My Trip To Nashville

If you've checked out my blog recently, you might remember that I visited Nashville where I spent time with Robert Plant and attended a show at the Grand Ole Opry. There was more to the trip though, but first I want to go way back to 2016 when I made my first visit to Nashville as part of our annual-ish hockey road trip. In looking through previous posts, while I wrote about the St. Louis and Metropolis (yes Metropolis) portions of that year's trip, I never shared a thorough post about Nashville. The short version is that I loved it. Nashville's Bridgestone Arena is right on Broadway, a multi-block party filled with bars, restaurants, and live music, particularly country music. Five years later, the place seems even more insane.

My hotel during this trip is about 1.5 miles away from the heart of Broadway, and I walked downtown from there twice. One of those occasions was on Sunday just before noon and the street was already rocking. Here is a picture of a party bus featuring a woman wearing the jersey of everyone's favorite "immunized," though not vaccinated, NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

If you have poor eyesight like me, you'll have to really zoom in to see it. Actually, since Rodgers was unable to play football due to contracting COVID-19, maybe it actually was him!

Many of the bars on Broadway are owned or at least named for musicians. There's one for Luke Bryan, another for Florida Georgia Line, one for Jason Aldean, Kid Rock, etc. Dierks Bentley also has a bar. I mention this because an Uber driver told us that two people died there in the last few months from fights. (I only found a story about one death in an online search.) This isn't part of the advertising campaign for the bar on the sign at the Nashville Airport.

While I'm not sure if Nashville is considered a foodie town, Hattie B's Hot Chicken is well known. I went with a mild chicken sandwich because I like to taste and enjoy food rather than spending an entire meal with my mouth on fire. I also ate at Pancake Pantry, which I highly recommend. I'm all for restaurants that serve delicious breakfast food all day long or at least through lunch. By the way, Taco Bell deserves major credit for having likely its coolest sign in their downtown Nashville restaurant. I did not eat at Taco Bell.

One of the oddest Nashville attractions is The Parthenon. It just seems so random and out of place. People in the 1890s just decided to recreate the original structure in Athens, Greece and place it in Nashville. While I didn't go inside, it's an art museum in the middle of a park. There was a flag football game going on just steps away from the building!

Oh, I saw the house that Jay Cutler built.

Finally, at least two of my Uber drivers are musicians, because why not? I didn't get the name of one, but the other has a bunch of videos on YouTube. She's really talented, so I hope that Autumn Knight makes it big, and I can share that she gave me a ride to the airport!