Nashville

September 10-16, 2018

TL;DR: We were lucky enough to explore Nashville with our good friends from Florida and Jess’s brother, guaranteeing a good time. And Nashville’s pretty great already. The vibe changes neighborhood to neighborhood, but two things are consistent: good music and strong drinks.

Crying Wolf

Interesting bar in East Nashville. Tried to get food here one night but the kitchen was closed and they were playing exclusively heavy metal.

We did come back during the day and hung out with the bartender long enough to get real friendly and order about half of her drinks. Hilary also introduced Jess to Tajin, which is now one of her new favorite things.

Treehouse Restaurant

Great late-night spot with an insanely delicious BLT. And molten chocolate cake that they were kind enough to make two of after the kitchen closed.

Biscuit Love

We cleaned up pretty good here. Ate all the biscuits. Also, they had the most delicious Greyhound with super fresh grapefruit juice.

Third Man Records

Jack White’s record label. Small, cool spot with a little listening studio and tons of good records.

It’s also home to The Blue Room, the only venue in the world to record live shows direct-to-acetate, which produces a vinyl master in real time.

Fond Object

This vintage store has tons of neat finds, and was hosting an impromptu concert the night we went, as Nashville does.

We found quite a few gems.

Smith & Lentz

We really loved East Nashville, and this was one of the breweries we stopped at.

Pearl Diver

Really fun tiki bar with an awesome back patio and great drinks.

Hattie B’s

Delicious. Worth the wait. The spicy is SPICY so heed their warnings.

Broadway

Broadway felt like Bourbon Street on steroids. You can walk into any of the honky tonks and hear exceptional music.

The musicians will generally take pretty much any request, too, so even if someone asks for Metallica, they’ve got it.

Also everyone’s in cowboy boots, so we fit right in.

Nashville Farmer’s Market

Tons of fresh produce and an indoor section with cheap but good candles, green juices (should you want them), food, and more.

Nashville State Fair

We think this was Bri’s first state fair! We got there about one hour before ALL the crowds, and even got a parking spot for Layla. It was pretty small, but they did have chickens that looked like they had bellbottoms and ones with super long legs.

We also rode the Voltron (Alien Abduction), which made us all very nauseous. Not sure we ever need to do that again.

There was even a table setting competition. Because that’s a thing, apparently.

All in all, it was fun, but we need to go to a bigger one for that real state fair flavor.

Opryland

So this is a bit of a strange place. You can drink inside, and there are a ton of bars, but it’s also a hotel and there’s a river you can ride a boat down. And there’s an extensive botanical garden. Because, Nashville.

Asheville

Stopped into Asheville for dinner at a cool BBQ spot called Buxton Hall. Good cocktails and a really neat industrial space that would be even more fun on a warm day.

In general, even though it was in the dark, Asheville looked like a really cool/fun town that we definitely want to revisit.

Details, details, details

Though we’ve stayed in the parking lot of many a Cracker Barrel, Bri had never actually been, so in we went one morning. It was as expected: biscuits, bacon, butter. What was unexpected is how awesome the store is: rows and rows of good old fashioned candy, sodas, and records.

Nashville’s Home Depot Halloween display is lit.

Walmart’s $3-dollar bin is also lit.

And then this happened…

We were originally going to go to the Great Smoky Mountains with Jess’s brother, but hurricane Florence shut down the park, so we stayed a bit longer in Nashville. Not the worst problem to have.

When Nick and his girlfriend arrived at the RV park, they got dropped off in the wrong spot, so we sent a Lyft to them, but the Lyft came to us, and the guy thought he was doing us a favor.

We went to get Nick’s girlfriend some boots and they had ONE boot in her size but couldn’t find the other. How does that happen?

We tried to find some scooters but couldn’t locate four in the same space (!). We did find a few, though, and made good use of them.

At our second Nashville RV park, there was a knock on the door a little after we had settled in. An elderly couple—Radar and his wife—saw us pull up. They had a longer Intent and were suspicious of its durability. So they spent about 30 minutes interrogating Bri about ours. We weren’t sure he wasn’t ever coming back inside.

Now we know

Maybe don’t answer the door when someone knocks after dark in an RV park?

Jess’s brother, Nick, is a chef in San Francisco. But he definitely doesn’t need a fancy kitchen to cook amazing food. We had quite the feast in Layla.

Cracker Barrel has really good (new) records.

Road food

Delicious ribs, pulled pork, and BBQ nachos at Peg Leg Porker.

Nutella pancakes and the most amazing sandwich with a cheese “jacket” at Sky Blue Cafe.

Have a hangover? Go to The Nashville Biscuit House. Even if you don’t.

Where we stayed

Nights one through four: Safe Harbor RV Resort

This really beautiful RV park had a pool and shuffleboard, and was right on the J. Percy Priest Reservoir. If we had more time, we would have rented a boat and gone on the water, but it was nice to have the beautiful view. And we got in some epic sunsets.

Nights five and six: Two Rivers Campground

When we realized we couldn’t go into the Smoky Mountains because of the hurricane, we had to book another RV park. So we found this spot near Opryland, and it worked nicely. Saw another gorgeous sunset, and they even had a band come play on Sunday night.