July 25, 2007 @ 09:59
Nashville, Tennessee - I realize a strong dollar can be a problem for Canadian exporters, but when you're traveling in the United States, a strong loonie is fabulous.
Yesterday when I went to a bank machine and withdrew a couple of hundred bucks, I was amazed to find out the Canadian dollar was flirting with 97 cents - so for all intents and purposes, it's par. And in some cases its better than par.
Take beer for instance. Beer is so cheap down here when you consider what we used to pay on the exchange, and what we pay now, a lot of the beer I've been drinking is free.
Yesterday I was in a place called the Broadway Brewhouse in downtown Nashville which offers more than a hundred beers on tap and their happy hour runs from 11am till 7pm.
A 16 ounce glass of draft is two dollars. At home, the average price for a draft that size would be about five dollars.
Anyway, I did the math.
A few short years ago, yesterdays draft would have cost be three dollars Canadian, but yesterday it cost me $2.07 Canadian. So compared to when our dollar was worth roughly half of what the American dollar was, yesterday I drank a third of the beer for free.
Not bad eh?
Or, you can look at it from this angle. What cost me 2.07 in Nashville, would have cost me at least five dollars in Toronto. So it wasn't until my third beer yesterday that I actually started payin'.
Not too bad eh?
Restaurant food is another beast. I noticed this a few years ago when our dollar was still struggling against the American greenback. Menu prices in the States, in most places, mirror what they are in Canada.
There are exceptions, but who wants to go to a sloppy buffet with a bunch of fat geriatric Americans?
Yesterday we did some more sightseeing and it included the old and the new. First we went to have a look at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel which sits in the suburbs of Nashville.
It's one of those hotel theme-park things that is great if you travel down here with a family, but is next to useless if you really want to enjoy what Nashville is really supposed to be about.
It's got close to three thousand rooms and a huge atrium that's filled with stuff designed to suck every last dollar out of your jeans.
This area is also home to the new Grand Ole Opry, which seems weird. Weird that something so historic and famous would end up out in the boonies.
Afterwards we went back downtown and visited the Ryman Theatre, which is actually the authentic Grand Ole Opry that was rebuilt in the 90's after sitting empty for close to 20 years.
The Gaylord fella who built the big hotel outside of town donated eight million dollars to restore the Ryman when Nashville city council threatened to tear it down.
It's a wonderful place that reeks of history. If you're down here take the guided tour for 16 bucks. It's worth it, even if you're not really a country music fan.
The tour also provided a funny American story. At the beginning the tour guide asked everyone where they were from.
"Texas" said one.
"Maryland" said another.
Oklahoma and Nebraska were two others.
When it came to me I said "Toronto".
After a couple of other people named the States they were from I just had to ask the question.
"Hey people" I said. "Why do say the State you're from and not the city?"
"What are you talking about" said the woman from Maryland. "You named your country."
No kidding.
One other thing we did yesterday was have dinner at a place called the Cheesecake Factory. It's a chain my wife has visited while traveling in the States and she insisted we go to the Nashville location last night.
Fabulous. Especially the appetizers. The Avocado rolls and the Fresh Tai egg rolls are crazy.
That's it for now. Today we tour the Country Music Hall of Fame and then tomorrow we head for Memphis
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