April 27 -- Nashville

I awoke this morning to be promptly pounced on by Logan and Abbey’s puppy (a mutt about 5 months old, she looks somewhat like an Australian shepherd). But I’ll forgive her since she's pretty cute.

Abbey then cooked Zack and I some tasty French toast, which we ate happily. Following breakfast, we decided to look online and see what would be interesting for us to do in Nashville. Upon looking, we realized that literally almost everything we could find in this city is related to country music (which neither Zack nor I have a particular liking for).

 

Our first choice of things to do was to go to a car museum for stylish and unique cars. However, that was closed, so we had to come up with another plan. One of the items that came up most were former mansions built by plantation owners. Because of the light rain (and a lack of decision about what else to do), we decided to head to the Belmont Mansion.

 

Along the way, we noticed that we would pass the Grand Ole Opry, so we decided to stop and take a look. However, due to some flooding within the past year, a very large portion of the buildings near the Opry were blocked off for construction, so we decided to head on. Shortly afterwards, we noticed that the heater/air conditioner had gone out, so we made a detour to stop at a gas station along the way. While Zack was playing with the wires in the car, I went in to get a drink. Though it was mostly a normal stop at a gas station, one customer walked in saying “This is a holdup!” Apparently he was a regular there, and he said he was kidding immediately after, but it still gave the clerk a bit of a scare (I merely turned around with my drink in hand, trying to figure out if I was going to have to do something or not).

 

I then walked out through the light rain and sat back down in the car. About five minutes later, Zack had at least temporarily fixed the connection, so we headed off once again. Not long thereafter, we arrived at Belmont University. At first, we saw many students walking to classes, and felt overjoyed that we were finished already. However, there was only one problem…parking. We finally found a spot not too far from the mansion, and walked over to the entrance.

 

Inside, we took a guided tour of the mansion (no photography allowed, or I would show you some of it). It was pretty interesting, with many original items and other items from the same time period (mid 1800’s). As the tour progressed, we could somewhat hear the rain coming down harder outside. When we finished, we walked outside to find a downpour of rain (apparently the “Lotawatah” applies to rainfall as well). We literally ran the distance back to the car, still managing to get soaked in the process.

 

Because we still had a few hours left before we were planning on heading back to Logan and Abbey’s place, we decided to explore the town. Along the way, we drove past some pretty prominent locations of Nashville, including the Hard Rock Café and the stadium where the Titans play.

Because the rain was coming down hard (and I had fallen asleep a couple times while waiting at stop lights..) we decided to head back.

 

When we stepped out of our car, the rain was still pouring, and we could hear a siren going off somewhere nearby. While walking back to the room, we realized it must’ve been the tornado warning signal. Luckily, no tornadoes touched down near where we are. However, a mile wide tornado did tear through Tuscaloosa, AL, and other parts of northern Alabama, so please keep those from that area in your prayers.

 

Once back in the apartment (it was only about 4pm for us) we decided to take the rest of the evening off and stay out of the dreary weather. For the rest of the evening, we talked with Abbey and Logan, played with the dog, ate some delicious food cooked by Abbey (thanks Abbey!) and watched a movie.

 

 

Interesting Observations:

-I have three pictures for this section today, the first two needing no explanation from me (though an explanation as to why it’s 24 is accepted if anyone knows why, haha).

  

-And for this third picture, just wanted to note this chain of restaurants we’ve found in the south looks suspiciously familiar…