Nashville

After all of the emotional turmoil of the last few weeks, I felt like I was going to have a nervous breakdown.  So, bronchitis, ear infection and all, my girlfriend and I took off for Nashville on a spur of the moment trip.  Oh my God was that amazing!

First of all, who in their right mind decides to take a three day weekend at 7:00 PM on a Friday night and is on the road by midnight?  But we did.  We packed up and I went and picked her up at her place.  I made hotel reservations at the Hilton in Downtown Nashville two hours before I left.  

At the start of the trip, my GPS said that we would be arriving at 8:49 AM.  Our actual arrival time was 6:03 AM.  Tee-Hee.  I knocked almost 2 hours off of the drive time and totally forgot about the hour time difference.  Luckily the hotel was amazing (plus I am an Honors member) and they let us check in super early.

The weekend was amazing.  We went to the Country Music Hall of Fame - which I like better than the Rock Hall.  We had AMAZING BBQ at Jack's on Broadway.  We went to a bunch of bars, met some of the nicest people around and ended up at Tootsies Wild Orchid which is a Nashville tradition where most, if not all of the country music legends have played.

And I danced on the bar.

And I only got into one altercation.

The music?  Defies description.  Hands down the best live country/rock/honky tonk music I have ever heard.  And the crazy thing is that there are NO cover charges at any of these bars.  The bands play for FREE.  They pass out tip buckets and play requests for tips.  Now trust me, this weekend, the guys and gals were raking it in, but not one time all evening on Saturday did any of the bands we see take a break.  They played all night long and their voices somehow managed to stay intact.

The fiddle player was the best thing I saw all night.  Beautiful and talented, this young woman (Cara was her name) set the roof on fire with her playing.  I wouldn't have been surprised to see fire shooting off of her instrument.  I am so jealous!

Sunday wasn't as nice since we were both recovering from drinking half the rum in the city, but we went out and had brunch, a nap and then went back out for dinner.  It was a relatively early night for us and we are now on the road back to Cleveland.

But if anyone is interested in taking a trip to Nashville, I would highly recommend it.  Maybe not in January - it was a little chilly- but if you like live music, friendly people and a god time, Nashville can't be beat.

Thanks to everyone for their support and love these last few days.

ADW