Road Trip Rule #17: Don't go to Nashville

Ok, ok. So Nashville wasn't all bad, but I probably will be ok if I never go back there again. I think the biggest mistake here may have been going to Nashville when I'm not really a fan of country music. Everyone can say your collective 'doh' right now if you so desire.

We rolled into town pretty late at night on Thursday. My first mistake being our hotel. We ended up in a smoking room. I didn't even know that hotels had smoking rooms anymore. Other than that, the hotel wasn't so bad. I just can't believe that I didn't check whatever box is required in order to get a non-smoking room. Be warned all. There are still smoking rooms out there and you could end up in one.

Our first order of business was the tire. We found ourselves a nice local mechanic and dropped the car off.

Luckily said mechanic was not far from our food destination for the day - Arnold's Kitchen. It was walking distance to the food so we went and got ourselves some lunch. Best Decision of the Day.We found it through the flavortownusa website that Sarah gave to us.

Arnold's was cafeteria style southern food. We had catfish, hush puppies, greens, mac and cheese, rolls, green beans and fried green tomatoes. I was so excited about the fried green tomatoes and I was not disappointed at all. They were stellar. Of course, I had nothing to compare it to, but they were simply scrumptious even without a comparison.

This is me outside the door, I couldn't leave the roll so I am eating it on the go. Yes, they were that good.

We walked back to the car, and noticed the neighborhood a little more on the way back. It seemed kind of sketchy but later in the day we decided that is just the way Nashville looks/feels. So maybe the area Arnold's is in isn't actually bad at all. Anyway, we went back to the mechanic and picked up the car. This is where we learned a new word: mugly. As far as we can tell, a combo of muggy and ugly, which was a very accurate description of the weather in Nashville.

Our next stop was the Parthenon. Did you know that Nashville has a full size replica of the Parthenon? I had no idea. It's a big ole full-on replica people. Such a thing needs to be documented.

Yup. A full on replica of the Parthenon folks. Apparently they built a temporary Parthenon for a celebration at one point and it was so popular they decide to make it permanent.

Next we checked out downtown Nashville after a failed attempt to visit the state capitol. The parking situation was prohibitive at the state capitol. Actually, a state employee was so rude to us about the parking situation that we left with a bad taste in our mouths. He was very rude.

So then we went downtown where gems such as the one below are available. That's a belt folks. I thought it was awesome enough to deserve a picture.

Now you too can wear a crucifix on your belt made of sparkly iridescent plastic. No better way to declare your devotion.

Our next stop on Broadway was the Hatch Print Shop. It was awesome. It was an awesome little old school print shop where they make posters and have done so for eons for all sorts of famous people who've played in Nashville. There was a gentleman working the letter press while we were standing in the store. They also had a humongous cat. And a terrier. Highly enjoyable store.

The cat was sleeping. As cats do.

Then we continued our little tour of Broadway where folks are playing music at every turn. Every turn. These gentlemen were playing on a street corner and I tried to be surreptitious in my picture taking hence the random part of husband in the corner. Not that you can ever have too many pictures of the husband. I may be the only one who thinks that I realise but that is not the point. Not at all.

The highlight of Broadway for me was the shop that sold me these earrings. I have enjoyed them on three different days already. And they feature trees, no big surprises there.

After Broadway there was severe dehydration going on. We got back in the car and drove to gas station where I inhaled an entire 32oz powerade and a 20oz water. Nashville looked much better after that. Everything did. It's amazing how a little fluids in your system will make your entire day look better. I was seriously ornery directly before that. Then we returned to our stinky hotel room to regroup and plan the evening. The second half of our day was much better. We visited the farmers market where we bought delicious produce, drove past the state capitol and took pictures, then headed out to the Grand Ole Opry.

The Grand Old Opry is surrounded by a mall. A dead one. It's kind of creepy. It's a huge mall and the entire thing is deserted and fenced off except for the Bass Pro Shop. Of course. We had to stop in there. Adam wielded a huge frying pan. Nashville is definitely good at big things.

That was my first time in a Bass Pro Shop. We ended up buying only a Moon Pie. Yummy, but not what I expected to be buying at Bass Pro.

Then the Grand Ole Opry which was going to be just a stop turned into a show for us! I thoroughly enjoyed some parts of the show but I still have a lot to learn about country music. Everybody was really enjoying "Elvira" and I had no idea what was going on. Apparently it's a classic.