Wednesday September 22, 2021.
Temp: 68/61, Humidity: 51/87%, Top Wind: NW21! mph, Precip: Yep! clouds and some rain, Miles Traveled: none
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It was a nice sleep-in day. 😴. We woke up to a cool morning, with a bit of rain. Yep. There is still some rain. But I tell you what…. the coolness feels great!!
We had several tows go by, both up bound and down bound. Man do they ever mess up the river for a long time! Not only do they make a big push as they get close, but then comes the wake, and the washing machine behind them that lasts for about ten minutes after they’re long gone. The up bound tows churn the water so much that it takes a long time to settle down.
We hung around home for awhile until we got nice and hungry. We were getting tired of rocking and rolling, and the rain seemed to be mostly gone, so we headed to town for some lunch. We are still the only boat here. With all the rain that we’ve had, the river is running noticeably stronger and faster.
I found a place nearby that has craft beer! There aren’t many places that do, so we headed to Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery.
They had three nice dark beers, so I had an oatmeal stout, and Kenny had a barrel aged something. They were both good, and we ordered burgers for lunch with waffle fries. Yum!
The place was not very busy at lunch time, so we were able to sit at the bar and get samples and visit with the bartender a bit.
My boys would like this sign.
After lunch, we just went back home. There was still the threat of rain, and we did get sprinkled on. We didn’t have any place that we really needed to go scope out anyway. After it got dark, I tried to get a nice city shot, but I didn’t get a very good one. It got REALLY windy this afternoon and evening, so that’s my excuse. I guess the wind is from the low pressure that came swooping in bringing in the cool weather.
The General Jackson paddlewheeler river boat came down earlier today, but did not come under the bridges. This evening it came all the way down to town, turned around and slowly went back up river. We noticed that the stacks up on top were hinged and laid down. With the high water that we’re having right now, it was a close fit.
I convinced Kenny that we needed to go to town and listen to some music. After all, we are in Nashville! He said that I just needed something to write about so I didn’t have to make up a bunch of stories for y’all! Well, yes, there is that! So we wandered into town. I found a place that should have some live Blues music. Unfortunately, B.B.King’s Blues Club is closed, and their website says they’re closed due to the Covid pandemic. So, we went off Broadway to the Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Club. It is a New Orleans cajun kind of place in Printer’s Alley. We went in, but is was PACKED to the nuts, as some would say. 🤭 It’s not a very big place, and we couldn’t even find a place to stand. OK – plan B. Let’s go back to Broadway.
We wandered up and down Broadway trying to find some music that we liked and the possibility of getting inside. It’s Wednesday, and everything is busy! We finally decided to go into Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk Rock N Roll Steakhouse. It is a two story huge place, and even at that, we had a hard time finding a place to stand. There were two seats at the bar upstairs on the mezzanine level, so we took those. Then I found a couple of seats at a table right up by the band and a window on the second floor. MAN, it was loud! 😳 And the band wasn’t awesome. I had to put in earplugs because my ears were vibrating, but I did have a good view of the street! I saw this peddle bar cruise by a couple of times.
When the band was done at 10:00, we went to try to find another venue. Just as we were getting ready to leave, we saw this party bus. There are all kinds of party options in this town!
OH! This was funny. When we were coming over to town, there was a whole bunch of people coming across the bridge with us. A couple of girls had rolled up blankets, and the guys were asking what those were for? One gal said it was in case they went on a tractor ride. WHAT?! 🤷♀️. We all laughed and thought, right, like you might go on a sleigh ride in downtown Nashville, too. But look at this! It’s a tractor ride!! Who knew?! I don’t think she’d need her blanket, though. Everybody was standing and whoopin and hollerin. There was no sitting calmly with a blankie on these rolling parties in this town!
We wandered and once again tried to find a place with music we liked. We finally settled on John Rich’s Redneck Riviera. Have you noticed that everywhere we go has a musician’s name associated with it? Anyway, the band here was great! The place is really small, but we crowded in and found a place near the end of the bar where somebody let us order. The crowd kind of ebbed and flowed in and out, so with one of the outs, we were able to score a table. The theme of this bar is to support all those who protect us – military, police, fire, etc.
The band was really good and played a big variety of stuff – mostly by request. You can almost see the window behind the guitar player, that is open to the sidewalk. People gather outside all of these places and listen to the tunes. Nashville is an amazing place for music!
We stayed until the band was done at midnight, then headed home. Again tonight, we did not feel uncomfortable walking across the bridge to our dock. We have been surprised at the amount of homeless people we’ve seen all along the sidewalks in town. We have not been approached by any of them, but there are a lot. But we have not felt uncomfortable or unsafe.