Road Trip USA – Stop 2

2
Written by Katrina

Nashville, Tennessee

From Atlanta, we drove to Nashville, Tennessee to spend some time with another cousin, listen to country music and drink some whiskey! The first night was rather unexciting, and we didn’t do much worth mentioning, but the rest was a blast! Yeehawww

On our first day, we had some time to kill before we could spend the afternoon & evening with my cousin, so we went to this replica of the Parthenon in Greece. I still don’t completely understand what the point is of making a copy of something in another country, unless maybe it is in Vegas. I don’t get it… but it was there. So we saw it.

Then we waited in a line for about an hour for some hot chicken! We heard about this place called Hattie B’s (if you have not yet, go watch Ugly Delicious on Netflix!) and it was well worth the wait. Jojo of course had 1 level or 2 spicier than I ordered. Both were amazing. The MacNCheese was like cheese soup with overcooked noodles floating in it *YUCK* but the chicken made it all ok! That was something else guys, I cannot explain. So good….

After we finished this deliciously spicy meal and both of our mouths finally cooled off, we drove over to the Tennessee State Museum. This museum was also very well done and FREE! I am surprised at how excited I am about Museums. First the MLK Jr Memorial site in Atlanta was incredible (and FREE!) and now, this museum of the history of Tennessee and the general area, also FREE!?We were very impressed with this place. They had exhibitions for the entire history of Tennessee, from the time before people, to the first natives, to the civil war, all the way down to the establishment of country music! Exhibits of old houses, clothes, books, canoes, letters from presidents, maps of the US when we only had like 15 states and the rest were just “territories”. Anyway, if you are ever in Tenessee, do yourself a favor and go there. Something between 2 and 5 hours would be needed.

On our list of things to do while in Tennessee was doing a whiskey tasting at a distillery. So, we found one called Corsair Whiskey Distillery, located inside Marathon Motorworks which is one of those old red brick industrial buildings with a water tower hanging over it. We learned a lot about how whiskey is made, what makes a bourbon a bourbon and of course, after 5 shots of different spirits, forgot it all.

Dinner was at a cute and sorta fancy little joint and was followed by drinks at another place. But then the real party began when we made it to The Tin Roof. I can’t believe how many cheesy country songs I remember word for word, even though I haven’t lived in this country for more than half a decade! If there would have been a moment for Johannes to regret coming with me to the U.S., it would have been then. But luckily, he stuck around and even enjoyed watching me and my cousin sing loudly (and terribly) along to the music.

Even a serious level of hangover could not keep us (me) from doing something equally honky and ridiculous the next day. We went to an indoor/outdoor bar with drinks, and cornhole, and more hot chicken.

So there is a street in Nashville called Broadway that consists of bar after bar after bar of country music. We popped into about 5 of them and watched the musicians and singers and had some beer.
George Jones’s rooftop bar
The Stage
Tootsies
Allan Jackson’s Goodtime Bar

Some time that evening, we made it out of the chaos and sat down for some BBQ.
Martin’s BBQ Assessment:
Pulled pork too soft 6/10
Beef brisket super tender and fatty and delicious 9/10
Mac n cheese very good 8/10
Stickey wings 7/10
Hoecake (cornbread but in form of a pancake) 6/10

That’s about it for Nashville. Sorry for any typos… I am very tired while writing this. Next up is New Orleans!

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