On my fall break I will keep my wanderings National with a trip to a new state and a new city: Nashville, Tennessee.

Before any trip I like to map the location before I travel. This helps me locate myself in land and cityscapes.

I drew three pretrip sketches in my Stillman & Birn Delta watercolor journal.

The first map was of downtown Nashville as it relates to my digs on Lea Street. This included various sites I wanted to visit and sketch such as the Ryman Auditorium, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the Johnny Cash Museum, Hatch Show Print, and the honeytonks of Broadway.

The second map was a spread about the studios, business offices, and publishing house of Music Row, the birthplace of the Nashville sound and where legendary artists such as Elvis, Dolly, Wille, Waylon, Patsy, Johnny, Mr. Young, Mr. Pride and many others recorded hits.

The third map maps the route of the local railroad that I was unfamiliar with, the Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railway and its equally famous 4-8-4 steam locomotive No. 576, which is currently being restored to operational service. For many years 576 was on static display in Centennial Park.

The final sketch is a continuous line sketch from my home base from my eighth floor balcony view of the Nashville skyline.