Showing posts with label Nashville. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nashville. Show all posts
Zack and I decided to save a little money today by staying at a motel which seemed like a great idea... buuuut maybe we should have spent a little more money after all. We are only in Atlanta one night so no need for anything extravagant - just something clean and above all, cheap! We thought about taking more time in Atlanta, but we are meeting friends tomorrow in Savannah so in order to make it on time we had to pass up really getting to know Atlanta.

The drive was going great. We stopped in Chattanooga (in Tennessee but right by the border of Georgia) for lunch and I kinda loved it. It was a lot bigger than I imagined with beautiful rolling hills and a lake just outside the city where people fished and relaxed in the nice 70 degree weather. Dreamy, right?? It made me wish in that moment that we had brought our Kayak with us on this trip to take advantage of that moment..too bad our Fusion can't handle a roof rack and a two-man Kayak on it ha.
Anyway, we stopped at St. Elmo Deli & Grill for lunch which had hot sandwiches! Yummy! It was in this cute part of town where they have a railway that goes up to Lookout Mountain (from our view it looked like a cute shed and platform at the top!). That would have been so fun to try, I'm kicking myself that we didn't.
As we got to the Border of Atlanta the traffic worsened. There is nothing more that I love than heavy traffic in an unfamiliar place! Honestly, I felt like the whole time I was gripping the steering wheel as I navigated around aggressive drivers. What can you expect from a big city though?? I get use to driving in the countryside so when I hit traffic I instantly tense up and my mood shifts from cheery to kinda cranky.
Commentary by Z: We had to shift our music selection to something a little more cheery and upbeat...
We made it to the motel room which brings us to the present and back to why this wasn't the best idea. Ya we are safe, but do we feel safe? eh, not really. Something about my window and door right up against the parking lot doesn't give me the best sense of security. We also have neighbors that decided to have a bbq and didn't think to invite us! Rude.
Commentary by Z: Hannah neglected to mention that their bbq is in the back of their truck and they're all outside talking and yelling at each other right outside our door. Super pleasant.
As the night goes on though, I can hear them getting a little more drunk and a little louder. Their radio is blasting though so maybe they were too nervous to ask us to join and thought that we still wanted to _hear_ the fun. Hmmm but as I write this, "Every Breath you Take" by The Police is playing, you know "Every move you make, every step you take, I'll be watching you"... I will try not to read too much into that.. Also, the neighbors upstairs are not shy! I can't tell if they are making it more homey by hanging up pictures on the wall or if they just like to play leapfrog haha. Well, it's all part of the experience, right??
To make you feel better and let's be real, me feel better, here is a picture that I just love SO much! I laugh sooo hard every time I see it! I can't get over it and it only gets funnier the more I look at it! If you go online you can find countless memes/GIFS of this little guy..so that's what I will be doing for the next hour before bed.
Good news! The medicine is working and I should be back to myself in no time! Does it seem like I keep talking about my sickness...because I feel like I have, but man does it make me appreciate when I am healthy. Traveling and illness do not mix very well and I have had a hard time these past few days as I have tried to get better. It's hard when I'm not in my own bed and around everything I need to get better. It's been an adjustment for sure..so if anyone has any ideas of what I could take to help keep me healthy for the rest of the trip that would be awesome! I'm currently taking vitamins and working out - that's about it.

Zack had work so I updated the blog, rested, and even went for a walk with our friend's dog Romeo. This dog is like my dream dog - so easy to walk and so happy to be on a walk with you. I had a dog growing up and he was the kind of dog that wanted to bolt the second he was out of the backyard. He always took _me_ for a walk, a run really! That partially had to do with that fact that I was 10 and easy to drag around, the other part is that he just loved to run.
Commentary by Z: He can't drag her around cause he's round like a sausage right now! Maybe a pepperoni? A peppeRomeo?
Romeo is such a good dog though that it made it easy for me to explore the outdoors of Nashville. Even in the neighborhoods it was pretty woodsy which I loved (is woodsy a real word?). It felt a little more secluded when I couldn't see house after house in the area, but I'm also not used to it. Living in Utah has made me more accustomed to seeing the whole valley in pretty much any location.
Tonight we tried to go see the Grand Ole Opry, but when we arrived they were having some private event so no one was able to get close to the building..it was all blocked off which was a bummer. Sooo we saw it from a distance but couldn't even get a good picture of it because the trees were obstructing the view :(. It was really cool to see but also surprising that a mall is right by it? I guess I always imagined it would be in the heart of the city surrounded by a park and sky scrapers or something. It was still cool to see...next time we come out here I want to go to a concert there, that would be amazing!! Carrie Underwood anyone?

We considered going back to Broadway for dinner but Tanner suggested we try an Irish pub, McNamara's Irish Pub and Restaurant, that plays live music. We figured we'd give it a shot since Irish music can be pretty cool (a little random but it's true). Turns out, we really liked that place! I tried Shepherds pie - for the first time I might mention - and I liked it! Shepherds pie kinda freaked me out for a long time..I have no idea why but it never appealed to me but when Zack brought it up as a food option I realized that it sounded pretty good so why not try it out? For dessert we shared a Ice Cream pie and the thing was MASSIVE! Four people could have shared it and probably wouldn't have finished it. It was three different types of ice cream with a chocolate crust and topped with chopped Snickers and chocolate syrup. So good. So filling. A sugar overload. I will probably dream about that dessert tonight it was so good, but also regret how much I ate.
just a little blurry..oh well
***Side Note - We were kinda lame with taking pics today. Sorry this post is lacking***

Here's a little trick - if you want to go to Graceland (you know, Elvis' home in Memphis), but don't want to pay $40 per person to see it, show up from 7:30am to 8:30am and you can walk the grounds and see the Meditation Garden. That's exactly what Zack and I did. It would have been cool to walk through his house, but because Elvis is past my generation, it didn't seem worth it to pay that kind of money (please don't hate me Elvis fans!). Elvis' Meditation Garden was really pretty though and was on the side of his house so we had a great view of the whole property while walking to the garden. The garden had a swimming pool, fountains, and the tombstones for Elvis and his family members. There were a few historical plaques which gave a little background and hardly any tourists were there (because of it being the off season) so it was a nice quiet morning for us. Score!
Commentary by Z: Just realized I have heard of 0 other people named Elvis. Just had to look him up to make sure that his real name was Elvis and it wasn't just some nickname - yup, it's Elvis.
Zack and I also took a some time to see the National Civil Rights Museum in downtown Memphis. The museum was built around the Lorraine Motel - where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. They have preserved the motel and added a few posts on the sidewalk where people can watch different movie clips talking about MLK and the events leading up to his assassination. This was a really cool moment for me because I was reminded of a very important part of history. Growing up we talked about the civil rights movement in school and I have seen pictures and read stories/books about certain events, but being able to see these places for myself was a great experience. It gave me a greater appreciation for the things that many brave women and men have done. I think it's important to not only read about monumental events in history but to then go see where they took place for ourselves - it made an impact on me and was worth the time.
Commentary by Z: I had no idea that he died while supporting Memphis' sanitation worker strike. I always thought it was related to something else - something he was running and protesting for - but he just went to Memphis because they asked him to come speak and lend a hand. The more you know!
Our drive to Nashville was another pretty drive. What I love about this trip is that the drive is totally different everyday.
Commentary by Z: _Totally_ different. We went from brown plains in Kansas to slightly hilly brown plains in Oklahoma. What a change!
I'm not familiar with any of these places and so the drive is more exciting to me and never seems to drag on. For dinner we met up with Tanner, one of Zack's lifelong friends and the friend we are staying with while in Nashville. He introduced us to Edley's Bar-B-Que, which is another great place to get bbq. This trip has offered us a LOT of great bbq. Good thing I'm not tired of it yet!
Commentary by Z: She's so tired of it.
Tanner had to go back to studying for his med test, but suggested that we head down to Broadway for more live entertainment (our favorite!). This street, much like Memphis, is famous for its live music in the bars - it was just a bit bigger than Beale Street with windier roads and a longer strip! The place was lively and a fun hangout if you don't mind loud music (mostly country) coming from every bar because many open their windows or doors hoping to attract a crowd into their place. It worked for us though because we stopped in places where the band caught our attention. We did this for a few blocks and then called it a night, which was probably a good thing because if you have forgotten, I am STILL sick and needed to get to bed. Don't worry though, I called the doctor and got meds to make me better!

8th leg of the journey: 3.5 hours. 224 miles.