Day 75: Nashville, TN Rest Day 1

Day 75

July 30, 2015

Miles: 0

Exploring Nashville

We got our of bed a little past 9am this morning.  Today is a rest day and there's no reason to ruin a rest day by getting up early!  We went downstairs to enjoy the free breakfast and because we had a lot of time on our hands, we stayed eating and drinking until we were kicked out a little after 10am.  

This was our first pass at the breakfast buffet

We finished our breakfast and then went back to our room to lounge around for a while.  Hey, its a rest day and we have to make sure we get our rest!  After an hour or so we felt we were sufficiently rested and decided to ride our bikes to the downtown area.  We've come to really appreciate riding our bikes when they are not loaded down with luggage.  Its not that riding our bikes when they are fully loaded with gear is not fun, its just that riding our bikes without gear is a whole lot more fun.  When we arrived in the downtown area we weren't quite sure what to do first, so we did what any normal person would do in that situation - we went into the first coffee shop we saw and bought ourselves iced mochas with an added chocolate shot.

Mike's serves ice cream as well as coffee - smart!

Iced coffee and an apple danish means instant happiness

Di outside the ice cream and coffee bar - now if they only sold used books as well

Once we had our coffee we felt capable enough to walk around Nashville.  Di wanted to look for a Nashville t-shirt, so I watched our bikes as she visited a number of stores.

View outside t-shirt store number 1

view from t-shirt store number 2

View from t-shirt store number 3

Di wasn't having good luck finding a suitable t-shirt, so she decided to give up on that and look for a pair of cowboy boots instead.

Visiting boot store number 1

Coming out empty-handed at boot store number 2

View down the street at boot store number 3

View across the street at boot store number 4

Walking towards boot store number 5

I am obviously enraptured by the sign

Well, you won't see a picture referencing boot store number 6, because at boot store number 5 Di bought herself a nice pair of boots.  I didn't mind going to all those boot stores because I found those stores interesting and I liked looking at all the cowboy hats.  I picked up one nice looking Stetson, but quickly put it back down again when I saw that it cost $700.  I learned today that its expensive to dress up like a pretend cowboy!

Di's new boot (she bought left boot also, in case you are wondering)

I probably owe my love of Johnny Cash to my Dad.  He loved Johnny Cash and I remember my Dad playing and even singing along to his songs when I was a kid.  Well, the Johnny Cash Museum was just around the corner from where Di bought her boots, so you know where we ended up next.

That's right, the Johnny Cash Museum!

The museum tells the story of Johnny's life through pictures, letters that he wrote, and of course, through his music.  It was interesting to learn how he got his start and to see his hand-written lyrics for "I Walk the Line" and other songs and some of the guitars he used.  In addition to those displays, there were also three different viewing rooms showing clips from his movies, television shows, and live performances.  Despite all those interesting things to see, the part I enjoyed most was listening to the steady stream of Johnny Cash singing his most popular songs.  I know I could listen to those songs any time I want because I have all his records, but being in the museum surrounded by all Johnny's stuff just made those songs a little bit more special.  

  

One of Johnny's early guitars

He loved to take photographs (I want that camera)

Mixing board from his studio (Andy probably has all those controls on an iPhone app)

A later guitar

The man in black's guitar

We went back to the hotel after the Johnny Cash museum to do some relaxing.  Did I mention that it was a rest day?  After resting for about an hour, I called Andy to remind him he is coming to Nashville tomorrow.  He said he remembered and he and Paige were excited to be coming to Nashville.  I'm so happy they are coming - I have never gone this long without seeing the A.  I talked with my mom and then Dine and San.  I will be home soon and there better be some insalata left when I come over on Thursday night!  

Di and I decided to return to the The Row to have dinner and listen to live music.  The Row has a lineup of performers who each take the stage for one hour.

Di enjoying the live music

Those are fried green tomatoes

Kaylee Rose was the second act of the night - she was good!

The bar area of the Row

I ordered the homemade fried chicken and Di got brussels sprouts, string beans and a mashed sweet potato

Many of the songs the artists had written themselves, but they also sang what I'm guessing are popular hits by other artists.  I'm guessing because every time they said something like, "Y'all know this one" or "C'mon and sing along with me on this one", I had no idea at all of what song it was.  Sometimes the singer would say the name of some famous person who wrote the song, and I hadn't heard of that person, either.  It then occurred to me that I don't listen to country music.  In fact, I don't really like country music.  I had the good sense, however, to keep that fact to myself.

Tomorrow we go nowhere and await the arrival of Andy and Paige. Wahoo!