Yee Haw! Country Music Marathon Pt. 1 Getting There is Half the Fun!

Here's the post you've all been waiting for--what was it like? I ain't gonna lie, it was tough. But it was a lot of fun too. But lets start at the beginning of the weekend -

The car, my super fantastic mentee, Heather (here she is at left), arranged to pick us up was outside my apartment at 5:00am.

I was the first to be picked up so, I had been up since 4:00. Coffee consumed, showered (sort of) as best you can at that un-godly hour.

The car then picked up Heather and then Lauren:

Look at Lauren here; she has quite a story of the weekend but I'll get to that later. Just a preview though- she's tougher than a coffin nail!








We were at Laguardia at 6:00am. Not the first ones there, but second, even before Shelby the event coordinator from TNT.

We sat, and waited, sat and waited, finally we were able to board and we were off. Everyone made the plane and in a few hours we touched down in Nashville.

A bus showed up shortly after we got our bags. The driver was a good ol' boy, a real southerner. How do I know he was a real southerner? Well, when he spoke, my New York team mates looked at each other blankly, but I being a son of the South (I was born in Monroe, Louisiana) was able to translate New York Team Mates. Here's a announcement he made over the bus's PA system with the New York Translation in parenthesis;

Y'all welcum ta th' great city of Nashvul.
(Yo! How's it hangin'?)
What cha' all fixin' to do here?
(What yous doin here?)
Do what?
(Fuggitaboutit! )
Well, bless yo' heart!
(Yous people are crazy)
I'm sure y'all are gon have mor fun dan a puppy a wit two peters.
(Yo, whatever pops your cork, I gots a cousin, Sammy, he likes the ponies, so you know whatevuh)
Be sho to git out an et some grits, give y'all some fuel fer da race.
(Don't be a cheap bastid, tip well)
Y'all come back, y'hear?
(Yeah, come back, don't come back, no skin off my nose)

The bus driver managed to point out the high points of Nashville-

One of the over 1000 churches:


The reason for all those churches - The Brass Stables - a place were people dance. (no I did not pay a visit to this place)





And of course the dominating building of the Nashville Skyline- the Bell South Building aka THE BATMAN BUILDING cue the music:
We were able to check in to the hotel with no problem. Through some luck of the draw I had a single room. The room was on the 11th floor. Upon entering the room I made myself at home immediately as you can see. Yep, lined up all my stuffed animals above the bed, threw my clothes on the bed, turned on all the lights, smelled all the little soaps and shampoos. The I opened the curtains and took in the view of downtown Nashville. Over whelmed by the beauty of our great nation and the impressive view I felt compelled to reflect back some of the beauty before me (this is not an actual picture of me):






So now that was done, I felt I was able to now focus on the next task- Getting to the Expo- it was off to the expo to pick up my number and see what kind of free swag was to be had.

Coming up next the Expo, the Race, The Finishers!