Day 15: Nashville Layover – Tourist

For the last two days, I had the Johnny Cash cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” stuck in my head. It’s a haunting song that echos with Cash’s booming baritone voice through the Johnny Cash Museum in Nashville. Now, because it repeated about 122 times while I was at the museum, that song is the soundtrack to my quiet times since leaving Nashville. It could be worse.

While I enjoyed the fancy hotel in Louisville, I was happy with my homey digs in East Nashville. Rather than an absent owner who’s turn some property into a characterless moneymaker, this AirBnB was a classic…if you can consider the early days of AirBnB way back in 2008 classic. The owner lived upstairs a d used a separate entrance when she rented. The place had a coffee bar, labels on the kitchen board, a whiteboard with helpful info, special touches a peppermint sugar scrub in the bathroom.

After 14 days on the road, this place was cozy and homey and relaxing. With a day off from the road, I lingered in bed sipping a coffee and watching morning news programs. I wrote and addressed postcards. Then, made myself a breakfast of herbed scrambled eggs and greens. I took a long shower. I cleaned and lubed my chain and sorted through some of my stuff.

Then I figured, I just road over 3000 miles and scheduled an extra day in Nashville, maybe I should see something more of Nashville than this house. I decided the best way to see all the tourist necessities of Nashville, the on/off trolley was the way to go, but first, the Johnny Cash Museum to get my earworm inserted. It’s pricey, but if you are a fan of the Man In Black, then cough up the $18.95 and go to it.

Oh the trolley! While I was obsessed with taking pictures of the clouds over Nashville, I learned lots of cool ‘facts’ from the Trolley driver. Like, only two of Tennessee’s 95 counties are not dry (dry counties don’t sell alcohol), which is not true. Truth, 14 counties are dry, another 70 are ‘moise’ which means they allow some sales under restrictions and 11 are ‘wet’.

However, it is true that Tennessee has only 1 natural lake. The rest are reservoirs created by dams. The “No. 7” on the Jack Daniels label indicated it was the 7th distillery established in the state. I had a drink at No. 5 (Green Briar) at one of the trolley stops. This is all pre-prohibition stuff, so I don’t know the number for 10-year old Cosair Distillery, but it was tasty.

Apparently, the Queen of England said the Fisk Jubilee Singers must come from a real “Music City”. Naturally, everyone gasped at the inspired quote and, just like that, Nashville became “Music City.” Tourists love origin stories of line inventors inspiring historic things. It makes for an easy story to retell back home and thus, legends are born.

Well, it’s a good thing the queen did that, because at the end of Bicentennial park are these cool bells that play part of Tennessee songs every hour. And, the clouds looked awesome.

Did you know Nashville has a replica of the Parthenon? In fact, some architects and builders in Nashville seem obsessed with Grekco-Roman architecture. It’s everywhere.

Back on Broadway, I took in the afternoon clouds from the roof of a honky tonk before heading back to my cozy abode for the night. And that was my day of being a solo tourist!

Happy cooking and touristing.