8/17/22
A grand Ole Nashville Vacation
N ow just a rosy summer memory, my half-week sojourn to Nashville went down much like a generous swig of Tennessee whiskey: a slight shock and burn at the start, smoother the next moment, and in no time an unmistakable feeling of warmth and pleasant intoxication. It’s the kind of town that made me think more than once, I could see myself living in a place like this, attributed I think to its almost funhouse-mirror reflection of the two Texas towns I hail from, Houston and Austin. Come to learn of it Sam Houston himself was a son of Tennessee before venturing to Texas, and walking the streets of the place I sensed a sort of interstate connection that made the trip feel like visiting a second home which I'd never before known. Oh, and of course the country music was a familiar feature too.
the Ring of fire
That shock and burn I mentioned came on the first day of the trip, after my girlfriend Rachel and I had landed, rideshared to the hotel, and dropped off our things. Not having much of a plan for day one, we decided to simply go down to where everything was happening, downtown Nashville, and see what we could discover. It didn't take long for us to find it on Broadway Street, where in the early afternoon on a Saturday there seemed to be so many people bar-hopping that the mass could compete with a holiday crowd at Disney World. The sounds from live country bands spilled out onto the pavement and throngs outside, sometimes from different levels of two or three story bars, all while open buses of party groups glided by. The hot summer sun beat down on us, so we had a brief drink at the Johnny Cash bar before heading back to the hotel, relieved to leave behind the heat and rowdiness
A different kind of heat was the dinner theme when we decided to order Hattie B's, a popular local hot chicken chain. Earlier in the day we'd tried to eat in the restaurant, but waiting in a line down the block without shade was almost unbearable, and before long we left. Later we got the chicken delivered to the hotel and spread it out before digging in, remarking at how good it was and how similarly a hot chicken restaurant in Austin had been able to emulate it.
Walking the line
The next day we kicked it into full gear on some of the plans we'd made. Our first stop was the Grand Ole Opry, a sort of church of country music legend, where all the best of the industry had visited and played. The tour there was short but entertaining enough, and we got to see Dolly Parton's overflowing fan mailbox, among other eccentricities of the country music world. From there we walked over to the Opryland hotel, which from the outside looked like a sort of souped-up mix of a government building, dorm, and/or penitentiary, but on the inside was a oasis of plantlife, a sight to behold. There were dozens of winding pathways and wide staircases in what felt like a giant greenhouse, with man-made waterfalls and fountains, a long lazy river, and all kinds of carefully-manicured greenery.
In the afternoon we went over to The Hermitage, which was Andrew Jackson's estate and a preserved home that appeared then as it did two centuries earlier. This was a gem of an experience we didn't originally expect to find so engaging. Once there we felt a real sense of history, of what it was like to live in the time of Jackson, for both those in the main house and those held in servitude across the estate. It was a solemn place of learning, of understanding, and of reflection on America's values then and now, what connects us and distances us from those times. Air conditioning blasted strong in the main museum building, which meant we were happy to peruse the placards a bit longer than we may have otherwise.
Nashville skyline
In the following days we hit the all the usual highlights of a proper Nashville trip. We drove over the Cumberland river and walked back over the pedestrian bridge, visited the country music hall of fame and saw everything from Elvis' old Cadillac to Johnny Cash's acoustic guitar, saw the Gibson headquarters signature guitar store, and toured the Parthenon in Centennial Park. Each stop had something interesting to learn about or see, and we managed to keep our days full without overloading ourselves too much. The cherry on top was a nice dinner at one of the best restaurants in town, Husk, which served elevated Southern cooking like I'd never tried before. Pimento cheese and crackers, shrimp and grits, pork ear wraps, and an incredible vinegar pie rounded out my meal.
on a 9 to 5 budget
As a seasoned traveler new to the game on my own dime, I learned a lot from this trip, in a much different way than Big Bend. Rachel and I were able to pull this one off at relatively low cost for all of the logistics in play, however there were some things we might've done differently, and some we felt we'd nailed. One of those we got right was keeping our schedule open while staying stocked with several options for activites we could do. It's generally good practice to over-plan as opposed to the opposite on vacations, however keeping things in flux allowed us to feel in control, even when opting to call it early one night because of fatigue, or switching things up another morning due to weather concerns. We still got caught in the rain on an outing for ice cream sundaes, but it served to be a funny memory nonetheless.
One aspect that did get old quickly was the amount of rideshares we had to take. Though it was our only low-cost option to get around, having to constantly get in and out of strangers' cars to travel the city and hold meandering conversations grew a bit tiresome. Neither of us use the service in our daily lives much, so next time we might bite the bullet and opt for a rental car. Lastly, we found that having one expensive dinner at a great restaurant, a few medium-priced meals here and there, and some cheap grocery store pickups of energy bars and spaghetti struck a good balance in the food budget. Overall, our choice of destination (Nashville) for our summer trip was the biggest factor in terms of impact on the wallet, since it offered all sorts of low-cost experiences with several, but not too many, special upgrades interspersed throughout.
Before long we were headed back to the airport to fly back to Texas, not soon to forget our Tennessee adventures, and just a bit sad to go. I sensed that it wouldn't be too long before I returned for one reason or another, and I knew when I did that second-home feeling would be as familiar as the day I left it.
