Day 85 – Going Country

Author – Kate
From – Atlanta, GA
To – Nashville, TN
Via - Chattanooga
Miles driven - 250

Today’s Photos – http://www.flickr.com/photos/32017704@N03/sets/72157613136070118/

Grant has started a couple of blogs with the line “if Kate was writing this blog blah blah” Well if Grant was writing this blog he would for sure spend the opening paragraph telling you that he was scared for his life during the 2 hours that I was driving (badly) in rain (torrential) from Atlanta to Chattanooga (choo choo) surrounded by trucks (18 wheelers). It was, in short, horrific. But Grant isn’t writing this so we can skip that and instead I can start by telling you about our hike.

Atlanta has a huge park system, sorry I realize that might be dull but we have gone a bit geeky keen about parks with hiking trails lately. So we picked out another 4 mile walk for the morning. This one was a lot busier than the prior days because the first half is paved and it wasn’t as picturesque at first but once we got off the main 2 mile path (where one super fit man had lapped us 3 times) we got to a nice trail that was a bit hilly but not too hard. It’s a really good feeling to get exercise out of the way in the morning and know that Molly had some fun too. I am always amazed at how many other people are out doing the same thing as us because it never even entered my head for the first 30 years of my life that being outdoorsy would be entertaining. Old and Geeky, that can’t be good.

The main excitement of the day was that we were heading to Nashville. As Ive already hinted I don’t want to go on about the drive too much but I should mention we stopped in Chattanooga on the way for lunch. The town didn’t look particularly special but that may have just been because of the rain. Lunch was a quick stop at Chilis which is a chain all over America but that oddly enough we know from our days living in Reading England where we use to go on date nights about 10 years ago – arhh bless. We went healthy and had soup with salads so it was nothing to write home about. After lunch the rain stopped and Grant took the helm so the remaining drive was a bit calmer. We passed a sign telling us we were crossing into the Central time zone and got really excited about having gained an hour, I think if we knew it was coming it would’ve been much less novel for us. The change caused confusion for us a couple of times that day as I changed the time on 80% of our clocks (they don’t call me half the job Kate for nothing) and we kept looking at the other 20% by mistake.

Once in Nashville things got cool pretty quickly in 2 respects. Firstly it was literally freezing and we weren’t quite prepared for the 30 degree drop from that morning. Secondly one of the first people we saw when we arrived in the home of country music was dressed in a fringed leather jacket and wearing cowboy boots and we love it when an American stereotype is true as much as the next man. We went for a quick run to offset the big food we were planning and then headed to the bright lights of Broadway for some beer, food and country music.


We were not disappointed once that night if you don’t count the food and creepy waiter. Im not the foody one so we can skip that too. Broadway in Nashville is lined with bars all of which have cracking country music bands playing and apparently almost all of the great country stars began their careers there. Every place that isn’t a bar is either a rib joint or a cowboy boot shop. We didn’t go into the cowboy boot places as I’ve wanted a pair for a while and don’t really trust myself to pull of the look so feel its best left. Instead we went to two of the bars that were busiest which were ‘Tootsies wild orchid’ and whatever the place next door is called (soz am not a details person either). Ten minutes into the first bar and we’d already bought a cd from the band as we are quite blatant tourist. Everything about it was great, the music, the long white beards, the cowboy boots, the Stetsons, even the coats which when there wasn’t head to toe denim were fringe leather or hunting outfits. Everyone in every bar seemed to know everyone and we spotted a couple of people that looked like they must be in the music business. One guy was having his hand shaken by every other person walking in and one girl was stunning and in quite an outfit so it wasn’t too much of a surprise that the next time we saw her she was on stage singing in the bar next door. The bars were lined with pictures of people who must be icons in this town but who we didn’t recognize. We got excited when we saw Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Kid Rock on the wall as it meant the mega icons still hangout here every now and again too. Country is on pretty often on mainstream radio here so we know (and like – yikes!)a few songs but Jolene by Dolly was the only one we knew that night. We belted it out with pride before heading home to the pooch.

Tomorrow : another hike and another music venue.