The Porch Swing Ramblings: 3
44 hours in Nashville!
It has to be said that my geography of America is pretty sketchy, so when I discovered that Atlanta and Nashville were close on the map, my heart skipped a beat! As I enlarged the map, I realised that the closeness was actually 350km but that’s fairly close in American terms isn’t it? I had measured the distance firstly by the length of a Greyhound Bus journey - 4.5 hours didn’t seem too bad…?!
My room mate for Atlanta asked what I planned to do with my free days when we arrived. I replied,
“A trip to Nashville!”
Bev’s eyes sparkled and I immediately had a travel companion. Two other cast members joined the party and within a couple of hours of arriving in Atlanta, the “Fab Four” were Uber-ing their way to the bus station… making a brief stop en route to let Mel make the fastest check in to her accommodation!
I hadn’t quite thought the bus journey through but I have to say, I was very relieved we were travelling in a group!!
Taking a Greyhound bus to Nashville was fairly high on my bucket list! I wanted to experience the iconic journey taken by so many singer/songwriters over the years, as they chased their dreams to the country music capital! Even Dolly took the bus, so there was no question of alternative transport! It was obvious that this bus had carried many a traveller over its lifetime and the powerful air conditioning fan had only one setting but that seemed to add to the charm. Some of our fellow passengers were a little intimidating but everyone kept themselves to themselves, focused on their own adventures! Our briefstop in Chattanooga was somewhat underwhelming but the arrival in Nashville couldn’t have been more impressive!
A very friendly Uber driver whisked us straight off from the bus station to the Bluebird Cafe, giving us the low down on what to do and see on our short stay! The Bluebird Cafe was fully booked but we discovered that when you are travelling as group made up of; a singer, two acrobats and a bassist, have; patience, stubbornness, chat and buy the merch, karma has a tendency to come down on your side! Eventually four people left and we were given seats, ordered drinks, even got last food orders into the kitchen and listened to an amazing band! Being so close to such incredible musicians in this iconic venue and especially after all the Covid restrictions, was the BEST feeling…EVER!!
We were the last to leave, making sure we soaked up every second of our time in this little piece of musical heaven on earth! We Uber-ed to our accommodation and settled into an incredible apartment that was even more palatial than the website pictures gave credit…Great find Bev!
The next day and only full day was jam packed as we took in as much of this incredible city. We wanted to see as much as possible, so we located museums, visited their gift shops, tried on cowboy boots, zig-zagged our way along The Strip taking in more incredible bands, danced, ate, drank and then rounded off the day with an epic variety concert, featuring many big names at the Grand Ol’ Opry! What an experience!
The final day continued in the same whirlwind fashion…more Southern tasty treats, cowboy hats, museum gift shops, famous landmarks and as many things Dolly as possible! I was maybe a little disappointed that I didn’t meet the legend herself in person but I was so grateful to have spent 44 hours incredible hours in Nashville.
We boarded the Greyhound back to Atlanta! The driver was a real character and you just knew that you were in safe hands! This bus was considerably newer than the outgoing one and I didn’t actually need the multi coloured blanket I had bought for the trip back! However, there was something comforting about this blanket of many colours and I snuggled into it anyways, lost in my audiobook version of “Run Rose, Run!”, eyes fixed on the cityscape until it blurred into the setting sun. I mentally ticked off “visit Nashville” from my Bucket List but then immediately replaced it with “Return to Nashville…
