We woke back up around 7am. The wind was still blowing, but the rain had stopped. We took Frank for his morning walk, after feeding the meowing cats begging for breakfast. We finally left the dock around 9am. The rain was gone, and we figured we could deal with the wind in the river. The trip itself was fairly uneventful, except having to stop and do a circle to avoid hitting a buck that was swimming across the river. It was at least four points, if not six, so it wasn’t very old. It looked like a log at first glance, but as we got closer, we could see it was a deer. As we slowed down and turned, it turned toward us, then toward shore, then back toward us, thus the circle to let him figure out what he wanted to do. We went past him as he was heading toward shore again, and we watched him as we went by. There were also a few dozen sheep along the shore as well as an occasional cow and horse. We approached the dock around 2pm.
Upon arrival, we could see one other boat tied up, and some workers on the dock. They were fixing the electrical pedestals on the dock. We had also been warned not to dock ‘under the bridge’ as there is supposedly an underwater hazard, and you do not want to be under the bridge if people toss something off. There is a large pedestrian bridge connecting both banks of Nashville. We were on the Nissan Stadium side, and the ‘strip’ is on the other side. We approached the dock and circled around it before deciding to tie up behind the other boat, closer to the bridge. We wanted to have power and since they were working on the other side it made sense to go behind the other boat. We docked without incident and once tied up, we were ready to explore the town, after walking Frank of course. Before we left, the people from the other boat came over and welcomed us. They are from Canada and doing The Loop, on their way south. They told us the lock was broken coming down to the dock, so anyone could enter. We chatted a bit and prepared to depart. They were going to the ‘Country Music Artist of the Year’ award at the hall nearby and some of their friends came down to meet them. We left on our bikes to start our fun. The city was hopping!
Our first order was taking the elevator to the pedestrian bridge. This opens up on top of the bridge, allowing us to not go all the way to the end to get up it. There is a little bit uphill, then all down hill from here. It also gave us a birds eye view of the boats underneath. What a cool sight! We came to Broadway Avenue, where there are tons of bars and live music in almost all of them. Everything you could think of Country is here. By this point it was close to five o’clock, so we figured it was happy hour somewhere. We went up and down the strip and finally locked our bikes on a side street and decided to walk from here. We ended up going into a Luke Bryan bar, and ended up on Jason Aldean’s rooftop patio. We ordered a beer and a cocktail, and it was $18.00! I inquired about happy hour, and was told they don’t do one. We had one here and decided to try somewhere else. We walked around a bit and ended up on the rooftop patio of Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row. Two beers and a shot of Jim Beam here cost $23.00! That was enough of this! We then went to Tootsies Orchid Lounge and listened to a great live band. After this, we rode our bikes to the Tennessee Brew Works in the Music Row area: “Home to record label offices, radio stations and recording studios, Music Row is at the heart of Nashville’s country music industry. The iconic Historic RCA Studio B, where legends like Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton recorded hits, is open for tours. Various country stars are honored with street names in the area, and in Owen Bradley Park there’s a statue of the influential record producer seated at a grand piano.” This worked up our appetite and we had a snack here while I asked the bartender where to go for a drink without spending a fortune…He was awesome and actually wrote down a bunch of places. One of the places was Robert’s Western World, on the strip. Good to know since we are close to there. After our two for one drinks and listening to some live bluegrass music, we rode to a pizza place: Desanos Pizza. This place came highly recommended, and we found our way there. We devoured a pizza which was quite good (not as Citizen Pie good) and decided we should head back. It was after dark at this point, and Lauren was leading the way with her bright pink flashing wheels. On the way back we stopped for a nightcap at Roberts Western World. Cheap beer we were told. We found our way to the balcony and I ordered two Bud Lights. $11 for two! In my mind I was thinking this is cheap!? I then looked down at a menu and saw they had PBR and Miller High Life for $2.50. Duh! I should look at a menu before ordering. Our seats were close to the edge of the balcony, but there were two people in front of us so we didn’t have a straight view of the band which sounded great! Eventually the people in front of us turned and offered their seats to us as they were about to leave. Great! We chatted for a few moments and then took over the seats overlooking the band. What a great way to end the night! We made our way back and rode all the way down the pedestrian bridge to the other side- who needs an elevator when its all down hill? Frank got his walk and we retired looking forward to another day in Country Music City.
Day 2: We woke up this to a clear Thursday morning, but a little chilly. We spent the morning on the boat and walking Frank around. We were docked pretty close to Nissan Stadium where the Tennessee Titans play so there was lots of areas around to walk him. By afternoon we were back on the bikes and headed to a cluster of buildings that formerly housed Marathon Motor Works in the early 1900’s which makes up the area known as Marathon Village. There was a distillery here with samples and tours, called Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery as well as Corsair Distillery around the corner. There were a bunch of shops and museum artifacts as well, so we spent a bit of time in this area. Eventually we hopped on the bikes and headed back toward downtown. We passed a Publix supermarket and stopped for some snacks to take back to the boat. From here we went to Acme Feed and Seed to sample their happy hour. We found a spot at the bar and ordered sushi and beverages. We finally found a good deal. At this point it was getting dark out, so we headed back to the boat. We ended up staying in the rest of the night and having dinner on board.
Day 3: Friday in Nashville. It really doesn’t matter what day of the week or what time of the day- Nashville is hopping! It is now the bachelor/bachelorette capital from what we’ve heard from many people there. There are buses, limos and even tractors pulling a wagon around with people hanging out of them drinking and partying as they roll around town. The live music starts at 10:30am and the bars are packed. We started with a long bike ride to Nashville Farmers Market which is a huge market with many vendors selling everything from food to clothes. We spent quite a bit of time wandering around and eating lunch from a few different vendors. From here we went to another part of town and stopped fro happy hour which started at 2pm at TailGate Beer. By this point the sun was out and it had warmed up a bit, so we sat in the sunshine on the outdoor patio. As we were sitting around, I received a text from David who had taken a picture of our boat and posted it on Facebooks Great Loop Group , asking who’s boat this is? He and his wife want to do The Loop soon, and he likes watching the transient boats come through since he has a view of the dock from his work place. I had responded and we had planned to meet for dinner or cocktails somewhere. At this point I told him where we were and where we would be later. We agreed to keep in touch and he will let us know when he and his wife is home later. We finished our beverages and went toward a cidery: Diskin Cider is what we were looking for. Michigan got us hooked on good hard ciders. As we were biking along, I spotted another distillery: Nashville Craft Distillery and I was so thirsty I had to stop. Just kidding, we DID stop, but not because I was thirsty. I just wanted to check out another local place. We had a great tasting, which included an absinthe that they make too. Just around the corner was Diskin Cidery which was our destination in the first place, so off we went. We shared some snacks and a tasting flight, and relaxed and enjoyed the ambiance and action going on around us. This place doesn’t open until 4pm, and by 5pm it was packed. Good thing we were there @ 4:20pm. We had spoke to avid and planned on meeting at a pizza shop called Two Boots around 7pm. Since we were biking, it would take us a little bit to get there. We made our way and arrived at Two Boots right on time. We met David and his wife Jennifer, and ordered some pizza. Again, Citizen Pie is the best. The pie was good, and we enjoyed their company for a while. We talked about the trip and what we have found out so far, and heard about their boating adventures as well. Eventually the evening came to an end, and we headed back on the bikes. Nashville is very hilly and the ride back was always good as it was mostly down hill. We made good time and went back to the boat to attend to Frank and prepare for departure. Our trip back up the Cumberland River was the same way in, but we wanted to stop at different places. We looked at the maps and decided on a marina that is not too far away, so we do not have to leave too early. Eventually we have to get back to Kentucky Lake to get the Tennessee River to head south for the winter before it gets too cold!