published 15th of june, 2022
It's June 2nd, 2022 and we've been on the road for a month. What have we not already experienced in these 4 weeks. If I had to summarize all of this with a headline, I would use the title of a well-known RTL soap: “Gute Zeiten – Schlechte Zeiten”. The Great Smoky Mountains have literally been the highlight so far (see "Adventures begin where plans end). But new day, new chapter:
We drove about 120 miles (191 km) to Baxter (Tennessee) - with short stops at "Starbucks" and "Hunters Coin Laundry". At "Harvesthosts" (https://harvesthosts.com) I had discovered the "DelMonaco" winery as a potential host for the night. Since it was on our way to Nashville anyway, we decided to stop there - even without my booking confirmation. Normally I don't do it - but in this case it was a good decision. The winery was nice and quiet; the rails running next to our parking space made me fear something else at first, but apparently they weren't used any more or only very rarely.
We enjoyed the silence with a small wine tasting and a few tapas.
Nashville was on the agenda for the following day. I don't know why, but somehow I imagined it to be more "rustic". The skyscrapers, the heavy traffic and the loud noise didn't meet my expectations of the country stronghold at all.
Nevertheless, we parked the bus at the "Nissan Arena" and went to Downtown.
The Country Hall of Fame was our first port of call, although I have to admit that we didn't visit the museum itself, just the souvenir shops. The entrance fee (over 30 dollars) and especially the many people in the lobby put us off.
So we left it at that and moved on to the next item on the agenda, a vintage guitar shop. I already knew from the Internet that the guitars there were by no means in my price range, but I still wanted to go there. I insisted on trying out some of the old, reworked, and ridiculously expensive collectibles, but I felt pretty shabby doing it. After all, I only started playing guitar a year ago and have little to no plan. I quickly found that most of them are very difficult to play and then admired the rest more visually.
When we wanted to get back to the bus, we landed more or less voluntarily on "Broadway". The Hamburg Reeperbahn is a kindergarten against it! I was by no means aware that Nashville is the party capital. Everywhere party people, deafening music, party buses without end, neon signs over and over again and one boat shop after the other.
It was fascinating but at the same time my escape reflexes kicked in. Since the visit to the vintage guitar shop was more like a visit to a museum, I had already found a second shop in advance. The "Guitar Center" (world's largest guitar store) offered good conditions to find my second guitar there.
A huge selection of guitars in every price range made my heart beat faster, but ultimately it was my downfall because I couldn't make a decision despite professional advice.
Maybe the advice was just too competent, because the seller's recommendations didn't "match" what appealed to me visually and I also liked the game best. I was overwhelmed. I hoped that at least my plan for the evening would work out. 'Cause I wasn't ready to leave Nashville without a night of live country music. I had read that the Blue Bird Cafe is known for its singer-songwriter performances and that in a small, intimate space. The cafe has existed since the 80's and everything that has status and reputation in the country genre has already performed or even been discovered there.
For this evening at 6 p.m. there was a live event with Scott Reeves and the Reeves Brothers. Tickets had already been (sold out) in advance. But I had read that there are always a few "walk-in" seats for people who are willing to stand in line, hoping to get in because reservations are canceled or similar. That was our plan too. When we drove by shortly after 5 p.m. there were only 2 people in front of the door. However, by the time we parked around the corner and finally got there, the queue had grown noticeably. We got in line anyway, in the blazing heat without any shade. Lennox the good was lucky and was allowed to take a nap in the shady parked, well-ventilated bus. We, on the other hand, stood for 2 hours with little remaining hope in position 19 &20. When the group of 3 was unexpectedly allowed in before us, I expected that we would be told: Well, now it's full, you can go home. But when they asked me if I would like to remain seated in a wheelchair and I said yes, hope germinated again. To be honest, when the girls carried out a 2-seater bench, I had a little pippi in my eyes. We were allowed in! I was so happy even though I had never heard of Scott Reeves in my life. I ordered an "iced margarita" (on an empty stomach) and enjoyed the living room atmosphere with brilliant live music in the country stronghold. In the meantime, Sebastian had also caught fire and made the suggestion for the subsequent event at 9 p.m. to get back in line.
No sooner said than done, this time we were the first. We struck up a conversation with Jim & Lori who lived in the neighborhood and spontaneously decided to get in line. We chatted about this and that until the girls from the cafe asked us if we liked where we had been sitting before. We said clear and so the bench was taken out again. I didn't take any pictures during the concerts, just a video with nothing to see but much more important what to hear! I thought it was great!
The next morning, as announced the night before, Jim brought us delicious, homemade biscuits for breakfast. That's what I call service!
Sometimes it's a shame that we usually only spend one night in one place, especially when you get to know people like that.