Young & Stupid? Yes. Have Fun. Pt. 4: Nashville

We arrive in Nashville late and head straight to a hotel. We find the Scottish Inns & Suites (much to my sadness the room wasn't covered in Tartan and thistles). Of course, when traveling on a budget with a total of 4 people, it can save a bit of money to tell the hotel that there are only 2 of you. Sarah and Francesco go into the booking office pretending to be a couple which sadly results in us getting a room with a king size bed. Just one king size bed...

Somehow we survive the evening without killing each other and wake up early for some Nashville adventures. We head to the main drag of Nashville, Broadway.


View Larger Map

This is where Boot Country lives. Boot Country is a magical land filled with cowboy boots of all shapes, colors and sizes that happen to be 'buy 1 pair get 2 free.' TWO free! They'll also hook you up with a deal if you buy 4 pairs of boots (which is exactly what we did). We each shell out $65 for some sweet boots and Sam also invests in a cowboy hat (which he wore everyday from then on, without fail).

Franco wears it here:




We also stop by the Hatch Show Print place a few doors down from Boot Country. My lovely sister, Anna, showed me this place when we were in Nashville for her bachelorette party a few months ago. Apparently this place has been creating posters the same way for over 100 years. They were also the cats in charge of creating this famous poster:



Look familiar?
It was a successful trip. Sarah loves the place and buys a t-shirt and a key chain for me (to replace the broken Bevo key chain that is somewhere on the floor of a crappy gas station bathroom in Houston) and we move on to lunch! Another 2 doors down is Diana's Sweet Shoppe. We take a break from the blistering heat of Nashville and relax in the old-school wooden booths behind the candy store. It was a delightful and perfect sort of lunch. It was nice to have a good sandwich instead of fast food. It also gave us a chance to take a million photos of each other wearing Sam's cowboy hat.



Our next stop is the Country Music Hall of Fame. Sam grew up listening to American country music so he told us it was required that we go. I can't say I'm a big country music fan (ok...that's a lie. I can often be heard saying "I like everything BUT country music") BUT I was excited to see it anyways. It turns out to be really cool despite my negative view of country. There are a lot of artists that I do like that are members of the hall of fame (ie Elvis, Patsy Cline). The memorabilia they have is also amazing.


Elvis' gold piano:



Also, did you know that Elvis' Blue Suede Shoes was actually a cover? Carl Perkins wrote the song first.



After a few hours in the hall of fame, we begin our 10 hour drive to Washington DC. It's our longest stretch of road before Sarah and I began our drive back to Texas and no one is looking forward to it. The fact that we don't get out of Nashville till about 3pm doesn't help matters much either. We sprint back to the car (the heavens had broken open and it was pouring) and we begin our long journey.