Hey Hey it was finally Saturday and it was a day I had fully planned for months! My Nash Trash tour with the Jugg sisters was going to make my day and the Grand Ole Opry and the honkytonks was going to make my night. I had previously posted in my state of country music shock about my amazing night previously, so now it is time to fill y’alls in on my day!
If you want to see what Nash Trash is like here is a clip from the Today show! And you can also read the Trip Advisor reviews!
The tour leaves from the Nashville Farmers Market. It was really snowing and windy so I envisaged getting the shuttle from the hotel to the market. Unfortunately, I left it too late and he was out doing all these other pickups and drop offs so I had to walk all these back streets and across a main roadway and out back even further in the snow to this Farmers Market. I didn’t mind though as in the Lonely Planet it had recommended the Farmers Market as one of the great places to visit in Nashville so I planned to get there two hours before the tour to look around, get a nice fresh market lunch and take it all in as it is open all year round! The car park had any cars in it which I thought was a little strange. No wonder. I walked into the food hall and there was one mexican place there – everything else closed up and empty. No worries I thought – the fresh food area will be bustling. I walked out to the market area and there were a few dodgy stalls selling old fruit and veg and nothing all that exciting. I had two hours to kill in a food hall that had no food and in a market that wasn’t a market at all. There were a few other people who obviously planned to do the same as me – or maybe they were reading the same Lonely Planet. So I sat at a plastic chair and table set making lists in my notebook for over an hour, daydreamed for about half an hour and ate for the other half an hour. I heard some people mention that the Market is getting totally renovated and that is why all the places have closed. So that explains it!
Before long I was lining up in the snow waiting for the doors on a bright pink school bus to open. When it did, out jumped Sheri Lynn and Brenda Kay and we were off – around the block doing introductions and listening to their jokes for about half an hour before we made it out of the market. Already my cheeks were sore from laughing and smiling so much – they were hysterical! One lady was there from somewhere in Texas and then said after this she was off to Dallas. The sisters went on to ask her what for and she replied in a very matter-of-fact voice “For the Kentucky Fried Chicken Convention”. With this the bus just exploded with laughter – you couldn’t ask for a more hilarious response and her manner was so serious and yet we all found it all so hyserical for some reason! Absolute classic reason to be going to Dallas and you could just imagine what it would be like… or maybe not because I wouldn’t know what to expect.
The Nash Trash tour isn’t a real tour in the sense that you hear about all the historical stuff or historical crap as they put it. ๐ It was the funniest, what I think were three hours, I think I have ever had. If you ever go to Nashville basically you have to do this tour. What made it so great is that it was so original and so Nashville – not trying to do anything that has been done before or trying to do anything that just didn’t feel perfectly suited to the experience in the bus! When they read out my name, they actually said “Bess in the office said y’alls blog is great!” So Bess, if you are reading this – hi!! ๐ I got to sit beside another lone traveller, a teaching professor from NYC who had been to Nashville before for a conference and she wanted to come back and experience it over a longer time and we both had an absolute blast. It was one of the best and most fun experiences I have ever had travelling and am so happy that I did it!
We stopped at the Country Music Hall of fame for a bathroom and drink stop when another lady and her daughter came up to speak to me. “So you’re from Melbourne right? We’ve got some friends in Melbourne – their surname is Morgan.” I quickly responded that Melbourne is a big place and there are lots of Morgan’s around. She went on to say that the family was the “Val Morgan” family – you guessed in – CINEMA VAL MORGAN! I just lost it laughing – trying to explain to them that basically everyone knows Val Morgan. A big difference between just a Morgan and Val Morgan!
Walking back to the hotel in the snow was so much fun as the Jugg sisters made a snow day one of the best ever – so I couldn’t think of any way to top it.
Little did I know how awesome my night was going to be…!
Better – Screaming Jets