Nashville recap

Our weekend in Nashville was a whirlwind. We flew there Friday afternoon with Ashley’s parents (in their plane). Small planes are fun, but flying through bad weather sucks because turbulence feels about a thousand times worse. I almost tossed my cookies a few times. Our hotel was right off of Broadway (the main drag in town), and we walked over to the race expo to pick up our packets. Joey met us there a bit later. We had a few drinks in the hotel bar then headed over to the Listening Room Café for dinner and live music. Fantastic on both counts. My carb-loading meal was fried chicken, sweet potato fries, and green beans.

I tried to sleep but kept having weird race dreams. Saturday morning came way too quickly. The race started at 7, so we were up by 6. While watching the news (for the forecast), we saw that a helicopter crash in Afghanistan killed several soldiers. My nerves were completely shot at that point, and I was trying not to throw up. Like I said yesterday, we went over to the race and did that whole nonsense.

After I finished, I was beyond exhausted and grabbed some recovery fuel (Gatorade, milk, snacks). Joey and Ashley found me, and we headed back to Joey’s car. Which involved more walking. Let’s review that they had finished two hours and an hour ahead of me. I had not yet stopped. Once we got back to the hotel, we quickly showered and headed off to lunch with Ashley’s dad at Broadway Brewhouse, no break in sight. I wasn’t hungry but did eat a chicken quesadilla smothered in sour cream. Then my more than slightly insane posse decided that we should go check out some bars. I really don’t remember where we went for the first round, but Joey decided we needed to go to the Wild Horse Saloon. It was closed for a private party, and I took that as a sign to head back to the hotel for a much needed nap. The crazies went to another bar.

We met up a few hours later at 417 North for dinner and some good Southern cooking. By now, my sunburn was throbbing, so I was in grumpy gus mode. I sucked it up and headed back to the Second Fiddle on Broadway with Joey and Ashley. One of Joey’s old lieutenants is also at Fort Campbell, and he met up with us. The live music was amazing again (I swear, no bad music in Nashville), and I stayed for a few hours. I called it a night around 11 pm. Ashley got back around 2 am. We’re still not sure what happened to Joey (though he did manage to text us Sunday afternoon).

Yes, he is covered in Bud Light labels.

We woke up Sunday, grabbed some breakfast in the hotel lounge, and headed back to the airport. Our return flight was much better (no bad weather or turbulence). Ashley and I got a craving for green bean fries and hit up TGI Friday’s on the way home.