K and I headed a south last weekend to celebrate a friend's birthday in Nashville Tennessee. We decided to leave Friday after work so we could get in some good'ole country culture on Saturday. K had picked out a few museums and touristy things to see, but on the way we passed Mammoth Cave and decided that would be a great thing to see on our way back. Plus, we were very late on getting there since all of the spring break traffic was on the road and 65 went down to 1 lane after Louisville! I made K take a small detour after getting repeatedly hit on by the Kroger semi truck driver as we inched down the highway. She was finding it funny. I was not. We hit her Aunt and Uncle's house around midnight, caught the end of the basketball games and headed to bed. We had a big day in front of us and mine needed to start with an hour run. Yuck.
Her Aunt and Uncle were out of town and the cousins were off at friends houses. So K and I were there with no instructions on how the household ran. Actually we couldn't find the house number either but the door was open and luckily we found pictures of K's family on the wall so we knew we were in the right spot. Also, there was a dog. No clue if it needed food, water, bathroom, etc. In the morning, I decided to take it out just to be kind to the animal. This dog was ready to go as soon as I put the leash on him! He started jogging at a pretty good pace. Did I mention, I don't know the dog's name yet? So I kept just trying random names "Spot", "Rusty", "Sparky". None worked. I took him about a quarter mile and turned around. I didn't want to kill the thing. Dropped him off and head back out. Found lots of hills. Lots.
Cleaned up and headed to the Broadway area for the real taste of the town. Western wear!
They make some pretty bedazzled stuff down there. We stopped in a few restaurants and pubs to get some advice on good places for the after-birthday party. At one stop, I added a new pint glass to my collection. At the next stop, the girl carding me asked if I had anything in my glass. Umm, no. Isn't that illegal? Maybe not in TN! Shoulda thought about that!
We drove back to change for the festivities and get her cousin to drop us back off so no cars were in play. The basketball games started before we had to arrive for the surprise party so we popped in a spot that we were told had TVs (The surprise party was at a new swanky place called the Tavern and we weren't sure if they'd have the games on or not). The Corner Pub was nothing fancy but did the trick. While we were focused on the games, it started to pour. Crap, didn't need my $85 make up running! I asked the bartender for 2 trash bags. Got some funny looks, but I had a plan. Impromptu rain coats to get us a few blocks...
The birthday party was suppose to be a surprise, and for the most part it was. A slip up at the hotel check in led KBram to believe some family had traveled to TN to join in. He didn't have a clue a dozen of his friends did as well!
I think we had about 30 people in total. We had a great time and headed to a Karaoke bar (of course) after our hometown Butler bulldogs made the Final Four again! K picked out a great song for KBram... Any man of mine by Shania Twain. I don't think he was paying great attention to what he was singing, so we got the bartender to help him out.
We left there to hear some live music, a must when in Nashville. Even the parents held on and hit all the hot spots with us. A great way for him to ring in his 30th! After a long day, we retired to back to our beds and prepare for the drive back.
We headed to Mammoth Cave only to be severly disappointed. By the time we got on the road and ended up losing an hour on the way back, the only tours left were 2 hours long and that was not appealing to either of us. The next tour was still over an hour away. So we took a picture of a picture from a book in the lobby.
With our need for culture still looming, we decided to hit the next best thing we saw to do... Dinosaur World!
We entered the building to discover a huge room of any dinosaur toy, shirt, model, fossil you could want. Apparently the real draw is a $13 outdoor tour of "life size" dinosaurs. Well, if they looked anything like the ones we saw out front, it was kinda corny paper mache stuff. Not our cup of tea and it was chilly out. I tried to feed one as we left but he wasn't interested.
Our attempt at culture counts in my book. I'd only been to Nashville once before for a trip to Opryland, so this gave me a new view of the city. Great trip with friends and not too far from home. I'm sure we'll be back again!
