~Wednesday, June 16, 2021~
Day 367
As I mentioned yesterday, it pays to research your parking options, especially safe ones, BEFORE getting to any congested city. Since yesterday frustrated us to no end, we made sure that today would be a success. For those looking for the perfect place to park a vehicle, be it large or small only a few blocks from the heart of “Music City”, check out the Nashville City Courthouse Garage at 101 James Patterson Pkwy. Price: $8.00/hr or $20.00 for an entire day. Safe and easily accessible, it fit the bill perfectly.
The first standout building we saw was The Nissan Stadium, home to the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, located on the east bank of the Cumberland River. Completed in 1999, at a cost of $290 million, the stadium also holds concerts and various college football events. Before heading into the main part of the city, we came upon what is known as Fort Nashboro, built in 1779. Now a re-creation, it originally covered 2 acres, comprising 20 log cabins on the property as a protection for settlers from Indian raids and attacks by predatory animals.
It was hard to believe that we finally made it here. My whole life, being a music girl, I have wanted to see “Music City” and believe you me, I was in complete awe of just how much entertainment there was around EVERY CORNER.
Actually, it was way more than every corner. Nearly every building had some form of country entertainment.
In fact, it’s one of the rare occasions where you can pass any restaurant or bar, at any time of the day, with live music playing morning ‘til night. Our first stop, appropriately named, Honky Tonk Central couldn’t have been better. The band was one talented bunch with a cowboy hat wearing lead singer/rhythm guitarist, 2nd lead singer/lead guitar, bass player, a female drummer (girl power!), and a female background singer who went around occasionally with a tip bucket hoping for some extra dough. We totally get it….they’re working hard to entertain all of us and deserve a little extra…...when they’re good! And these guys were GREAT! What threw me though, was seeing virtually no one wearing a mask….not even the workers. Gosh, it’s about darn time. Everyone is just so happy to be out LIVING!!! We saw an occasional security guard donning masks, but I think I can only count on one hand, the number of people that were.
When that band’s set was over, we headed out to check out the rest of the town.
We stopped into The Ernest Tubb (the Texas Troubadour) Record Shop on Broadway. This shop has been serving country music fans for nearly 75 years. So much fun looking at old vinyls, CD’s, stage costumes of Loretta Lynn, Tanya Tucker and others and cool t-shirts of favorite artists.
We took a walk over to the Country Music Hall of Fame building, but felt we wouldn’t have enough time to see the whole thing since our goal today was mainly to see an overview of the city instead.
These 2 people were starved so we decided to check out Luke Bryan’s 32-Bridge restaurant since the menu seemed appealing. Within 2 minutes of seating ourselves while watching 4 or 5 employees just standing around talking amongst themselves, ignoring customers, we made a quick exit. The place was very lack-luster and just did not get a good vibe. Girls know how to do it right….so we headed over to Miranda Lambert’s new restaurant called Casa Rosa Tex-Mex Cantina.
They just opened May 27 with a very classy black and pink theme, and not too feminine. It is Broadway’ s first female country star branded bar. More girl power! Since they couldn’t seat us right away, we decided to quench our thirst with a margarita (me) and Jeff, o.k. are you sitting down? A Budweiser. With no IPA’s to be had, and a very limited beer selection, it would have to do. My margarita was delicious and our bartender, friendly. He highly recommended the Hot Chicken and Waffles. We have always been curious about this combination, so I’ve decided to give into the dark side and dismiss my pescetarian ways, at least for today. Two girls were performing on stage right next to the bar and were terrific, doing a few covers, but also performing original material. There was a cute little t-shirt shop inside the restaurant, where I gave into finding a “Cowgirl-Miranda Lambert” t-shirt. Now, all I need is a hat and boots, and I’ll be a true country girl! Back to the chicken and waffles. The presentation was bite-size pieces of fried hot chicken on top of a cornbread waffle, all topped with roasted corn, cilantro and pecan syrup. Oh my goodness…..we thought we’d died and gone to heaven. It was amazing!! The sweet and salty combination was out of this world.
We tried to burn off a few calories by walking around this lively city before heading back to the campground. We needed to get back to Sadie. Gee, do you think we should have thought about leaving during the commute hour? Oops, forgot that one. It was only a 15-minute delay, so not too bad.
Sadie was so excited to see us. A little ball and swim time makes for one happy pup.