Totally Awesome Vacation: Inappropriate, yet awesome.

I have a testimony of taking a bus tour of any city I am in. This is an awesome way to get around and see things that you may not see otherwise. Plus, if you run out of time, you don't feel bad not seeing something important because you already kinda saw it, having cruised by it earlier. Or if you have extra time, you can go visit something you weren't planning on seeing, but now want to because you learned about it on the bus. I love these things. I've even taken 2-3 in my home city.

We had just such a bus tour planned for Saturday morning and booked the most ridiculous one we could find: The NashTrash Tour, run by the Jugg sisters. It is huge PINK bus complete with the LOUD, inappropriate and totally hilarious singing duo - Sherrie Lynn and Brenda Kay.

The Bus rolled past the the major country music country music sites: the Ryman Auditorium (home of the original Grand Ole Opry), the Wildhorse Saloon (as seen on CMT), historic Printers Alley, Music Row, the beautiful Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Jail, where many a country music star has booked a room for the night.

The sisters were HILARIOUS. I laughed the whole time, even though my mom would be upset to know what exactly what it was I laughing at. I will admit that there were times that I was the only one laughing. (Note photo of Trist, who has a refined sense of social etiquette, something I really do not possess.)

They had the whole tour down to a great comedy act with some risqué tales - oftentimes including people on the bus. One of the funniest things they did was yell at people on the street. (IE to red head on the street "Oh, look! It's Reba!! REEEE-BBAAAA! I love you!!" Anyone on a bike was suddenly "Lance Armstrong" and we were to wave.) It was so funny to watch the reactions.

They also allowed beer and wine on the bus, which kept the other passengers rather jovial. And of course maintained that traditional Southern-fried hospitality, they offered their "Fancy Cheese Hors D'Oeuvres" (Cheese Whiz), a recipe also included in their cookbook, which HT and court bought and I wish I did.

We then roamed around the Nashville Farmer's Market, which was large and had lots of yummy smelling foods. We bought the best Strawberry Lemonade ever from this kid who is saving up to buy a car and a guy who personally selected for Court and I one of the best peaches I have ever had. We also met a guy who claims to have designed and produced the footwear that Neil Armstrong wore on the moon and reminded us that you never know who you will meet.

We then went over to Cheekwood plantation, which has been converted to botanical gardens and an art gallery. The grounds and house were AMAZING. I had just read The Great Gatsby again a few weeks ago and I really wished I could have been a guest at this house in the 20s.

They have different kinds of gardens, which were just gorgeous. The house had several galleries, including one on Faberge and blown glass sculptures throughout the garden. They also had a community contest of different 'scarecrows'; a lot of them were totally adorable.

After a quick stop at the Nashville Parthenon, a to-scale reproduction of the Grecian architectural wonder that is placed in Nashville for odd reasons, we then went back into town to check out the touristy street of Broadway where all the Honky-Tonk bars are. We didn't stop to listen to any music, but every one of them had bands blaring out music in the late afternoon. It made me wonder which one was going to hit it big next and would I regret not listening to them now? We also found some of Nashville's more elegant home furnishings for sale.

From here, we did the most important thing of the day - EAT! It was high time we started digging into some BBQ, so we started out at Neely's BBQ. Some of you may know them from their Food Network fame. Now, one of the great things about the Little Truckers is that we travel so well together. We have little habits and arrangements that are unquestioned. For instance, Hayley and I are always the hot ones, so we'll try to keep one part of the car cooler than the other. If we all pile into the same hotel room, Court and I share the same bed. Trist and I have similar food preferences, so we'll share.

Now let me e'splain our eating plan on this trip: Eat a lot, as much as you can. Even if you think that you aren't hungry. In order to accomplish this, we ordered large sampler platters of meats to share and lots of sides so all of us could try everything. This was a delicious plan. That worked for all of the restaurants we tried. Yes, that is BBQ sauce all over Hayley's and Tristan's face.

Since I will be reviewing several places, I'm going to be breaking it down:

Meat: pretty good. The smoked turkey was good, but a little dry. HT loved their ribs, though. The brisket was good, but nothing spectacular.
Sauce: regular, spicy and honey. I liked the regular and honey. The spicy was too spicy for me.
Sides: We ordered BBQ Nachos, potato salad, BBQ spaghetti, mac and cheese, beans, and coleslaw. Most of these were BLAH. We though that the beans and coleslaw were good, the potato salad was great. The rest wasn't worth it.
Dessert: Sock it to me cake (a cinnamon cake), brownie and peach cobbler: Myeh. None of us were wowed by any of this. And Court was incensed that the peach cobbler was not actually cobbler at all, but should have been correctly classified as 'pie.'
Value: Pretty good. I think we paid about $12/each. Which was amazing for the amount of food we had.
Overall: C+. Meats were kinda tasty with enough sauce on them and loved the potato salad. Aside from leaving our mark (which is encouraged), we're just not seeing the draw of Neely's.

After rolling ourselves back to the hotel, since Court's 30th birthday was coming up, we had a little celebration where, as according to Little Trucker tradition, we give each other a Tiffany's charm necklace for 30th birthdays. I love this tradition. I love the necklace I was given an unspecified number of years ago and I love my friends. Nashville was turning out to be a Totally Awesome Vacation!