Day 7 - Welcome to Nashville

Anyone that has read my previous 4 posts about my vacation will realise I had a great time in Chicago and it is obvious I would be slightly sad to move on.

I arrived mid afternoon at Nashville airport not really knowing much about the city or its people, I got a taxi to my hotel the Best Western Music Row which took around 20 minutes. I was quite tired after my late nights and over the top drinking and clubbing so I was planning a quiet night (it was only tuesday).

I only had two priorities get a decent meal and find a sports bar called "Two Doors Down". This bar was important because somebody had replied to my post on "Tripadvisor" that this is the best chance of watching the Leeds Utd play off semi-final on Friday (I just had to find out).

About 6pm I was changed and asked the Hotel receptionist if she knew where I could get a meal. She told me there were a number of bars across the car park opposite the hotel. I had a walk over and to my amazment the first place I saw was "Two Doors Down".

I entered the bar and it was full of TV screens with various sports channels playing. I sat down at the bar and ordered my first beer of the day. I got talking to the bar man and eventually ordered a meal which was enjoyable. Eventually I asked him about the Leeds match and he didn't know but the owner would. He went off to find the owner returning later with the news I wanted to hear, it will be shown live on a cable channel from 1.30pm Friday. It turns out they are the only bar in Nashville with this channel, what luck.

About 9pm and following a few more beers I decided to move on telling them I would be back Friday. I was going to make my way back to the hotel but saw an Irish pub called "Dan McGuiness" so I thought I would have a look in and knock the froth off a couple more beers.

I got sat down at the bar drinking my first beer when two attractive young ladies came in and sat next to me. It wasn't long before we were talking and introducing ourselves they seemed really nice. They were both 28 years old that lived close to Nashville but origionated from elsewhere (Holly from San antonio and Amanda from Tupelo).

We started telling jokes and the bar man joined in when he could it was a good laugh, we all got on great. The drinks started flowing more and more as we chatted in a very relaxed atmosphere. Holly told me she had a five year old son and showed me is picture, he looks really cute, she talked about him a lot, she really loves him.

It surprised me that two attractive girls wanted to chat with a stranger 20 years older than them when there was younger people in the bar, so I asked. They told me they were enjoying my company, that pleased me a lot.

Holly and myself actually exchanged blog site addresses (she is on My Space) and we all had our photo's took. I can't stress enough how nice these girls were we talked about everything no subject was left out (and Holly if you read this I still don't think you need a boob job).

Eventually some other friends of the girls came in and started talking to them, It was about midnight so I thought I wouldn't outstay my welcome and left to go back to my Hotel. The girls had been good to me but as a older man I didn't think it fair to hang around I thought the other crowd contained some lads who may want to chat them up.

I know now I made the wrong decision the girls actually wanted to stay with me they were having as much fun as I was. How do I know this ? Holly as kept in contact via e'mail. She was worried that they had upset me somehow (no way). She as told me the other group were jerks and after they missed me they actually toured up and down outside my hotel looking for me. They considered going in and asking reception but only knew my first name and decided that was not enough to go on when asking.

What lovely girls they were, I hope we meet up again one day.

I wish they had have come in because I was in the hotel bar, this is the story :-

I arrived back at my hotel fully intending to go to bed but as I walked through the foyer I heard music coming from the bar so I stuck my head around the door. There was about twelve people sitting at the bar some with guitars, it looked like a private party. I was about to turn around when I heard somebody say come and join us, This turned out to be a local musician called Ray. The Bar manager named Bethany also encouraged me to join them so I thought it rude not to so I sat at the bar and ordered a drink.

It turned out they were all local songwriters who meet there and play there new songs to each other, they were of varying ages from late thirties upwards but all so friendly.

I had been there a few minutes listening to their songs when all of a sudden I realised sitting next to me was a person that looked totally out of place. There was this girl dressed in white, for a moment I thought I had gone to heaven, was it an angel ? This girl was young so pretty, as close as it gets to perfection I couldn't believe she was there.

I soon got talking to her and it turned out her father was a songwriter and they had moved from St Louis only 3 weeks earlier. She was called Lindsey, 24 years old, looked younger, she was really nice so we talked, I was interested in St Louis as I am going there on my next vacation.

We talked a long time, she showed me her tatoos (all three), listened to the musicians and time just flew by. I eventually called it a day and got back to my room just before 4am, I didn't make my free complimentry hotel breakfast the following morning. This was typical of Nashville, I didn't make breakfast the next two mornings either.

So much for a quiet night, Welcome to Nashville, Great people.

Photos :- 1. Amanda & Holly 2. Holly with me 3. Amanda with me 4. Ray 5. Some Musicians 6. More Musicians 7. An angel (sorry Lindsey) with me looking drunk (it must of been bad light).