No trip through the South is complete without a stop by Nashville – especially if you are traveling with a white female between the ages of 18 and 35. And given that we had a member of this demographic in our travel party, we decided to extend our stay in the Nashville area an extra week so that she could take in all that the Music City had to offer!
The trip to Nashville from Guntersville was a relatively comfortable three-hour drive – beginning on highway 72 along the Tennessee river before meeting up with I-24 which took us over the surprisingly-mountainous Cumberland Plateau and then onto the Nashville metro. Our home base while in the area was the Elm Hill RV Resort, an upscale operation located on a long, narrow peninsula which jutted out into the J Percy Priest Reservoir, located about 10 miles east of downtown Nashville. Although it was more expensive than we would’ve liked, the views alone justified the high cost of admission!
We had a jam-packed couple of weeks ahead of us, so we couldn’t just sit around and enjoy the lovely October weather, we had tourist stuff to do – and what’s more touristy than the Grand Ole Opry?! (Well, maybe Broadway, but we’ll get to that later.)
Since Sam had already taken the tour when Brian and Char were living in Nashville and I am not much of a country music aficionado, we opted to just snap a few pics outside and skip the backstage tour at the Grand Ole Opry in favor of a quick exploration of the nearby Gaylord Opryland – one of the thirty largest hotels in the world, complete with a convention center, a massive atrium, and a friccin water park!
Given that we were in the area for two weeks, we had a full weekend to play with and decided to take advantage of it by inviting Sam’s sister, Jess, and her boyfriend, Paul down from Michigan to hang with us for a few days – an opportunity which they were happy to jump on! After a lovely dinner out near their AirBnB in the Music Row neighborhood on their first evening in town, we chose to take things slow the next night by hosting dinner/game night over at the trailer (turns out that Paul really needs to work on his Code Names skillz, just sayin’).
For Jess and Paul’s last day in the area, we did exactly what you’re supposed to do when in Nashville – we made our way over to Broadway! This was my first time down there, and boy, was it something else… The sights and sounds of Broadway are one of a kind – from the stream of drunken characters wandering around, to live music blasting out from every direction, to the unmistakable choir of “WOOO”s that is emitted from the consistent stream of bachelorette parties up and down the main drag.
We needed to detox a bit the next day, so we opted to walk the booze off by exploring Nashville’s 12 South neighborhood on the south-central part of town near Belmont University. It didn’t take long for me to figure out why Sam wanted to come here. Not only was there a ton of trendy shops and restaurants (LOTS of bistro lighting), but there were also several Insta-worthy wall murals!
Once the camera had its fill, we were able to simply enjoy a stroll around the area. As luck would have it, we were there on Halloween afternoon, so it was fun getting to see all the decorations and the first batches of kiddos who were venturing out into the neighborhood for trick-or-treating.
Although the weekend was over and Sam had to get back to work, the fun was just getting started for me as I was flying down to Miami to meet my dad for a guys’ trip! It was great getting to spend time with my dad since we don’t get many opportunities to hang out just the two of us. I wish I could say that we did tons of fun, pic-worthy activities, but that’s just not our style. Nearly all our time was spent just taking it easy – hanging by the pool, eating out at our favorite restaurants, chilling on the balcony, or heading down to South Beach for a quick stop on our way to the airport on our final day together.
However, we did manage to get one “big” activity in while we were down there when we took a day trip down to the Keys! Man, who doesn’t love the Florida Keys? The water is so blue, the trees are so green, and the people/culture are so unique. We only made it down to Marathon Key (about halfway to Key West), but while we were down there, we popped into the popular Jolly Roger RV Resort to see what the hype was all about. I must say, this place was pretty stinkin’ cool! Sam and I had hoped to get in here for our upcoming trip to Florida over the winter months, but sadly they were all booked up even though we tried calling six months in advance (as well as every other campground in the Keys)!
After a long day of driving, we were ready for some food, so we decided to stop by the famous Key Largo Conch House for a late lunch. If you’re ever in the northern Keys, be sure to check this place out. Not only do they have some of the best seafood around, but their key lime pies are to die for!
I had a great time with my dad down in Florida, but my girlies needed me, and it was time for me to get back to Nashville and the RV. Although Sam had a battle with the campground laundry machines which ultimately required her to venture out of the park in search of a laundromat (never fun), she and Charlotte managed to survive without me. However, it wasn’t all hard times while I was gone as Sam found some time to head back downtown to meet her friend, Megan, and catch up over a nice dinner at Bakersfield (the same taco place we went to with Jess and Paul when we were out on Broadway, she even had the same waiter 😂).
Whew, that was a long one! After a few recent snoozers, I promised that the blog would get a little more interesting, didn’t I? Haha, that being said, get ready for another lackluster entry for our next post which will take place in West Memphis, AR – just across the Mississippi River from regular ole Memphis, TN. Let’s just say, this may have been our most “uneventful” stay in all of our stops along the way thus far…