We slept in (for once) because when the alarm went off at 8 in Nashville our body clocks still thought it was 6 in San Fran. After getting ready it was off downstairs to the shuttle that was due to leave at 9. Luckily we were there early as it left at 8:55...this place makes Faulty Towers look like a 5 star joint!
Regardless, we were dropped downtown and found our way to Pucketts, a famous diner, where we had a more than satisfying breakfast of omelette and pancakes. We are wondering if we can ever be satisfied with weet bix again???
We then set off to explore what Nashville had to offer. After the obligatory stroll through the souvenir shops we set off for the Country Music Museum and Hall of Fame where we spent a pleasant couple of hours learning all about the history of country music. It was really good! I took heaps of photos (much to Carly's disdain) but I thought the displays were great and some of the old costumes were fantastic.
We weren't really sure what we would do next and then fate stepped in and we met Mike, the song writing tour guide who offered to drive us around town in a golf cart and show us the sights (for a fee of course). We negotiated terms and agreed to the tour if he ended the tour at the Bluebird Cafe where, as I'm sure you recall, we had tickets for the show tonight. A deal was struck - we would meet Mike at 4pm, do the tour and he would drop us at the Bluebird at 5:15 in plenty of time for the 6pm show. In the meantime we found a cafe and spent a little while drinking tea and resting up for our big adventure...little did we know...
So, sure enough, at the designated spot and time we met up with Mike and set off on our tour. He drove this funny, slightly larger than the average, golf cart type vehicle which was licensed to travel on the roads. Mike was awesome! He drove us around, admittedly in a seemingly quite dangerous fashion, but showed us some great spots we would not have otherwise seen. We viewed seedy laneways, sang together at the 90 bell carillon, saw the State Capitol building, traversed parks, explored converted warehouses, and generally saw bits of Nashville yet unknown to us. Despite his hair-raising driving antics we were thoroughly happy with our tour.
It was now time to head to the Bluebird and Mike was very generous in taking us there as it is somewhat out of the main part of town. OK, there was some irony in what happened next...and I don't want to alarm you...but...after his hair-raising driving antics, Mike (and us) were sitting stationary at lights when a women driving a massive Jeep slammed into the back of us. We were given a pretty good jolt but we're lucky (as was Mike) to say we were OK. The cart was pretty dented though and the woman admitted she was texting at the time of the accident. Let this be a lesson my friends...no texting when behind a golf cart! Mike was pretty upset. The lady was pretty upset. Carly and I were pretty upset because we weren't on our way to the Bluebird!!!!
Mike used my phone to call 911 - that's right, 911...how exciting. Carly used her phone to call a cab to get us to the Bluebird. Mike asked if we would still pay him for the tour. We said of course we would! The cab didn't come so we called again...time was ticking...we were panicking. The cops arrived and took our details - try spelling Buttaba to a Nashville cop ha ha - the cab still hadn't arrived. Mike offered to pay for the cab. We declined. The lady kept sitting in her car texting. The cop kept taking details. Then the cab arrived! Yay! We yelled goodbye to Mike and jumped aboard to finally head to the Bluebird. We knew they would give our tickets away of we were late. We made it with 5 minutes to spare!
The show was amazing!!! I don't know how else to describe it. All the artists were fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed the show. They each sang their own songs but the others joined in and jammed along - it was unreal. We had seats right at the front - we were so lucky. It is my highlight of the trip so far.
After the show we lucked out and grabbed a cab straight away back to the downtown area where we went to see the duelling pianos bar and that was another great show. I was onto my third wine, which is a lot for me, and so was embarrassing Carly as a mother is want to do - it was great! We were pretty much the only customers when the show started at 8:30 so there was a fair bit of pressure to sing along and participate...it would have been rude not to, don't you think??
After an eventful, yet great day, we caught the shuttle back to the hotel and settled in for the night. Another big day tomorrow...can't wait!
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