Tag Archives: Nashville

Not Another Cowboy Bar!

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Boot Country

Boot Country

Years and years ago, young Daniel son embarrassed the heck out of Anne and I, when on a winter’s night, when Bugs and Horsey were in town, I stopped to drop everyone off in front of Blueberry Hill and as soon as Anne had helped him out of the car and his feet had touched wet pavement he exclaimed in his always loud little voice, “You guys aren’t taking me to another cowboy bar?!?” We were both mortified. In our defense, we have never taken Dan to a cowboy bar. Further, Blueberry Hill is not a cowboy bar. Subsequently, we have since taken Dan back to Blueberry Hill many times and he seems to have always liked the place. Now that he is old enough to drink beer there, I imagine that it has only gotten better. Tomorrow, Dan exits LAX for the Lou. It will be good to see him again. The photo is from Nashville.

In other news, my work is done for the day. It’s a Friday, so my work is also done for the week. It is even done for the year, but alas, it is not done for good, at least not yet. Anne and I are officially now on Christmas break and like the jolly ole elf that she is, she is in the adjoining room wrapping presents for all of those good little boys and girls. I’m nowhere near ready myself, but now that I have some time off, I’ll be getting ready. The big news at work today was this unsual weather forecast.

Game Day

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Mighty Athena

Mighty Athena

Game day, the Vols versus the Dores or in the vernacular, the Tennessee Volunteers versus the Vanderbilt Commodores. The goddess Athena is sporting her U of T colors from inside her command bunker in the Nashville Parthenon. I guess that makes her a bit of a traitor. She’s not quite yellow, not quite gold and not really orange either, but more of a Tennessee Tangerine. The day began with breakfast at a French crepes place, followed by the East Tennessee History Museum and then Michigan football on TV at Barley’s, a sports bar, along with beer and pizza. Michigan lost, as did Purdue, but Michigan State won! Now, as my ticket commands, “I will give my all for Tennessee today!” Who also won easily.

Black Bear Friday

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Nashville Parthenon

Nashville Parthenon

Instead of shopping on Black Friday, we communed with nature. We went to Great Smokies National Park, where we saw two black bears, a mother and her cub. According to the bear guide, who was trying to ride herd on all the humans about, momma bear was using humanity to keep a third bear at bay, an aggressive male. We drove around the eight mile Cade’s Cove loop, at rip roaring 5 MPH. There was major gaper block. Halfway around, we did a hike to Abrams Falls. I’m still feeling that jaunt tonight, but we were not done yet. We went out for bar-b-q and then attended the Ice Bears game, more bears. They are Knoxville’s minor league hockey team. They lost.

Nashville, also known as the Athens of the South, celebrated this association by building a replica of the Parthenon. Built in Centennial Park for the city’s first hundred year celebration, in the 1890s, it remains a cultural icon.

Going Honky Tonking

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Eye of Sauron over Broadway in Nashville

Eye of Sauron over Broadway in Nashville

We’re in Nashville tonight. We drove here today. The weather has been nice and traffic was mostly fine, but one lingering question remains, when is a road old enough that it can be told that it was adopted? Our hotel is downtown, just two blocks from Broadway, where most of the honky tonks are located. After check-in, we began exploring Nashville on foot. We ate dinner at the Merchant’s, where a full beard seemed to be part of the server’s uniform. After dinner we explored the music scene that was starting up for the evening. Usually, you could hear the music from the street. At one place, the Bootlegger’s Inn, we heard the sound of Tammy “Why-Not’s” Stand by Your Man and went in to hear some more music. Sauron’s tower is really an AT&T building and I photoshopped in to it the debris ring around Fomalhaut’s nebula from a NASA photo for the eye of Sauron. I’m not the first person to have done this.