July 5th, 2021..End of Trip
Next morning, we checked out from our hotel in Pigeon Forge, TN and headed towards our next designation which was Nashville, TN.
This was around 200 miles/3 hour drive to the "Music Mecca" of America. I love music and have been a fan of all kind of genres except the latest genres which is new-age like Electronic, Club Music types. I am old school in my music taste and absolute love listening to Rock, Hard Rock, Country, Hip Hop etc. And, I listen to a lot of music (at least 1-2 hours per day).
During my younger days, my craze for music was so much that I travelled and attended almost all rock shows in India in whichever city they were performing (Def Leppard, Roger Waters, Metallica etc. etc). During the college days to compliment my pocket-money, I even organized a rock show as well.
With that said, I heard a lot about Nashville and was always wanting to visit this place as whoever I speak to who have visited Nashville would speak of it highly from it's music and party scene perspective.
Hilarious Incident- We reached Nashville around 1:00pm and headed straight to Hilton Hotel in Downtown. When I went to lobby to check-in. He said, we were not booked there. Front Desk told me, I was probably booked in another Hilton a few blocks away.
We then drove there and same answer that we aren't booked there.
I was totally taken aback and checked my emails to reconfirm our exact hotel booking details. Unfortunately, during this time Sundar Pichai (Google CEO) had mandated payment to access emails/photos etc. And, my emails were not downloaded. Sitting in the car under hot sun in the parking lot, I paid Sundar the $2.99/month fee and then my emails got downloaded on phone.
What I realized after emails were downloaded- We were not even booked into the Hilton. As our booking was in a Marriott in another area of downtown. LOL
For all my work travels, I automatically book Hilton to collect points and use them once in a while for my personal trips. Hence, I thought that we were booked in a Hilton.
After checking into Marriot, we got ready and our immediate first stop was to eat the world famous
"Nashville Hot Chicken". We headed to Hatte's B and stood in the line in searing hot temperatures (It was 100F) and after 30 minutes got a seating and placed our order.
Btw, I can eat spicy food. But, their 3/5 hot rating was delicious but, ridiculously spicy so I can't imagine who will eat 4 or 5 spice rated chicken. It was a great experience as that fried chicken is very different and unique to Nashville.
After the hot but enjoyable meal, we headed to downtown and parked the car in a safe garage in downtown. Then walked to "Music Row" which was about 0.5 miles away.
Music row is a 1-mile long street with bars on either sides and every bar is having live music. It was the most eclectic environment that I ever saw in my life.
As soon as we reached Music Row, It was a sight to see as we got lucky as it entire downtown was cordoned off by Cops and all police folks were parked on street and we walked to middle of the Music ROW and we got to know that there is a "LIVE CONCERT" about to begin in an hour. We never knew and this made us really happy as LIVE CONCERTS don't happen every weekend and our timing by chance was lucky. The music star was none other than the popular and famous country Music star
" Chris Young" playing.
Looking at the atmosphere that day, New York City would pale in comparison. Believe you me. !!!
People were drinking on streets, there were Jack Daniel vendors selling drinks and people would walk with drinks in hands and walk into one bar, then move on to another. You stay where you like the music the most.
It was the craziest environment that I ever witnessed in my life. Even at midnight, the streets were filled with people and looked like 6pm in evening.
Had a fantastic evening listening to LIVE SHOW of Chris Young and listening to a lot of live music in bars (we hopped to at least 8-10 of them during the evening), we retired at 1:00am.
Next day, we checked out and started driving back to Detroit.
On the way, we had to stop in Cincinnati as I had promised my wife the famous Thali from "Amma's Kitchen". That was one defacto meal whenever I am in Cincinnati on my work trips and always use to praise it to her. After that delectable late lunch, we reached back home safely around 11:00pm.
Summary : It was a memorable road-trip that went smoothly and was crammed with activities. Hope you enjoyed reading the travelogues and travelled to these locations via. this T'log. Cheers and Keep Driving !!!
Off from Gatlinburg, TN to Nashville, TN- 200 Mile Drive
Live Show in Downtown Nashville- Great Atmosphere
The famous Nashville Hot Fried Chicken- Spicy but, Delicious
Musicians Hall of Fame
Our hotel room in the famous Marriot in Nashville Downtown.
Nice old Chevy on display outside Hattie's B
Vibe in the downtown as eclectic.
Round 2 of Hattie's B the next day before heading back home. Haha!
Entering Ohio
Best Thali I ever had in US.
Live Show in Nashville Downtown- Check the video to feel the vibes. Loved the live shows inside the bars- Playing one of my favorite rock song. Can you guess the song?