Stop #37: Nashville, TN

Stop #37: Nashville did not disappoint. What a cool little city. Great music, great food, great vibe, and of course, great company. Big thanks to Keith for coming out to meet me and for showing me the ropes. Our hotel situation wasn’t ideal, but we made it work. The first night we were pretty close to downtown, but not really a comfortable walk in the Nashville heat. The second hotel was only about 5 miles from downtown, but obviously an uber away. We had some interesting uber rides…

The first hotel would only allow me to use my Marriott points for one of the three nights, and being on the budget that I’m on, I wanted to use points for all three nights, so we had to move for the second two nights. The first hotel was much nicer and closer to downtown, but still not in a great area. It was about a mile from downtown, and Luna and I made that walk on the first day, but that was the extent of our walking to the main attractions. It’s just too hot and muggy in that part of the country. I think I showered like 8 times in 3 days, just trying to control the stickiness.

I got myself completely turned around with the time of Keith’s flight and timezones and driving times from Memphis to Nashville. No idea how I got myself so confused.It was like one of those word puzzles that should be super easy, but you over complicate it and then end up that the answer was simply, “You need to drive three hours and get there for noon, so you need to leave at 9.” Long story short, I was about an hour and a half late to pick up Keith. He was very understanding.

The first day there, Keith was wiped from the travel so he took a nap and Luna and I went to explore downtown. There are A LOT of bachelorette parties in Nashville. I assume there are an equal number of bachelor parties there, but guys don’t have the need to dress up like fools and draw attention to themselves that girls seem to. Guess what bachelorette parties really like? Adorable little dogs. Luna got A LOT of attention in Nashville. Yikes…poor thing has a phobia of tiaras, veils and mid-day stilettos now. Honestly, so do I.

Once Keith roused from his catnap and we got ready, we went to dinner and then Keith took me to Honky Tonk Central. The live music in Nashville was pretty great, and it wasn’t all country, against what I would have thought. Shows my ignorance. It was a lot of fun.

The second day we went down towards Vanderbilt University to a cute little area of shops and restaurants. We grabbed some lunch at Double Dogs and watched some college football. College football has a whole new meaning down in Tennessee. Holy moly. Orange and T’s as far as they eye could see. Again, Luna got lots of attention. I don’t think Keith believed me how much girls love her. He warmed up to her a bit more after realizing the power of an adorable pup.

I was the one who needed a nap after being out late the night before. I’m old. What can I say. Keith did an excellent job finding a dog friendly restaurant to go to before heading out on the town for night number two. We went to Tootsie’s for music on the second night. This place was pretty great too! Three levels with three different bands. Craziness.

Too many bachelorette parties. Those are all brides on just ONE floor of ONE bar in Nashville. Eek!!

On day 3, it was Sunday and the Giants were playing and Keith is a big Giants fan so we found a Giants bar, Jed’s Sports Bar & Grille, to watch it at. The bartender, Jane, was a riot. She was from Maine and was a huge Patriots fan. It was quite entertaining. She loved Luna.

By Day 3, it was time to try to find BBQ for dinner. We had the hardest time finding a place that was open for dinner, was dog friendly, AND wasn’t sold out of BBQ! Apparently there was some festival in town that we were unaware of that was literally eating all of the BBQ. It felt like a skit. “Oh, you want pulled pork? Sorry…we have beer brats. How about that?” Say what?!?

I was too tired for a third night of late night partying. I flaked out on poor Keith. Sorry kiddo.

Keith flew out on Monday morning and I headed to the Grand Ole Opry. Luna wasn’t allowed inside (shocker), but we walked around the grounds.