Nashville, Tennessee

I graduated from college in May. Finally. After years of having no path in life and two years of finishing my bachelor's degree in Education. I have my diploma and my license. I am officially a licensed educator ready for my own classroom. Unfortunately, I've been waiting around for the Air Force to figure out my paperwork so that I can join Brandon in England. The past few months of waiting around at my mother's house have been so hard and disheartening. It has been five months since I've seen my husband. It's been seven months since we've lived in a home with our things together. Choosing myself and my own passion and career meant spending time away from Brandon but we didn't expect it to be this long. I didn't expect to spend my time sitting on my thumbs waiting to begin our adventure together for as long as I have. I'm so ready to begin my life with Brandon in Europe. This separation has been such a reminder of how much I love him. How much I appreciate our life together. It has been a reminder that home is no longer this place in Missouri but wherever my home with him is.

While I've been waiting, I knew I wanted to see more of the States. The past year and a half that I've spent back in the states have been a reminder of how much I love driving and experiencing different places and cities here. Road trips are my favorite now. My Dad's family is from Tennessee and I would often spend my summers at their farm near Jackson but I had never been to Nashville or the Smoky Mountains. So my best friend and I decided to take a week and explore Tennessee. We started out in Nashville.

Our first night, we explored Broadway. I have never heard so much competing music in one spot in my life. We ate a little place called Jack's that had the most amazing barbeque that I've had since I was a kid. I love Tennessee pulled pork and it was so reminiscent and delicious. We also went out drinking and went to two different bars to listen to live music. 

The next day we went to Belle Meade Plantation and toured the mansion which was beautiful (photos are not allowed inside the home), walked around the beautiful grounds, and did a wine tasting before we went to lunch at Biscuit Love in the Hillsboro area. We both got the "Eat Nasty" which was a delectably fried chicken thigh on top of a homemade biscuit (it tasted very much like a yeast biscuit) with sausage gravy and aged cheddar. It had to be the best piece of fried chicken I've ever had in my life. We went back before we left Nashville to get their "Bonuts" which are fried biscuit dough covered in sugar, covered in lemon mascarpone over a blueberry compote. So amazing. I would go back again for sure if I'm ever in Nashville again. While in the area, we also stopped at Jenni's Splendid Icecream as recommended. I had the goat cheese with cherries on a waffle cone and it was delicious. 

We managed to get a lot done in the two days we were in Nashville. That same day we went to the Parthenon replica which was cool for the outside but wasn't very impressive on the inside other than the replication of Athena. We walked by the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame but didn't tour either one as we weren't interested. Overall, it was a cool experience to visit Nashville but I'm not sure there is as much to enjoy for myself as other cities.