February 13th • First Day in Nashville
I will start this series of blogs by saying we had an amazing first time in Nashville. Kevin and I left Creston, Iowa on the 12th, drove half the way to Nashville then got a hotel for the night. The morning of the 13th we completed our drive to Nashville. It was roughly 10.5 hours of driving to get there, but we did arrive early enough that we would still enjoy the first night in Nashville.
When we arrived at our hotel we were surprised to find out that supper and drinks were included with our stay. The Superbowl was almost at half time so we hung out in the lobby for supper and the halftime show. After that, we decided it was time to hit the town as this was just the beginning of our amazing Nashville adventure.
After the halftime show we got an Uber to head to downtown Nashville. Our driver was super helpful and said the best spot to start was at Legends Corner and to work our way down the strip. As this was our first stop we didn’t know what to expect along the way and we had high hopes we would hit every single one at least once while in Nashville. We had a 1 beer limit meaning no more then 1 beer before we moved on. We wanted to hear and enjoy the bands as we went from stop to stop. One thing I can say is I would have stayed here longer if we had been here before. The music was good and the enviroment at this bar was fun.
Second stop was the Tootsies’s Orchid Lounge there was 3 levels here and the place was packed. We tried to get a drink at the first level and couldn’t even get into the bar. The band on the first level had good energy but pretty sure they were drinking all night. We headed to the second floor which wasn’t too bad the band was ok but again it was so packed it wasn’t really a good hang out place. We had to see all 3 floors of course so we headed all the way to the top. This place must have been really popular cause this floor was packed too! I mean I don’t mind being around other people but, I’m a kind of space needing person. I want to be able to sit, enjoy and listen to music. We felt this bar diden’t have the vibe we were looking for so we headed back to the bottom. The band said they were going to play Fishin in the Dark but it never came so we headed out for the next stop.
The third stop was The Second Fiddle and the band playing was Krista Dudley Music. This place had a good vibe and the music was good. I will add I have a thing for fiddles and of course there was a an awesome fiddle player. Although the bar was busy it was open enough to have our own space. We ended up staying here for quite a bit as we really enjoyed the atmosphere. I didn’t get Kevin to dance yet but I knew it was only a matter of time before his small town Saskatchewan would come out! Where all my Semens, SK people at?!? You know what I’m talking about!
Alright Stop 4! As I’m writing the blog and trying to piece all the pieces together from this whirlwind of a night I realized that when I posted on facebook I tagged the next bar wrong and wanted to be sure I had the correct name. After some research I realized the 4th stop was Layla’s Honky Tonk. We met a great couple from Nebraska who own Bloomfield Beef Cattle. We ended up hanging out here for awhile just because the company was good. We would have countinued along the way with this couple but they were headed the other direction. We knew we had to get going if we were going to hit all the bars along the way. Little did we know that we only maybe did 10% of the bars at this point.
Stop number 5 wasn’t much to write home about see the guy at the door was super rude. We up to this point had nothing but positive and friendly people. We walked into Robert’s Bar Nashville, took our picture and then immediately turned aorund and headed back out.
Stop number 6 we headed to The Stage on Broadway where we hear Aaron Patrick and his band for the first time. Not only that but, I got Kevin to dance with me here. The place was packed but it was a good atmosphere and the music was awesome. We stayed and danced and had a good time for about an hour. I knew my best friends brother was in Nashville at the time too so I went ahead and messaged him and his wife. My friend said they were at the Jason Aldean bar so we figured we would head there and see if we would find them.
So final stop of the night for us was Jason Aldean’s Bar. When we got there I tried calling my friends brother and of course they were already in bed. We thought ok we will check out this bar and see what its all about but it was already midnight and it seemed that it was more of a night club then a country bar. It was all young people, spilling drinks, and grinding on each other. That wasn’t our style so we called it a night and grabbed an Uber to get back to our hotel.
I can say all in all it was a good night but after we looked at how far we walked we realized we didn’t even hit half the bars up the way. One thing I can say after this night that we learned was that its best to just stay at the bars that have good bands and a good atmoshpere. There is something for everyone here and what I may love someone else might not. We had so much fun and I can say this is the first time in my life I have every done a pub crawl or bar hop. It was only fun because I had Kevin by my side. There was lots of laughter and fun the entire night. We really enjoyed our first night in Nashville and couldn’t trade this expericne for anything. This was just night one of 4 so come back and read more about our crazy and fun adventrues in the post to come.
