Opryland truly is a small continent. Actually, it’s kind of like another planet. With an immense indoor outlet mall, a 25-screen movie theater and a huge hotel called the Gaylord Opryland, the likes of which I haven’t seen outside of Vegas. It has several (yes, several) huge lobbies replete with indoor waterfalls and rivers. Not to mention the Grand Ole Opry itself, which is a lot less impressive in person than I expected. It’s essentially a big brick building.

I decided to go see “Django Unchained.” There were five of us in the theater. But I’m glad I saw it – I think it’s my favorite Oscar contender. Wickedly creative, funny (I was the only one laughing out loud) and moral in a violently perverse Tarantino kind of way. And equipped with a fantastic soundtrack to boot. Christoph Waltz was fantastic.

Now waiting for the hubby to pick me up as I wait in the lobby of this obscenely immense hotel, hoping that he’ll find the right entrance and won’t give up and leave me stranded here.

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He found the right entrance and we enjoyed our best meal of the trip at Monell’s, a restaurant where there is no menu, just bowls and bowls of southern-style food served at big tables where you sit with strangers and pass the dishes to the left. No cell phones allowed, either. Our dining companions included a Long Island man on a road trip to discover southern BBQ, a transplant from Chicago and a family doing the college tour thing (in this case Vanderbilt).