Location: Nashville, Tennessee, USA

We took our sweet time getting ready this morning as we waited for the unexpected torrential rain to let up. When the sun returned with its 33 degrees very suddenly, we slathered on the sunscreen and skipped out into the street over to the Nashville Farmer’s Market. We walked into a bright white indoor food hall surrounded by all manor of stalls and local southern artisans. In the middle of the room, a young woman sat crooning country music at a piano, which itself sat in the bed of an old red pickup truck. Flowers lined the building which was flanked by a tent filled with fresh produce and more local artists.

The atmosphere was basically just calling for a classic American breakfast of biscuits and gravy… or maybe it was the smell wafting over us as we walked by the stall. Delicious. Everyone we met around every corner was all manners and opening doors for us and ‘have a lovely day!’ and it’s hard not to just feel so darn welcome here!

I *will* have a lovely day, thank you!

As it is never too early for ice cream we got tasting flights from Jenni’s, which rivalled even our favourite places with their miso brownie batter and sweet potato marshmallow pie flavours. These people even serve half scoops so you can try more kinds! I did forget that we’re in America and a half American scoop is actually a full Canadian scoop…

In my defence I thought my order would amount to 2 scoops total… but if the universe wants me to eat 4 scoops of ice cream at 11 AM then I guess I will be eating 4 scoops of ice cream at 11 AM. Gosh darn.

Bellies full full full, we walked a few kilometres to the downtown core, intent on being good tourists today. Very high on the list was to walk down Broadway Street, otherwise known as the Honky Tonk Highway. We could hear the street before we could see it, country bars lining both sides all the way up and down. Flashing neon signs of cowboy boots and hats blinked in every direction. Even in the middle of the day live bands played at every single bar, windows open so songs mingled in the air around the whole street. It was electric, and as excited as I was to go in, we decided to wait till tomorrow when the lines wouldn’t be so astronomically long. We’ll be back for you Broadway! Instead we perused the shops around the area and made note of things we’d want to pick up another day.

We spent the bulk of the hot afternoon cooling off at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Artists we love were featured all around on posters through 3 floors of rich history. Old country stars cars were parked throughout which was a neat touch. I cannot not mention the fact that Elvis’s Cadillac was painted with literal diamond dust, decorated in gold plated accents had a gold plated TV and mini fridge in the back seat. Is this what rich people buy!?

Platinum records lined the walls, iconic outfits stood around on mannequins and beautiful instruments were preserved in glass cases. I am happy we went and there were some wonderful exhibits… but the entire thing really minimized women’s involvement in country music, often reducing a whole woman’s wildly influential career down to just a single poster, if they were present at all. Men overwhelmingly featured in all ways, even in the ‘new artists section’ where I expected to see a lot more artists I recognized.

We spent so long meandering around the museum that it was time for dinner, and the next thing on our food list was a recommendation from our cab driver yesterday: Jack Cawthorn’s Bar-B-Que. He said that this is a local place, and he absolutely did not steer us wrong! Off the side of a 3 lane ring road we pulled up to the place with only a few locals ordering cafeteria style.

We’ll take a 1/4 pound of the brisket, 1/4 pound of the ribs, some of the pulled pork, a little more please, and let’s top that off with cornbread and a side of Mac n cheese. Oh we get another side? Creamed corn please. Hot sauce bar behind us? Got it! Thank you!

I have sad arteries today but a happy tummy so…

We sat eating our BBQ in a dark green leather booth for a long time, chatting about the day and exhausted from the heat. Eventually we walked through the neighbourhood towards home as the sunset lit the sky up pastel pink.

Nothing quite like a day of good food and exploring a new city is there?

Sav