On to Nashville and then the Outer Banks

The grand plan in my mind was to drive from Little Rock to Nashville and stop along the way to explore the BBQ and jazz on Beale Street in Memphis at which we would arrive around lunchtime.  However, having made the two hour trip back to Mt. Ida from Little Rock created a  six or so hour detour.  So we blasted through Memphis and made our way to Nashville where we arrived well after dark.  This was not problem since we had booked two nights in Nashville and could sleep in the next morning.

After arising late, we decided to get breakfast.  Yelp listed a few of the favorites and we decided to walk there.  Three blocks later that was a widely-acknowledged bad decision and we returned for the car.  I really did not know what to expect of Nashville and thought it might be a compact city with everything within walking distance.

In the sweltering sun, we decided that, no matter how spread out the city was, we were traveling via the Great White Sienna.  This was the right decision, however long it took us to arrive at it.

We had breakfast, and then decided to take a city tour.  When we arrived at the embarkation point, we realized that we were not staying in the "happening" part of town, even though, in reality, Nashville is not that spread out...maybe a few miles here or there at the most.  Our hotel was near Music Row and Vanderbilt University.  

I have always liked taking a guided city tour when visiting a city for the first time.  I think it gives visitors a sense of the geography and, more importantly, what locals consider the highlights or the paramount spots in their city.  So we drove down the to actual city center across the Cumberland River from LP Stadium, home of the Tennessee Titans.  We bought tickets to a tour an hour or so in advance and wandered around the heart of the city, along Broadway and 2nd Avenue.

With a very stiff Elvis impersonator on 2nd Avenue

We had walked around Music Row but did understand the significance of it, until we took the tour.  On the tour we learned that song writers are held in much higher esteem than are the performers and that they get top billing on the banners that line Music Row congratulating the Labels' artists for current top hits.  We learned that Tennessee's nickname, The Volunteer State, is from the Mexican-American War when a call for 3,600 volunteers resulted in over 25,000 showing up.  I am a sucker for that...throw in a few tidbits and I am 100% content with taking a tour, whether the factoids are true or not.  

Twiggy was not feeling well because of the heat -- by the end of the bus tour the temperature was 95 degrees with 93% humidity -- and the bus did not have adequate air conditioning and the atmosphere inside was quite stiffling and she felt woozy when we disembarked.  So we stumbled a few doors down and had appetizers and beverages for dinner at the Wildhorse Saloon and then retreated to our air conditioned hotel room (which we set at a nice 66 degrees) and Twiggy slowly recuperated.   

Our plan all along was for Twiggy and I to see some of Nashville's famed local performers at renowned venues such as the Bluebird Cafe.  But again, I did not do enough research ahead of time.   I figured it was just like any NY City bar where it starts late and ends late and the crowd ebbs and flows in and out.  No so.  What I failed to understand is that these venues book multiple shows per night and you must book them well in advance -- the whole booking process is spelled out on its "How to make reservations" webpage.  By the time we inquired and learned out what the details were, the shows were sold out.    So we left Reagan to babysit the other kids and walked down the street to a local venue which also had live music.  It was called Losers -- seriously, and was right next door to another bar called Winners.  Twiggy and I blended right in with the young Vanderbilt students and the bouncer almost inquired about her ID.  

The next day was slated to be the longest drive on our whole excursion - from Nashville to the Outer Banks, specifically, Corolla (pronounced by the locals as "Co-rawl-a", and by non-locals similar to the familiar pronunciation of a popular Toyota model).  We were up early and underway.  However, in the late afternoon, we ran into severe thunderstorms...I mean severe.  Every few miles along the way there were cars that had hydro-planed off the road and were being attended to by tow-trucks, ambulances, police or some combination thereof.  It was so bad that we decided to book a room in Chapel Hill and continue the journey the next day -- this was the first and only time we did not get to our intended destination on our intended day.  But, having woken up the next morning and driven the remaining distance, I am happy we did not continue try to forge on, since it was a drive in itself from Chapel Hill to the Outer Banks.

Cherimoya Fruit

My ex-collegue, David Brown, had offered us his house in Corolla.  It was a very nice place with plenty of space and all the amenities necessary for a great beach vacation.  The day we got there we emptied out the Great White Sienna and moseyed on down to the beach.  The wind was blowing from the bay (off-shore), the water was brown, not clear, and there were horse flies everywhere.  And they bite.  I am not one prone to getting bothered by bugs, whereas Twiggy is a magnet for anything that bites.  I can sit outside next to Twiggy and at the end of the evening, I won't have a bite while Twiggy will look like a cherimoya fruit with lumps all over her body.

Anyway, near the end of the day, I had flies all over my lower legs, almost to the point where you could not see the skin on my legs and they were all biting me.  "Yikes", I thought, this is the beach area everyone raves about?   

The next day however, the wind had shifted and the water cleared slightly and we rented a surfboard for the kids.  The following day was even better and we realized the brown water was a function of the heavy rains and was clearing up rapidly.  The water was so warm, we couldn't get the kids out and they wound up exhausted at the end of each day.  Reagan and Grant practiced what they learned in surf lessons in Del Mar, and actually got quite accomplished...I was proud they were confident enough to go out on their own.

Much to my consternation, we did not do much exploring in the Outer Banks.  The most exploration we did was to visit the Corolla Lighthouse a few miles north of the house.  Otherwise, we stayed close to home and did not go down to Cape Hatteras or Kitty Hawk or Kill Devil Hills, the dunes from where the Wright Brothers took off, or Ocracoke Island.  At this point, the majority of the family was just content to hang out on the beach and not stray too far from their temporary home base.  The kids were happy to be in the water and Twiggy was just happy to not be in the car.  Thus, the spine of The Insider's Guide to North Carolina's Outer Banks remains uncreased.  

Campbell getting buzzed by a hang glider on the Outer Banks