cynthia at the sandwich life Ernie, Food and Cooking, Music, The Guys

Hanging out with my Nashville Cats….

I went to a club and saw a band…..

in Nashville…..

at night….

with the guys……

Now let me explain….. Our drive to Nashville was remarkably long.  The guys are usually pretty good travelers but on Tuesday it was was "when do we get there?" every ten minutes until I wanted to kill them.  Then they would start poking and tickling each other which would escalate into a full war.  I would then yell "NO MORE TALKING UNLESS YOU ARE BLEEDING" which made Ernie snicker—which I ignored.  Breaking the drive into two days was supposed to make it easier but by the time we got to Nashville it still felt like we had driven twelve hours.  We were staying in a MUCH nicer hotel than we usually do but I had gotten a good rate and it’s in the old Nashville train station…..what choice did I have?

So we pulled up and turned the messy van over to the valet and when he brought the luggage up to the room he asked Ernie is he knew the van had a fluid leak.  "uh, no…."  Sigh.  Ernie went down, looked at it, came back, sat and looked through the yellow pages to find a garage.  Looked like no Country Music Hall of Fame at that point.

So Ernie took off and managed to pull into a garage just as steam started to stream out of the hood of the van.  Broken hose—nice guy at the garage—managed to get the part and put it in just before closing.  So all in all, could have been worse.  The boys and I passed the time wandering around the hotel which Leo says is his favorite hotel EVER even though they don’t have a pool.

Most of the time when we travel I have all sorts of stores of snacks and bottled water….not this time.  I’ve been so crazed and sick and whatever that I had nothing with us.  So I let the boys buy some candy in the lobby to keep them going.  I had decided that all I wanted to do was take a walk along Lower Broadway, which isn’t far from the hotel, snap a picture of Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and the Ernest Tubb Record Store and then we’d find something to eat.  Well, by the time we got the van fixed, it was too late to walk so we drove down, taking time to fight with a self-pay parking machine.  As we started to walk Owen began the whine of "I need food….I’m hungry" and unfortunately I recognized it as the "if I don’t get food soon I will melt down and you will be sorry and humiliated."  We haven’t been to Nashville in ten years and given that there’s a Hard Rock Cafe down the block I thought Lower Broad would be a bit more gussied up.  I was pleased on one hand, but all of a sudden I realized there didn’t seem to anything kid friendly in the vicinity…..  Not good.  I refuse to go into a Hard Rock Cafe so I looked around and spotted a place that looked huge and clean and told Ernie to go ask if we could bring kids in there.  He walked up to the woman at the door and she looked at him and said, "what band are you with tonight?"  Score one for Ernie.  He gave her our dilemma and she said the kids could come in but they had an early show and cover was $5.00.  At this point I could have cared less so we went in (they didn’t charge the boys cover) and asked if we wanted a table—we said yes and got seated near the stage.  It wasn’t quite what I’d had in mind but I was pretty entertained.  So we kept warning Leo that when the band started it was going to be very loud—-"just like when Daddy plays his records" I said.  Ernie commented that he didn’t play his records that loud (gee thanks Ern) so I told Leo it would be more like when MOM played music.  The band started a few french fries later and Leo immediately stuck his fingers in his ear, then leaned over and immediately did the ‘loud club’ style of talking where you yell in someone’s ear with your hand cupped over your ear and said "YOU REALLY PLAY YOUR MUSIC THIS LOUD, MOM?".  Owen was tapping his hand on the table and was as happy as a clam.  Ernie and I kept giggling.

It turned out it was Billy Block’s Western Beat show and the eponymous Billy Block was seated right next to us.  As Owen said, leaning over to whisper/yell, "he looks just like George Washington."  And that he did.

Liked the band although can’t find their name on the schedule.  We left after the first set even though Owen protested, "but Mom, there’s going to be another band…."

Thoughts?

cynthia at the sandwich life Ernie, Food and Cooking, Music, The Guys

Hanging out with my Nashville Cats….

I went to a club and saw a band…..

in Nashville…..

at night….

with the guys……

Now let me explain….. Our drive to Nashville was remarkably long.  The guys are usually pretty good travelers but on Tuesday it was was "when do we get there?" every ten minutes until I wanted to kill them.  Then they would start poking and tickling each other which would escalate into a full war.  I would then yell "NO MORE TALKING UNLESS YOU ARE BLEEDING" which made Ernie snicker—which I ignored.  Breaking the drive into two days was supposed to make it easier but by the time we got to Nashville it still felt like we had driven twelve hours.  We were staying in a MUCH nicer hotel than we usually do but I had gotten a good rate and it’s in the old Nashville train station…..what choice did I have?

So we pulled up and turned the messy van over to the valet and when he brought the luggage up to the room he asked Ernie is he knew the van had a fluid leak.  "uh, no…."  Sigh.  Ernie went down, looked at it, came back, sat and looked through the yellow pages to find a garage.  Looked like no Country Music Hall of Fame at that point.

So Ernie took off and managed to pull into a garage just as steam started to stream out of the hood of the van.  Broken hose—nice guy at the garage—managed to get the part and put it in just before closing.  So all in all, could have been worse.  The boys and I passed the time wandering around the hotel which Leo says is his favorite hotel EVER even though they don’t have a pool.

Most of the time when we travel I have all sorts of stores of snacks and bottled water….not this time.  I’ve been so crazed and sick and whatever that I had nothing with us.  So I let the boys buy some candy in the lobby to keep them going.  I had decided that all I wanted to do was take a walk along Lower Broadway, which isn’t far from the hotel, snap a picture of Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and the Ernest Tubb Record Store and then we’d find something to eat.  Well, by the time we got the van fixed, it was too late to walk so we drove down, taking time to fight with a self-pay parking machine.  As we started to walk Owen began the whine of "I need food….I’m hungry" and unfortunately I recognized it as the "if I don’t get food soon I will melt down and you will be sorry and humiliated."  We haven’t been to Nashville in ten years and given that there’s a Hard Rock Cafe down the block I thought Lower Broad would be a bit more gussied up.  I was pleased on one hand, but all of a sudden I realized there didn’t seem to anything kid friendly in the vicinity…..  Not good.  I refuse to go into a Hard Rock Cafe so I looked around and spotted a place that looked huge and clean and told Ernie to go ask if we could bring kids in there.  He walked up to the woman at the door and she looked at him and said, "what band are you with tonight?"  Score one for Ernie.  He gave her our dilemma and she said the kids could come in but they had an early show and cover was $5.00.  At this point I could have cared less so we went in (they didn’t charge the boys cover) and asked if we wanted a table—we said yes and got seated near the stage.  It wasn’t quite what I’d had in mind but I was pretty entertained.  So we kept warning Leo that when the band started it was going to be very loud—-"just like when Daddy plays his records" I said.  Ernie commented that he didn’t play his records that loud (gee thanks Ern) so I told Leo it would be more like when MOM played music.  The band started a few french fries later and Leo immediately stuck his fingers in his ear, then leaned over and immediately did the ‘loud club’ style of talking where you yell in someone’s ear with your hand cupped over your ear and said "YOU REALLY PLAY YOUR MUSIC THIS LOUD, MOM?".  Owen was tapping his hand on the table and was as happy as a clam.  Ernie and I kept giggling.

It turned out it was Billy Block’s Western Beat show and the eponymous Billy Block was seated right next to us.  As Owen said, leaning over to whisper/yell, "he looks just like George Washington."  And that he did.

Liked the band although can’t find their name on the schedule.  We left after the first set even though Owen protested, "but Mom, there’s going to be another band…."

Thoughts?