April 1-4, Nashville TN
by Chris Ransdell
After the long hike I made some chicken quesadillas and then we broke camp. The drive into Nashville was ok but my old neighborhood on the West side of town along Charlotte pike has completely changed into a densely packed mixed use area with a Costco, Best Buy, Target and numerous other new businesses. Just getting through town on surface streets was a completely harrowing and slow experience. Staying at John's house has been nice, both saving money and getting to spend more time together. We went to dinner at Rafferty's which was always a favorite of mine when I lived here and it didn't disappoint.
Thursday Brian and I took a break from hiking and did some basic around town tourist stuff. We went to the Gaylord Opryland hotel (26 dollars to park, really?), I got a haircut and then after a brief return to John's house we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame. The Opryland Hotel is still an impressive place with its acres of enclosed atriums and beautiful lush landscaping but it felt a little dead when we were there. The museum was great but pretty crowded and also pretty expensive (~45 dollars for 2 tickets + 15 for parking). The days of affordable Nashville seem to be in the past. On the way back from the museum to John's house we experienced more completely miserable stopped traffic on surface streets before 5 pm. I couldn't shake the feeling Thursday that I was in Nashville at the right time for me and that despite all the great growth and new buildings etc, you can't always go back and feel the same about a place years later. Memphis felt a lot more like it did when I lived there largely because it isn't experiencing a lot of growth.
Dinner Thursday was at Logan's roadhouse near downtown with my friend Rob and his partner Terry. It was great to see Rob and finally meet Terry but our dinner was plagued with a lot of server issues. By the time they were done comping and discounting it ended up being really cheap but it would have been better to have had a great initial experience instead.
Friday being Good Friday, John had the day off. He made a breakfast of biscuits, gravy, ham, bacon and eggs. It was a delicious and relaxing start to our day of touring downtown Nashville. We started off walking the pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland where so many music videos have been filmed then after looking through a few cowboy boot stores, we ate lunch at Demos' Italian steakhouse, another Nashville favorite of mine. We had a fantastic meal and a super helpful server. After lunch we went to the central library which is an amazing neo-classical building with 300,000 square feet of floor space. It is such an astounding piece of architecture and it amazes me that it was finished in 2001. It feels like the kind of building they haven't built in a hundred years with marble floors, a beautiful second floor courtyard and numerous exhibit and reading room spaces.
After the library we headed into the Tennessee state museum which is immense but very dated. Finally, we ended our time downtown with some delicious ice cream at Mike's Ice cream, a Nashville institution. Downtown and the things we did Friday felt a lot more like my memories of Nashville than the prior two days. A good end to our time here. John was also nice enough to take us to the Stirrup (or Silver Stirrup?) and it was fun not to have to drive so I tried a shot of Fireball which was good with cider.
Tomorrow we head to Cheaha State park in Alabama near the state's highest point. Hopefully two days at the state park lodge are restful. This week has been a no work week but next week I need to get some hours in. After Cheaha we are going to spend 3 nights in Charlotte North Carolina to visit some family of Brian's that he hasn't seen in years and then 2 nights near Richmond Virginia before finally reaching PA. So the road trip is a lot closer to being done than it is to starting!
After the long hike I made some chicken quesadillas and then we broke camp. The drive into Nashville was ok but my old neighborhood on the West side of town along Charlotte pike has completely changed into a densely packed mixed use area with a Costco, Best Buy, Target and numerous other new businesses. Just getting through town on surface streets was a completely harrowing and slow experience. Staying at John's house has been nice, both saving money and getting to spend more time together. We went to dinner at Rafferty's which was always a favorite of mine when I lived here and it didn't disappoint.
Thursday Brian and I took a break from hiking and did some basic around town tourist stuff. We went to the Gaylord Opryland hotel (26 dollars to park, really?), I got a haircut and then after a brief return to John's house we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame. The Opryland Hotel is still an impressive place with its acres of enclosed atriums and beautiful lush landscaping but it felt a little dead when we were there. The museum was great but pretty crowded and also pretty expensive (~45 dollars for 2 tickets + 15 for parking). The days of affordable Nashville seem to be in the past. On the way back from the museum to John's house we experienced more completely miserable stopped traffic on surface streets before 5 pm. I couldn't shake the feeling Thursday that I was in Nashville at the right time for me and that despite all the great growth and new buildings etc, you can't always go back and feel the same about a place years later. Memphis felt a lot more like it did when I lived there largely because it isn't experiencing a lot of growth.
Dinner Thursday was at Logan's roadhouse near downtown with my friend Rob and his partner Terry. It was great to see Rob and finally meet Terry but our dinner was plagued with a lot of server issues. By the time they were done comping and discounting it ended up being really cheap but it would have been better to have had a great initial experience instead.
Friday being Good Friday, John had the day off. He made a breakfast of biscuits, gravy, ham, bacon and eggs. It was a delicious and relaxing start to our day of touring downtown Nashville. We started off walking the pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland where so many music videos have been filmed then after looking through a few cowboy boot stores, we ate lunch at Demos' Italian steakhouse, another Nashville favorite of mine. We had a fantastic meal and a super helpful server. After lunch we went to the central library which is an amazing neo-classical building with 300,000 square feet of floor space. It is such an astounding piece of architecture and it amazes me that it was finished in 2001. It feels like the kind of building they haven't built in a hundred years with marble floors, a beautiful second floor courtyard and numerous exhibit and reading room spaces.
After the library we headed into the Tennessee state museum which is immense but very dated. Finally, we ended our time downtown with some delicious ice cream at Mike's Ice cream, a Nashville institution. Downtown and the things we did Friday felt a lot more like my memories of Nashville than the prior two days. A good end to our time here. John was also nice enough to take us to the Stirrup (or Silver Stirrup?) and it was fun not to have to drive so I tried a shot of Fireball which was good with cider.
Tomorrow we head to Cheaha State park in Alabama near the state's highest point. Hopefully two days at the state park lodge are restful. This week has been a no work week but next week I need to get some hours in. After Cheaha we are going to spend 3 nights in Charlotte North Carolina to visit some family of Brian's that he hasn't seen in years and then 2 nights near Richmond Virginia before finally reaching PA. So the road trip is a lot closer to being done than it is to starting!
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