Road Trip #3

Nashville. 1.2 million people. It was beautiful with tons of hills and trees. It was not at all what I had expected. At the end of our trip, we always name favorites. Nashville was my favorite city. (Michael's was Louisville.) We took a shuttle to Broadway - the downtown honkey-tonk area - which is on a hill heading down to the river. Hills are not my favorite. But, heading downhill we bumped into Robert's Boots and Bar, which is a Nashville landmark for music (and you can still buy a pair of boots, too). It was a Thursday morning and the place was packed. Michael spotted a free tiny table and BOOM. It felt so right. The band playing was excellent and I was immediately enthralled. People were dancing, the server was dancing and I started chatting with the people around us. They were locals! They were there to see the band and they shared the local gossip and some cool information. The string bass player was excellent and they told me he played Elvis' bass player in the movie, "Walk the Line." They also had a very famous, been around, excellent drummer. A good drummer is a rare find. It started to rain, we ordered some food, Michael sipped a beer and we settled it.

It was my most favorite time of the entire trip.

Finally, we decided to meet the shuttle to take us back to the hotel. It was a couple of long blocks uphill. My new breathing device really has been working well and I only coughed twice, very lightly, while hiking up a pretty steep street. William continues to be on tour with a Nashville band, though they are not Country or Western music, so he gave us a list of restaurants he thought we might like. After a quick change of clothes, we went to Pinewood Social. It was so good, reminded us of SF and I think we were the oldest people in the room. Michael had a light meatloaf with a potato "pancake" over gravy while I had the avocado toast appetizer. It was one of the best meals we had on the road. What was ironic was that we bumped into a young couple while dealing with parking, learned they were recent transplants to Nashville from the Russian Hill area of SF. Then, we walked into the restaurant together, the guy at the desk told us he was from Oakland! He came to our table later and we realized we knew some of the same people. Small world.

We hated to leave but we needed to continue heading west.

Memphis. One of our favorite cities was just going to be a drive through this trip. On one of our first road trips, we stopped at the original Corky's BBQ and had real BBQ for the very first time. We thought we would do it again. We were trying to get to Texarkana, TX for the night. No problem. A quick run through Arkansas, cross the border and we are there! Oops. About 20-miles from the hotel, the traffic stopped. I mean really stopped. We sat two hours. Finally moving by the problem, we discovered that there was a major accident and I am sure people were killed. We pull into the hotel exhausted and just wanted to eat and go to bed. We found a "deli-type" restaurant, McAllister's, and bought a couple of pieces of meat and cheeses. Perfect for a very light dinner in a hotel room. We were ready for the drive from Texarkana to Waco to Austin.

Waco. Chip and Joanna Gains. The TV Show Fixer Upper. We thought we would stop by for lunch at their new restaurant or maybe coffee at their cupcake store on our way through town. Found the restaurants. Packed. There were people everywhere. It would take hours to get a table. Seven miles away, we found the silos and the cupcake shop which had, I swear to you, bus loads of people wandering about. We saw the buses! Forget it! We found and had our first Whataburger! It was huge. Michael only was able to eat half of his patty melt. They sell big food in Texas.

Austin. We were tired. After the hotel check-in, we wandered out to find a birthday cake for Betty. We found a bakery but no cakes! They did have a nice variety of cupcakes, so we bought a lot of small ones and four regular sized ones. Near the bakery, there was a Detroit Pizza place. Huge pizzas! Deep dish!! Lots of calories! We ordered a small size of the thinnest crust with light cheese explaining that we were from California. Ahh, they replied. It was delicious and we fell into bed early.

In the morning, we had a ten hour drive to see my brother in New Mexico. We had decided to take Highway 10 along the border and up to his little town. On the road north of San Antonio, we discovered that the area had been settled by people from Germany! Well, we had to stop at a German Bakery! We bought a ring filled with almond paste and raisins covered in a drizzle of frosting. they are going to love it!

We arrived in the evening and enjoyed the time we had together.

Next: New Mexico and Home the final road trip blog.