Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Crazy Night In Nashville...Road Trip Day # 3 Grayton Beach, Florida

A Night in Nashville
It's 6:30  and I am sitting in the hip lounge of the Aloft Hotel in Nashville.  I am looking out tall windows at the street, cars flying by, windows in the background.  The atrium has a bar, tables, snack bar and a pool table.  Hip.

The Cumberland River Runs Through It
Yesterday was a long ride of five hours or it seemed long because we had rain or fog or gray skies the entire way, making for a boring ride of sameness.  It was broken by occasional stops for gas or something to eat but other than that, it was tiresome as we wanted to get to Nashville to enjoy the city.  Well, by the time we checked into our hotel, we were tired and smartly hung out from 3:00 until 5:30, relaxing, napping, taking showers so that we were energized for our night out on the town.

Photo Bomb Selfie At Wild Horse Saloon
For the first time, we used a taxi service, Lyft, which was easy and cheap and we had a driver, of course, from Nigeria.  He knew the back roads to our first venue, the vast Wild Horse Saloon, near the Cumberland River.  It's three stories of music, two closed for private parties but the main floor could hold thousands.  It was not very busy when we got there, just about 25 people out on the floor learning to dance.  We sat at the bar, had a beer and got photo bombed when we took a selfie.  We did not stay long because we wanted to see a couple other places.

Bartender Bomb at Acme Weed And Feed
Our next stop was the Acme Feed & Seed, across the street from the Cumberland River and a park.  It was a good choice as it was packed, two bars side by side and lots of tables, with an open kitchen at the far end.  We were fortunate to get two seats at one of the bars, the last two left of about 30.  We ordered beers, talked to the bartender about what was good and Evie ordered catfish with fries and I had a chicken sandwich, with aoili and American cheese.  Both were great, more than enough.  The band started just as we sat down and they were really good, their lead singer, however, an attractive blond in a short dress, was annoying and screechy.  Not sure how she got the gig.

Saxophonist Selfie At Honky Tonk Central
After we finished eating, we decided to move on up Broadway, streets packed with visitors, some bars empty, others crowded but most had live music.  We happened to stop at the same place we liked two years ago, the Honky Tonk Central and it was a great choice.

Midnight Express
Again we found two seats at the bar and sat there enjoying Midnight Express, a band from Chillicothe, Ohio, with some guests from 8:00 to 10:00.  There must have been a couple of hundred people packed in the downstairs bar but we were able to find two seats again.  The band was amazing, playing almost any kind of music, especially songs we knew and loved, from Guns N Roses, to Prince, to country, to Bruno Mars.  The singers were great and they had a saxophone player who stole the show, a la Clarence from the E Street Band.

Saxophone Crazy
Evie ended up making friends with a gal who runs a Best Western outside of Austin, Texas, and she wants us to stop by when we are in Austin.  Fun.

New Friends From Austin
There was no cover charge for this amazing music and as far as I could see, they depended on tips from the patrons.  We were literally dancing in our seats for two hours before they ended their set at 10:00.  By then, we had had enough beer and were ready to go home, taking another Lyft car to our hotel.  It was the end to a great night on Nashville's Broadway.  Pardon the selfies.

We are on our way for another eight hour drive, to Grayton Beach, Florida for four nights, as a cold front blows in, temperatures in the low 70's, good for walking the beach, perhaps swimming but sunny.

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