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Other entries in Nashville

Well Howdy There Dawrlin

Nashville.. what a place!  Met up with my dad whilst he was there for work at a Harley Davidson convention.  So as you can imagine there were LOTS of hairy monsters on choppers!  And of course the obligatory blondes with a tad of face paint.

We arrived.. around mid-day Sunday and met up with pops almost straight away!  The hotel (the biggest in the world I reckon) was amazing.  Absolutely huge.. so big in fact that they did boat rides (inside the hotel).  After getting sorted Alf, Chris, Pops and I hung by the pool soaking up the last of the days rays before heading to a Harley Davidson party that night.  They sure do put on a show.. with country and western singers, cowboys, classic cars circa 1950 (ish) and not to mention a fantastic rock band!  We did the rounds and enjoyed some great  food and entertainment before heading back to the hotel to the Jack Daniels bar for a few nightcaps!  I swear you couldn't even tell there was a mixer in the drinks.. they were so strong.. it did the trick of sending me off to sleep anyway!  The next day I made use of the gym facilities and swimming pool.. although lightening struck so we had to vacate the (outdoor) pool. that could have been messy! That night we all went to a European Harley night at a place in downtown Nashville.  Brilliant night.. dad and I dabbled in a bit of line-dancing.. well it has to be done.  I was awful need to work on it.. they were going far too fast!  Dad got the hang of it pretty quickly though.. good on him!  We again had the taste for a bit of JD so headed to the bar where they had a fantastic band on.. blues rock with a bit of Elvis thrown in.  They were so good I bought their CD!  When I remember the name of the band i'll put it on here.

The next day I took the hire car and went on the hunt for some shops.  Never having driven  stick shift, American car or on the right hand side of the road. I always knew it was going to be a challenge.. but was sure i'd be fine.  My hands didn't leave the 10 to 2 position.. put it that way.. the first road I went on was the interstate.. lord have mercy!  After just one emergency break and two petrol station stops to ask for directions.. not bad considering.. I managed to find my way there and did a little retail therapy. something that I ain't doing much of on this trip! After that I headed back out to the hotel and swung by the pool to catch the last of the sun.  That night we headed to the UK Harley evening.. which was held at a world-famous steakhouse in downtown Nashvillle.. said to serve the top 10 best steaks in the whole of the US.  Superb food.. but far too much of it.. Chris kindly finished my steak for me! Alfie (and I have to write this) managed to put away a 22oz steak in roughly 7 minutes.. we all watched in disbelief!  After digesting our food (some took longer than others) we headed to a blues/jazz club.. the music was great and so was the atmosphere.. I didn't stay too long though I was knackered so left dad and Alfie to party away Chris shared a taxi back to the hotel to meet  up with some 'friends' he'd made!

The boys spent their last afternoon by the pool.. after i'd made good use of the gym I also took a bit of sun time before embarking on the horrible task of packing my rucksack (hate doing it) while dad, Alf and Chris went to the Harley bash.  However.. job done.. and was waiting in my room for the three amigos to arrive back when in they walk sporting a colourful array of plastic beaded necklaces.. approximately 100 each.. was quite a site!  They insisted on dawning me in them.  We then left and headed to meet Alfie's friends (one of them is Dolly Parton's Manager.. or something like that).  After choking back a beer in a cool wee bar we'd stumbled across.. we met up with the guys (Dave and Raymond) and headed to 'Code Blue' the club they were taking us to that night to watch some great live bands.  The night was fantastic.. and the bands were brilliant.  Some better than others.. Raymond and Dave were friends with them all so they came and sat with us during performances.  Nice bunch of guys, really down to earth.  We turned a few heads in all our beaded glory.. and we felt it was only fair to let people share the party mood so by the end of the night everyone in the club had at least one necklace on.. poor sods.

The next day.. 4 rather groggy/feeling sorry for ourselves souls headed off to the airport.  I had such an amazing time in Nashville and it was so great to spend time with my dad.  However, now it's back to the real world of backpacking .. which i'm really looking forward to!  LA her I come!

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