Goals and Gloria

Morning!  Kentucky was good to us, but it was time for us to move along.  If we stayed in Bardstown much longer, we would have been too tempted not to leave.

So it was off to Nashville, the country music capital, for the first time for both of us.

We made the most amazing discovery on route to Nashville… In Cave City, Kentucky, lies one of Kentucky’s best kept secrets…. Dinosaur World!  In fact, I just happened to look up and see a billboard and say, Dinosaur World at the next exit.  Huh. 

It took K about five seconds to pull into the right lane and prepare to exit!

When we went in the store to check it out, we made another awesome discovery… it was an outdoor walk through the woods that was pet friendly!  Banger would get to enjoy the glory that is Dinosaur World as well!

So off into the woods we went.  We were greeted by velociraptors, Tyrannasauras Rex, stegasauras, triceratops and the like.  And, if you know us at all, you know we had to ignore the signs that said do not cross the ropes to have some interaction with these awesome bright, plastic creatures.

We also discovered the real reason that dinosaurs are extinct. 

Banger got to them.

Then it was on to Nashville for a less than typical visit.  We didn’t go see the Grand Ole Opry, the Country Music Hall of Fame, or any of the more typical sites.  We did, however, eat Indian food at a resataurant across the street from the hotel and go see the U.S. Men’s Olympic qualifier game against Cuba. 

Oh yeah, I dyed my hair in Nashville too.  In fact, we did temporary dye and it was bright blue.  For about 2 minutes.  I sort of felt like I had a blue helmet on because it was more like paint than dye.  

Spoiler alert if you care about soccer and haven’t seen the score:  The U.S. STOMPED Cuba.  6-0.  It was incredible.  Also incredible was the somewhat small but amazingly enthusiastic crowd that was America’s version of soccer hooligans.  Including a man dressed in revolutionary garb beating a drum.  Apparently they are called Sam’s Army.

It was a little sad that there were only a couple thousand people attending and it was in the Tennessee Titans stadium, so it looked pathetic.  But where we were lacking in numbers, we made up in singing and cheering.  Loudly.

We did do the typical tour through some of the bars in the District, and after seeing the District at night, the nickname of NashVegas made sense to us.  It was an awesome stretch of honky tonk bars… plenty of neon cowboys, cowboy boots, and guitars.  The bar of choice for us (keep in mind, this was before the soccer match, so about 6:00) was Paradise Park Trailer Resort.  Yep, a trailer park themed bar complete with light fixtures made from tires and bathtubs behind the bar full of ice in which they kept the liquor.  Amazing.  Also amazing was the band playing, essentially just for us as we were the only patrons.  It is Nashville, after all… if that is the band playing to an almost empty bar on a Thursday at 6, we would love to see the acts playing to bigger bars on the weekend! 

Oh, in case you were wondering, I switched from Kentucky bourbon whiskey to Tennessee whiskey (Gentleman Jack, courtesy of Allie!) to fit in with the locals. 

All in all, we thought Nashville was pretty awesome.  Let’s see how it compares with Memphis tomorrow! 

Miles Travelled: 790

Days on the Road: 4

K’s Korner.

So I’ve decided to add my perspective to these stories from time to time.

DinoLand.  This place is basically exactly like the park in Jurassic Park, except it’s just off exit 45, all the dinosaurs are plastic, and Jeff Goldblum is Gloria, a 180 year old fossil working the admissions desk who easily clears out a packet of Pall Mall’s every hour.  The coup de gras was a tin shack with a “Museum” sign hanging over it that turned out to be a series of posters telling us about ‘terrible lizards’ that was about one step above an elementary school science fair.  It was the best kind of awful.