We started off early Friday morning (but still not as early as planned since I slept through my alarm) and had a nice 10 hour drive. It wasn't too bad - we pretty much sang the entire time, which is just my style! Once we got to Nashville we checked into our Ramada hotel and took a dip in their "world famous" guitar shaped pool. (Let me just say here that we felt deceived... the pool was shaped like a guitar, but I found myself just wanting to get out of the pool as quickly as possible once I was in... gross) Then we headed over the pedestrian bridge to downtown Nashville and strolled around the Broadway. We had AMAZING BBQ at Jack's - I had the Texas Brisket, of course, and then we headed over to the Wild Horse Saloon for some line dancing. It was really fun and Kami was a good time... I mean had a good time! She totally dominated. The best I did was get hit on by a plastered old guy at the bar while I was trying to get some bottled water. I'm not too upset about my failure. :)
Saturday we headed over to the Grand Ole Opry and got a back stage tour. It was awesome! We stood on the stage in the circle that was taken from the original stage at the Ryman Auditorium... all the greats sang on that stage... we just stood there, but it was still cool! Wayne was quite pleased to see Carrie's mailbox, as well as the dressing room she would be using! Next we headed to a flea market, where we asked some locals for a good place to get some home cookin'. They suggested the Sylvan Park Restaurant, which we were able to find thanks to my trusty BBerry. When we got there all we could say was "wow" or "this place looks sketchy", but we were on an adventure, so we went in. SO worth it! This place was awesome and the staff was highly entertaining!! Try the pecan pie if you're ever in town!
After a quick nap at our luxury (cough, cough) hotel, we headed back to the Grand Ole Opry, and after a quick stop at the nearby mall, we headed over to see the show. We thought we had 3rd row seats and were pretty excited. Turns out we had SECOND ROW seats!! See that picture below, yeah, right where the benches come together, that's where we were sitting. Note the edge of the stage in the bottom left corner of the picture. Yeah, we were THAT CLOSE. AMAZING!! The show was awesome and Carrie was flawless (I hate her)!! I loved getting to hear such a wide range of country music. Being there and getting to see all these "old guys" who are really legends and seeing Carrie so up close made me feel like a country music insider! Also, I learned an important lesson at the show - if you can't make money, make out with somebody. You can take that one to the bank, folks!
Please note in the following video that Carrie waves right at Wayne. As soon as she breaks up with her boyfriend, they are going to get married.
This was an awesome, no, legendary trip (what else did I expect?) and I am so glad that I was able to go. Along with the tradition of having a legendary adventure is the tradition of me joining in at the last minute, and I never will regret it!! P.S. Why does the ride home always seem SO MUCH longer than the ride there?
