Saturday, April 30

We’re off to Nashville! This morning around 8:00am, we hooked the Jeep to the back of the RV and said good-bye to Land Between the Lakes Rec Area in Kentucky. Our next adventure is in Tennessee.

After watching some of the other campers at Land Between the Lakes yesterday, Andi and I decided there are two types of people who camp: those who use their RV as a second home; to get into nature, relax and read in a hammock, to hang with friends, and to recreate with their fishing boat, bikes, etc. Or, there’s people like us who use their RV as a way to travel while still having the comforts of home with them. There’s no wrong way to RV! What’s great about a camper is that it compliments every lifestyle. People probably thought we were nuts packing up our beautiful campsite in the forest at Hillman Ferry on a Saturday morning, but we had somewhere to see — Nashville.

The 3+ hour drive from Land Between the Lakes to Nashville was a bit stressful for Andi. It should have been interstate the entire way, but there was a bad accident at the KY/TN border, so we were forced to re-route onto a smaller highway. The two-lane highways in the southeast are so narrow and winding. There is no room for driving error.

Andi booked us a campsite at the Grand Ol RV Resort & Market in Goodlettsville, TN for two nights. Most cities don’t have a lot of camping options and Nashville is no exception. There are two or three choices and they’re all booked. Luckily, Andi was able to snag a last-minute cancellation! He’s always so good about calling back to check again if there’s someplace we’d really like to stay. More often than not, we can usually get a spot.

Once we had the RV parked at our campsite, the hour of us hopped into the Jeep to find some lunch in Nashville. Andi picked a restaurant called The GOAT in Nashville’s Germantown. We were able to be seated in the restaurant right away which I was surprised about given the busy neighborhood, but learned shortly after we were seated they restaurant was only serving brunch. It was 2:00pm by now and none of us really wanted breakfast foods again, but Andi and I decided it’d be faster to eat something here vs. try to find a new restaurant for lunch. Luckily, the restaurant had a few lunch-type items and a few menu items we thought the kids might like.

We ordered BBQ wings for Andi and Aden, plus a side salad for Andi, a chicken wrap for me (which came with fries that I gave to the kids) and a pizza roll for Tory. All the food was delicious and we left with full, satisfied bellies.

Across the street from The GOAT was Christie Cookie Co. so Andi said, “While we’re here…” We bought a six-pack of Christie’s Cookies to share — a mix of chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, butter pecan and rocky road. OMG, these cookies were so good! We all had to use willpower not to eat the whole box immediately.

Next, we decided to head downtown to see what Nashville’s music scene was all about. Traffic was nuts, but we finally navigated our way to a parking garage in the heart of the city. Andi and I were a little overwhelmed with what to do first — there was so much to see. Dozens of party buses were cruising by blaring music with groups of dancing girls on the back. Aden loved the pedal pubs and asked if he could get on one of those. (We took him he was too young to ride).

Andi and I considered taking the kids into the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum, but it cost $25/pp and we weren’t sure that’s where we wanted to spend our money today. Instead, we walked to the Food Hall Assembly which is a three-story building with various restaurants and live music. The place was packed with people — everywhere in downtown Nashville was. We wandered through the Food Hall for a while and then decided to grab a table and a treat while we listened to some music.

Aden spotted a restaurant called Cotton + Snow which is his ultimate dream — sno cone + cotton candy. He is always asking for these two things when we travel. Why? Who knows. Very rarely do we let him get one of these treats when we see them during our travels because it is pure sugar. Andi was feeling generous today, I guess, because granted Aden his wish. The look on Aden’s face! With the sincere voice Aden looked at Andi and said, “Thank you, Dad.” Ha ha. I think his day was made in Nashville.

Tory wasn’t left empty-handed. She got a bowl of soft-serve ice cream with gummy bears on top. Andi and I ordered a drink and enjoyed our treats while listening to live music.

Afterwards, we decided to walk down Broadway Street to see “music row” in action. Andi wanted to go to a honky tonk bar and I’d read beforehand that they allow kids inside during the daytime. On that note— one thing I loved about downtown Nashville is that Andi and I were never made to feel like our kids weren’t welcomed. At times, we questioned our own sanity in bringing them downtown because it was such a wild party scene, but they were never unsafe in any way. It was a place Andi and I really wanted to visit in our travels & we felt like it was a good real-world learning experience for the kids.

We picked a honky tonk called Old Red Saloon because it didn’t look to be too crazy inside. I loved how the whole bar was centered around the stage. We listened to a band called Cumberland Run for a bit before making our way back onto Broadway Street. The four of us continued to wander around for another half-hour or so. Then, we hopped back into the Jeep and drove back to our campground in Goodlettsville.

There’s live music playing every night at the Grand Ol RV Resort & Market which was a nice perk to our stay. Tory and Aden said they both wanted some quiet time, so they stayed in the RV while Andi and I brought our lawn chairs across the lawn to listen to bluegrass music.

Neither of us felt like cooking, so Andi ordered Mediterranean to be delivered from Uber Eats. It was a gorgeous night in Nashville— warm, but not humid, with temperatures in the low 70’s. We sat at the picnic table by our RV and ate dinner together.