The road trip went by really quickly, but I'm realizing it was actually pretty long based on the amount of time it's taking me to type everything up.
Tue. 6/11/13
Sweet merciful crap. I am currently sitting next to a magnificent waterfall at Gaylord Opreyland Resort in Nashville. Follow me, dear readers, as I walk you through today's adventures.
We woke up fairly early with the intention of packing up camp, doing a short waterfall hike, and saying our goodbyes to Smoky Mountain National Park. We actually did pack away the campsite relatively early, but the downside of this hike was that we had to drive through Gatlinburg ONCE AGAIN to get to the trailhead. It was only 1.4 miles on the Trillium Trail to the Grotto Falls, so I mistakenly decided I could pull it off in my flip flops. Well,
technically I did, but I was sliding around all over the goddamn place. It was only a little hike and the falls were really cool; you can go around behind them, which we did. It was nice doing it early in the day before a lot of people started to show up.
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| Baby waterfall |
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| Loving these natural showers |
Then we started our ~4 hour drive to Nashville. First passing through Pigeon Springs or Pigeon Fort - I don't remember or care to remember the name, but it was really tacky and had like eight go-kart places. Pigeon Forge - whatever though. Main thing is we ate at Chik-fil-A and it was good.
Then some driving, some of which was tainted with terrible country music, but soon enough we arrived at the glorious entity of our resort. You guys - showering. What an incredible thing. Five days of indescribable horror washed off, leaving an arguably clean person, ready to explore this enormous hotel/resort. After this epiphany of human experiences, I toured a FRACTION of this resort (the waterfall area mostly), but there is still a small city and a river with gondollas that I have yet to find. It is gorgeous and amazing. Right now I'm chilling outside at the pool with a Pina Colada. So. Freaking. Perfect. A vacation on our vacation!
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| This is just insane |
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| Here's the indoor waterfall near our room - just normal stuff |
After some well deserved rest and relaxation, we went into town... kind of... to do some much needed laundry. While that was going on, we went over to Centennial Park, which is kind of lackluster. We saw the fake Parthenon... not sure why that's there but ok. And the mini pond there was kind of gross with algae, but it had a friendly turtle! So that's good. But other than that nothing.
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| Just Parthenon in Tennessee. Deal with it. |
So we got our laundry and then went to Loveless Cafe for the most incredible dinner ever.
Ever. So southern. An all-you-can-eat friend chicken/pulled pork with friend green tomato and biscuit shindig. I ate so much that I hate myself.
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| Sunset behind Nashville after dinner |
Exploring our hotel made me realize that this place is beyond enormous. We walked through four different segments of the resort, passing through a conservatory, a long river, and out to an island on said river. It had olde-timey buildings (INSIDE the glass-structure surrounding the resort complex) and a water foundtain show and a crapload of other stuff. Even a Jack Daniels restaurant surrounded by barrels for some reason. This place is nuts.
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| I like to call this the "Titanic room" |
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| A view from the island from the other side of the indoor river |
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| Just a normal water show at our hotel in Nashville no big deal |
After exploring for a while, we took a cab downtown on the Broadway Street area. This street has a ton of bars with live hands in every one. The night started off a bit slow, but ended up being awesome. We first went to a bar called Honkey Tonk, and it was terrible, as the name might suggest. Not only because the music was country, but because they did a 45 minute long sound check. Honestly this was better than listening to country music, but the girls were not pleased about it and made sure that we were very aware of their discontent. Then we witnessed a music video in the making when a convertable was being towed around and filmed. The great thing about Nashville is that there is live music everywhere. So we explored.
The next bar was called "Something" and "whiskey" was in the name, but the band kept yelling "Holler and Swaller" so we're going to go with that. It started off as crappy country music, but we requested Wagon Wheel, which really turned the night around. We also had quite a bit to drink, if you haven't already learned from the quality of my handwriting (
note: my handwriting at this point in the journal is even worse than normal). The band loved us and kept giving Boston shout-outs. We got a recommendation to Roberts for 50's/60's swing music. It was beyond amazing. I loved that music (obviously a lot better than country) and they were a very entertaining group. The acoustic bass player kept swinging his bass around and rocking out. And they sell Yuengling in Tennessee! Huzzah! I met some Bonnaroo people there, two of which had just gotten engaged that night in the middle of the street. Pretty cool.
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| "Holler and Swaller" or something to that effect. The best part is the bear in the corner of the bar. |
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| Also this older gentleman asked Michelle to dance |
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| Definitely a fun place |
Our last bar was another recommendation, but this place was only minorly ok. We stayed long enough to witness some bar drama unfold before cabbing it back to the resort.
Wed. 6/12/13
I somehow woke up early and without a hangover miraculously. And somehow Scott and Michelle were both in the same boat, so we explored a lot more of the different resort areas. Now we're taking a swim break at one of the infinite pool areas, and HOPEFULLY this Eastern European pool guy Eli will open up the bar soon. Pina Coladas aren't going to make themselves. And they are starting to sound pretty damn good.
Fact: they were. After the pool we took our last real shower for a while and left the wonderful resort for the harsh reality of the Tennessee heat. And re-packing the car in that heat is simply horrible. But we pulled it off after sweating the entire supply of water out of my body and headed downtown. We didn't have too much time though, because we had a pretty tight schedule to meet up with our friend Bridget et al. So we had a mediocre meal and walked up Broadway for a bit, going into a cool print store to pet the cats there.
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| These statues are beyond awkward |
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| Prove it. |
Then we hightailed it out of Nashville and got some gas, since we ad heard that people run out of fuel waiting in the Bonnaroo line in the past. NOT US. And then a trip to Walmart to meet up with Bridget and obtain some last minute supplies. 5-hour energies were a must.
The exit for Bonnaroo was closed and the highway riddled with cops to deal with the insanity of Bonnaroo. We had to drive 13 miles past the exit to get in line on the opposite side. But we were early enough that it didn't take all that long, and before we knew it we were through security and parking in Lot 1. It turns out that getting here early is exceptionally bad because they weren't letting people out of our lot to go to tent-only camping. So we had to semi-set our stuff up at the car before packing it all back up and waiting in the "please let us out of here" area. Scott managed to sweet talk us out with some lie. Not a horrible trek to tent-only camping and Centeroo (the main activity area), but our spot in the camping area is optimum. Probably a 40 second walk into the festival area. We spent some time setting up and marking off our area and grabbing some food at one of the food truck areas. We made friends with some cool neighbors too. We helped Chad from Alabama set up his tent in exchange for some beer, which we had locked away in our inaccessible car.
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| Waiting in line wasn't nearly as bad for us as it was for people arriving later than us |
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| The view of Centeroo from our tent |
At this point, the night takes a horrible turn. Scott and I went to meet with Bridget to pick up some supplies they had for us. They were staying in their car camping area, which is like 20 minutes away. So that was a long, heavy trek. Then Scott, Sarah, and I went down to our own car area, borrowing Chad's wagon, to get the rest of our stuff because we heard they were opening that lot up again. Nope. They let Scott and the wagon in, and after some time of Scott not being able to find the car and having the wagon get stolen, and then having it found, we decided to call it quits and to get everything in the morning. NOPE. The Centaurs (what I call the mounted horse people) wouldn't let Scott out now, so while he had to go sleep in the car (it turns out not really, he got through a few hours later) Sarah and I had to walk a newly lengthened route back to the tent. It was a miserable night for everyone. Maybe not for Michelle since she had like 10 hours of sleep, but the rest of us rued the evening.
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| It's ok though, Bonnaroo is totally worth it |
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