More in Nashville

SUNDAY! Crystal’s birthday and of course football! The patriots were playing. We were not sure where we were going to be able to see the game. Bo was able to find a bar called Live Oak in Nashville. This is where the Nashville Patriots Fan Club meets for games. It was such a fun place to watch the game. Everyone was great, the food was fantastic, and we got our very own Nashville Patriots Fan Club swag. The Patriots won so that made it soooooooo much cooler. If you are ever in Nashville during a Pats game we HIGHLY recommend going to Live Oak during the game.

The next day it finally stopped raining! We still haven’t seen the sun, and luckily, we never had to evacuate the campground. We went over to the Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage. It was very interesting to see the museum and the property where the Jackson family lived. After grabbing dinner at one more BBQ place we had to say goodbye to our friends. Another piece of home was leaving us. We were sad, but excited to move on to our next destination. Ten days in Nashville went by very fast. Nashville will forever have a part of our hearts.

On to Memphis.

Friends in Nashville

Our friends arrived early on Thursday morning. We were so excited to pick them up from the airport and start to explore Nashville more. It was early and we were all hungry, so we ended up at the Cracker Barrel. We brought them back to the campground to see Bella and Bentley. While we were sitting at the campground the owner came over to let us know that they are calling for 5 inches of rain on Saturday. That would mean our site will flood. He recommended we get set to leave in case the flooding is bad. We brought our friends to their hotel and came back to get everything put away and ready to leave just in case. Later that afternoon we went downtown to the Honky Tonks. We waited in line at Jacks BBQ. Little did we know this would be the start of many BBQ places this weekend.

Friday morning, they were calling for rain for the day, so we went and waited in line at a restaurant called Hattie B’s. They are known for their friend chicken. We waited in line for two long hours to place an order. The food was good but not two hours in line good. Did we mention it was raining? Once our bellies were full, we went to an old car factory turned into a retail place. We tasted moonshine there that was fabulous. Dinner that night was low key at a place called Rafferty’s.

Saturday we were so excited to have tickets to the Opry Tour. We were able to stand where every famous artist has performed. We had backstage passes to see all the dressing rooms. If you are ever in Nashville, we highly recommend the tour. We also went to see a show at the Grand Ole Opry that night, but not before having more BBQ. We went to Mission BBQ at the Opry Mills it was yummy. The Opry show was amazing. We experienced every emotion possible.

Start of Nashville, Tennessee

We arrived in Nashville on a warm sunny Sunday. We were excited to get set up and check out what Nashville had to offer.  The campground had live music every night along with their restaurant being open for dinner and breakfast. We were hungry and went to the local outback and were greeted by some wonderful people at the bar. They were able to tell us some places to eat and see while in Nashville. They also agreed that the campground we were at was wonderful. The Patriots were playing Monday night football, so we decided to listen to the music at the campground.

We woke the next morning and it was raining. We decided this would be a good day to run errands and do laundry. We were also excited to find out Crystal’s Aunt and Fiancée were in Nashville traveling through with their Model A Club.  We had dinner with them and were able to watch the Patriots game in their hotel lobby. It was so nice to have them there a month in on our trip. Having a piece of home there was a great cure for a little home sickness.

The next day was nice and sunny. We went downtown to check out the honky tonks. This was lunch time on a Tuesday and every bar had their windows open with music playing in them. It was kind of overwhelming because how do you decided what bar to go in to? We just picked one and went with it. It was so much fun to listen to live music in the middle of the day. We went to a few other bars and saw some great bands along our way. We had some friends coming later in the week so we knew we would be back for sure.

More on Kentucky

Our first discoveries upon arrival is that you cannot purchase fluff (We have half a jar left). Kroger does not sell extra sharp white cheese; this is going to have a huge impact on our cheese drawer, Kentucky is known for their bourbon, during prohibition everyone abandoned the area and its home of the original KFC.

After spending a week here and going without fluff and extra sharp cheddar cheese, we have learned a lot about the distillery process and what a Kentucky hug is. In case you are wondering, a Kentucky hug is  the burn you get when you’re drinking bourbon.

In continuing our trip along the Bourbon trail, we went on a tour at Jeptha Creed. Jeptha Creed is a mother daughter owned distillery. They produce all their own ingredients to go into their products. The bourbon is made with a special corn called bloody butchers’ corn.

We finally had a chance to get over to Claudia Sanders Dinner House where we had an amazing dinner. We were in love with the fried chicken and look forward to going back once they improve on their service. 😊

Being in one location for a couple of weeks has allowed us some down time to take the puppies for walks on the local trails, go to the gym, make meals at the camper. We had enough of down time and went over to Louisville to check out whiskey row and the Bluegrass Brewing Company.  Whiskey Row is a street that has distilleries lined down them. We were not able to get on the tour, but we did sit and have a drink at Old Forester and had our passport stamped. Did I mention the Bourbon Trail has a passport that you get stamped at each distillery?

We can not forget the fabulous Talon Winery we visited. The woman who served our sampling was so nice and very knowledgeable about the winery. The winery has a numbering system where one was dry and six was sweet. This helped us be able to find the wines we would like quickly.

Kentucky would not be complete without one more bourbon tour at Buffalo Trace. We had a FREE tour, we sampled 4 different bourbons and bourbon balls. If you have not had a bourbon ball, we highly recommend you have one! Buffalo Trace is a historical landmark as well as the only continuously running distillery. They are the only distillery that did not close during the prohibition because they were able to use their bourbon for medicinal purposes. During that time everyone and their mother, father, brother, sister, cousin, neighbor, and horses were “sick” so they could get their hands-on bourbon.

We have enjoyed Kentucky, but I think our liver is ready for us to leave.

On to Nashville!