Nashville, Tennessee

Our stay in Nashville was a wet and stormy one, but we still had fun exploring the city. Our first night at the RV park there was a rough one, with severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings starting at 3 am that sent us to the cinderblock restroom building to shelter. It wasn’t a very restful night!

We slept in the next morning but were still pretty worn out. We had 1 pm reservations at The Listening Room Cafe, for lunch and live music. On the way, we drove around downtown Nashville. It’s a vibrant city, full of live music (even at noon!), murals and other artwork, and both residents and tourists walking around.

The show at The Listening Room was excellent! It featured 3 solo songwriters/artists and a duo in a round table set-up, taking turns each performing their own original songs, singing with acoustic guitars. In all, they each performed 6 songs, telling us the story behind each song. They were all talented, and it was very entertaining.

After long naps in more pouring rain, we were both still feeling pretty worn out and sick of the storms! We decided to just go to the mall down the road to grab a simple dinner - we’ve been eating out for a month now - and see a movie. We ate at Saltgrass Steakhouse. My grilled salmon and asparagus were delicious! We saw the movie The Friend (based on the novel by Sigrid Nunez), and it was excellent! We both really enjoyed it. And by the time we came out, the latest line of storms (and tornado warnings) were past.

The next day we went to the Tennessee State History Museum, across from the capitol building. It’s a beautiful museum with great displays covering Tennessee history from the earth’s beginning through modern times. We enjoyed it.

After my nap, I finally made my pilgrimage to Parnassus, Ann Patchett’s bookstore. It was wonderful! It’s a beautiful bookstore, with a great selection and friendly, helpful staff. We bought some gifts and, of course, a couple of signed Ann Patchett books! (videos of the museum and inside of the bookstore in my Texas Road Trip video (week 3).

We ended our time in Nashville with dinner at Common Ground with old friends we haven’t seen since February 2020. We worked together in New Orleans in the 80’s, and they lived near us in Delaware. We had a wonderful evening, talking, laughing, reminiscing, and catching up. Nothing like old friends.