far from us…and we fled!

This is a Baird's Tapir enjoying the cool waters of his pond on a hot day!  The tapir is the largest land mammal in Central America, reaching up to 6 feet 6 inches long, 3 feet 9 inches tall and weighing up to 880 lbs.

Tapirs are large browsing mammals, similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile snout. They live in the jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. Their closest relatives are the other odd-toed ungulates, including horses and rhinoceroses.

Who can resist taking a photo of Pink Flamingos?  There are six varieties of flamingos… This flock consists of American Flamingos.  The pink or reddish color of these flamingos comes from carotenoid proteins in their diet of animal and plant plankton.  I had to look it up…carotenoids are organic pigments that are found in plants and some other photosynthetic organisms like algae. 

Humans can be a bit strange...  Flamingos were considered by the Ancient Egyptians to be the living representation of the god Ra.  In Ancient Rome, Flamingo tongues were considered to be a delicacy.  Andean miners have killed flamingos for their fat, believed to be a cure for tuberculosis… And, then there are those lawn ornaments here in the USA!

We came across this handsome devil at the zoo’s Critter Encounters.  I don’t know whether this was Hermes or Blue, one of the 4-month old Dromedary Camels in residence and waiting to meet visitors. 

The dromedary camel is also called the Arabian camel or Indian Camel.  It is a large, even-toed ungulate with one hump on its back.   Males can reach 6 feet 6 inches at their shoulders and they can weigh as much as 1,300 lbs.  Camels were probably domesticated in the Arabian Peninsula about 4,000 years ago. 

This is another pheasant…also probably from SE Asia.  We couldn’t believe his striking plumage!  He looks like he’s wearing a fancy patchwork quilt…or a Technicolor dream coat…

This is a Saddlebill Stork.  They are from tropical Africa south of the Sahara where they live in open wetlands.  One of the largest storks, in the zoo they like to eat herring, mice, and a commercially prepared avian diet.  We actually saw him catch a mouse and consume it!

We didn’t or couldn’t take good photos of many of the other animals at the Nashville Zoo.  To get an idea of the variety of animals at the zoo, you can go to http://www.nashvillezoo.org/our-animals.

 

Here’s a map of the Nashville Zoo.  There was a lot of walking as the exhibits are spread out nicely over the zoo’s 200 acres.  The good news was that a lot of the zoo’s paths were shaded from the summer sun!  We enjoyed our visit and finished our tour before the heat built up. 

The zoo is open 7 days a week and the cost of admission is $15.00 for adults, $13.00 for seniors and $10.00 for children over 2 years of age.  To find out more about the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere, go to http://www.nashvillezoo.org/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for joining us for a visit to the zoo!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave