Boat Honkin' and Honky Tonkin'

[author: Bubba]

The D&W Campground in Champaign, Illinois was the perfect landing place on day #1.  We were only a little disoriented on the morning of day #2.  It was planes, trains and RVs to the middle of the bread basket, in the dark.  Imagine waking up, next to a man-made fishing lake, nothing else around but corn fields and tractors.  We woke up in the middle of ‘Merica.  And we were lovin’ it.

We let ourselves sleep in a little that morning, and soon we were on the road and heading for Nashville.  That was our first long haul day, 5 ½ hours—and now it seems like nothin’.  We got to Nashville in the afternoon on day #2 and we drove right to our friends Christie and Don’s farm just east of the city. They have a beautiful, park-like property and they took such great care of us.  Thank you, Christie and Don, we hope to return the favor soon.

We didn’t rest at all that night and went right in to the honky tonks on Broadway after a quick round of showers. Oh, did we mention that we were in Nashville during “the Coachella of the country music industry”:  CMAFest! The whole city was jumpin’.  We hopped around to three of the most popular spots (Tootsie’s, Bob’s Western World, and an alley concert that was part of the festival) and stayed out until about 2:30am.  Drew and Nat are not going easy on their parents.

But that wasn’t enough. The next day, we drove into town during the day and had lunch and music at the newly opened Wildhorse Saloon.  And The Boot Shop was having an amazing sale, so we couldn’t resist buying cowboy boots.  That night, our amazing hosts took us out on their boat on the Cedar Creek Cove of the Cumberland River.  What a great night!  Catherine and the kids even tried wake surfing.  A great night with great people.

We got a good night’s sleep that night (rare when we think back on it) and the next day brought us another big day of driving. 

Goodbye Nashville, hello New Orleans!  (with a short visit to Graceland).