Atlanta to Nashville

Monday we woke up from the Ritz to hit the road for Nashville.  Another stop on the way to our next show in Memphis.  I am going to see quite a bit of this great country on this excursion of mine!  Shay and I hit up a diner that was downtown for breakfast.  It was okay.  There was a really bad smell of chemicals in the diner...a bunch of people complained and they eventually took care of it.  Before we loaded up on the bus we stumbled into "191 Bistro" It's a high rise attached to the Ritz.  It was gorgeous with giant chandeliers and a even more beautiful tapestry.  I snapped the above picture on my phone...and then I was promptly told by security there was no photos allowed...oh well...you'll just have to take my word for it...it was very 'grand' in there.  We headed out to Nashville...it was suppose to be a shorter ride than our previous days... but there was a big accident on the road and we sort of came to a crawl before we even hit Chattanooga.  I was able to snap this pict from the bus as we were rounding a corner...at a snails pace...

We rolled into Nashville at around 3pm.  It's a lot smaller than I thought it would be.  And due to the recent floods there was a lot shut down...I grew up on country music and would have loved nothing more than to go the the Grand Ole Opry...but it's under 12 feet of water...At any rate we were staying this night at the 4 star, "green" Hutton Hotel.  My room was the smallest I've had in a long time but it was awesome!  It is what I imagine an apartment in Manhattan would look like...decorated in West Elm like furnishings.  The sink in the bathroom was a single piece of glass(above left))  and to turn on the electricity in the room you had to place your card key in a slot next to the door (above right).  The shower had a panel of frosted glass in it that allowed the natural light from the room to filter into the shower and bathroom... (below left, as seen from room area)  

Just after we got in Shay and I decided to hit the pavement and see what Nashville had to offer.  We knew the Grand Ole Opry was out due to flooding and most places with tours were closed for the night but we struck out on our own anyways to explore.  It was about a mile walk from our hotel to get to what is considered "downtown".  On the way the skies opened up and
poured rain....like
this place needs anymore water!  We took shelter under the eave of a church entrance.  It's a good thing we stopped because we would have been drenched the rest of the day!  As we were walking through downtown we came across the Barbershop Harmony Society.  All of Mick's family is involved in barbershop so I snapped a picture of the building for them.  It's hard to see in the picture but under each of the 4 columns on the building is : T, L, BA, BS...yeah that's a barbershop place alright!  We finally made our way over to the Ryman Auditorium, the longest home to date of the Grand Ole Opry.  We just missed the last tour.  I grew up on country music so this was pretty special and neat for me to get to see the building.  I do plan to return at some point so I can see a show and take some tours! We walked around for hours, tried on cowboy boots, went to Dolly Parton's gift shop, took pictures of the flooded river with debris, and ended up at "Rippy's" at an  outdoor patio to eat some awesome pulled pork and local brew.  We OF COURSE had to finish up with some ice cream from a local ice cream shop called Mike's...it was delicious.  By the time we got back to the hotel we had been out for hours! I was exhausted but I still managed to shove my practice mute in my bell and put in a few hours of face time.  It's so important to keep up the chops on these days when we don't have any shows.

I've arrived...in Music City

Shay standing next to one of Dolly's teeny tiny dresses!

Receding river with debris floating in it to the right.

Rippy's "Pulled Pork", Slaw, Corn Cake, and not one but 2 Yazoo's

The next morning Shay and I had made plans to hook up with a fellow BU alum, Gil, who now plays bassoon in the Nashville Symphony.  He picked us up and we went to a Nashville icon the Pancake Pantry...It was AWESOME!!! Great pancakes, good prices...a good start to another day of travel.  Gil brought along his oldest daughter who was absolutely adorable...it's so funny to see all our friends all grown up with kids.  My Mom wrote me a note saying, you're really getting paid for all this fun?  YEP...it's pretty much the best thing ever!

Pecan Pancakes....with warm maple syrup and whipped butter...

Gil, Mary Jo, & Shay @ the Pancake Pantry, Nashville TN

Shows to date: 3

Number of hotels stayed in to date: 4
Best hotel to date: Hutton Hotel, Nashville, TN - Awesome design and I loved that it was "green"