Shelbyville to Nashville
Today could not be described as a roaring success. True, we saw some pretty Tennessee countyside on our drive to Nashville, and Debbie did look the part in her Walmart bandana. The sun was shining and the roof was down.
When we arrived in Nashville, we were both starving and a little ratty because of it, having skipped breakfast. We found our way to 2nd Avenue, where the tourist bars and restaurants are, and plumped for The Wild Horse Saloon. If we'd been there in the evening there would have been a live band, and we could have watched people line dancing with a superior air of detachment: but it was lunchtime, so we were left with Country Music Television instead.
I ate bloody ribeye steak ("Gee, we don't get asked for that often") and Debbie had two blackened chicken breasts. It was good. We also had a starter of deep fried dill pickle.
After the food, we went looking for a room for the night, so we could rest a while before going back out to see Nashville's (Tuesday) nightlife. We found a Knight's Inn directly opposite a Day's Inn. We plumped for Knight's, and it turned out to be incredibly cheap. The room smelled of Jaffa Cakes.
We had planned to go and see "an acoustic tribute to Kurt Cobain" by some local "rock talent". I felt we ought to see some live music, but the Country available seemed guaranteed to be bland.
I suddenly felt very tired, and we did nothing for a couple of hours. Then Debbie remembered that a friend of hers had recommended Target as a good place for cheap clothes. Making no guarantees about the quality of Target, she looked it up in the Yellow Pages, and we set off to find it. We spent an hour fighting Nashville's evil road system and our under-detailed maps, eventually completely failing to find the shop. All the while my irritation was growing, along with a headache and a general feeling of queasiness.
In the end we gave up and returned to the motel, stopping at a garage to buy some snacks and drinks. I attributed by illness to sunstroke: in the car it seems mild, but the sun is beating down on your head, and I had no hat. I do not blame the deep fried pickle.
We spent the evening in our room, because I didn't feel up to paying tribute to Kurt Cobain. Instead we watched "Identity" on HBO, while I nursed my headache (I'm writing this the following day -- I didn't feel up to it).
We have not done Nashville justice, but we're not staying anyway.