9th Leg: Nashville, Tennessee
After leaving Thuy in Arkansas, I headed on over to meet up again with Kelly (UT college buddy) in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. This may have been the longest one day drive of my trek, 8 hours in one day, but hey, had to get there for the "biggest 4th of July fireworks show in America", eh? Kelly was an excellent tour guide of her hometown. She drove us everywhere, showing me all the requisite tourist spots. Parthenon (Athens of the South you say?), The Gulch, the Museum of Art (okay, we just admired the lobby which was an old art deco style post office back in the day), Bicentennial Plaza, etc. etc. I even got to see Momma Lowen...it's been AGES guuurl! We also put on our big girl imaginary boots and went out to Broadway too for some boot scootin at the honky tonks. Okay, not really, we didn't "boot scoot", but we did take lots of photos of "the scene", I drank a local whiskey at Nudies, the honky tonk celebrating Nuta Kotlyarenko, an American tailor whose decorative rhinestone-covered suits, known popularly as "Nudie Suits", for some of the most famous celebrities of his era were on display. The place was filled with various outfits worn by some of the celebrities of country, and yeah, a big old Caddy on the wall! We also went into Tootsie's, which as "the institution" could have been playing some actual country, but instead had a Dave Matthews cover band? Seems honky tonks have gone trendy since I last visited Nashville in 2007?.... Kelly also took me for great food, the most unique of which was the Nashville Hot Chicken Festival (yes, it's hot!), and some other hot spots around East Nashville and her neighborhood of Sylvan Park. She took me to one of the best museums of the trip, the Museum of African American Music. #blackmusicmatters I'm gonna call this a far better stop than the Justin Timberlake bar, the other option in the area. Below: me enjoying my first "medium" Nashville hot chicken tender. Yes, it's still unbelievably hot! And yes, I did wear that hat on July 4th...because why not? Treason is the reason for the season! | Above: Here I am wishing I'd worn my cut offs and my cowboy boots, both of which I actually do own. But the big night was of course, the 4th of July firework show. It was truly Nashville HUGE (400,000 pounds of fireworks sounds like a lot). We lucked out by driving around aimlessly looking for a parking lot with a view of the stadium, and found one! The beach chairs came in handy, we met a couple of nice ladies to chat with, and watched the scene unfold right up until 10:30 with the biggest fireworks finale I'm gonna claim has ever happened in all of modern history! And the biggest surprise of all...no traffic on the drive home! To check out all my photos of the wild and crazy time in Nashville, go here! Below: not the actual massive 4th of July fireworks show, but just a photo taken with Kelly's newest Iphone that makes me want one. Everyone's a professional! |