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Nashville Debrief: the saga continues...
Mar. 2nd, 2010 05:08 pmTime to pick up where I left off in my last entry. I believe I was talking about riding to my hotel in the airport shuttle, observing things that related (albeit indirectly) to wrestling, and wondering if I'd find more of them as my trip went on.
Aside from that, however, my main concern was taking in as much of the city as I could from my limited vantage point, so that I'd have a frame of reference when I went venturing out on foot later in the day. I noted Broadway Avenue, which is a main drag in Nashville, and I tried to orient myself to all the other streets and interesting landmarks, though many of them flew by so fast they were hard to absorb.
One thing I didn't miss, was The Arcade, a place that I'd read about during my Yelp research. It's a historic building, known for being a hub for civil rights activity during the 60s, and now home to a post office and a bunch of restaurants and shops. You enter it through a sort of atrium, and at the atrium's opening on 5th Avenue I noticed a gaunt African-American woman who was very clearly homeless.
"That woman's always there," our driver explained. "She can draw your picture just by looking at you. But if you catch her on a bad day....watch out. I've heard her cuss people out for no reason."
On this particular day she seemed pretty calm and lucid, and I even watched her smile and wave at someone while we were halted at the stoplight. Something about her fascinated me, but there was no time to stare because then the light changed and we were moving along.
I caught sight of the Tennessee State Museum before we hung a right onto Deadrick Street. It wasn't place I had planned on visiting, but I made a mental note of it anyway because a sign mentioned free admission. I figured I could pop in if I had extra time to kill.
Next thing I knew our driver was pulling into the roundabout at the Doubletree entrance, and I was on my way to the lobby to check in. Due to my lack of sleep the night before, the plan was to get my key, head upstairs with my luggage, and take the world's longest and most luxurious nap. You can imagine my disppointment when the registration clerk informed me that my room was not ready, that I'd have to come back closer to check-in time. If I had requested an early check-in I might have kicked up a fuss, but since I didn't, and since I knew it was only 10:30 a.m. and that I wasn't technically entitled to my room until 3:00 that afternoon, I resigned myself to finding a way to occupy myself over the course of the next four-and-a-half hours. Lucky for me I was able to check my suitcase and my backpack, and the woman took down my cell number, promising to call as soon as something opened up.
And so, armed with only my purse, my Nashville visitor guide map, and a free Nashville-based entertainment magazine that I'd grabbed from a table near the elevator, I set off to explore my immediate surroundings....
Time to head home, so I'm gonna have to cut this short. I'll try to resume this later tonight, though I'm curious in the meantime to know what you think of me breaking what would normally be an extra-long single entry into more digestible bites. Does it make you want me to continue my tale? Or would you rather have it all in one shot? Just curious.
Aside from that, however, my main concern was taking in as much of the city as I could from my limited vantage point, so that I'd have a frame of reference when I went venturing out on foot later in the day. I noted Broadway Avenue, which is a main drag in Nashville, and I tried to orient myself to all the other streets and interesting landmarks, though many of them flew by so fast they were hard to absorb.
One thing I didn't miss, was The Arcade, a place that I'd read about during my Yelp research. It's a historic building, known for being a hub for civil rights activity during the 60s, and now home to a post office and a bunch of restaurants and shops. You enter it through a sort of atrium, and at the atrium's opening on 5th Avenue I noticed a gaunt African-American woman who was very clearly homeless.
"That woman's always there," our driver explained. "She can draw your picture just by looking at you. But if you catch her on a bad day....watch out. I've heard her cuss people out for no reason."
On this particular day she seemed pretty calm and lucid, and I even watched her smile and wave at someone while we were halted at the stoplight. Something about her fascinated me, but there was no time to stare because then the light changed and we were moving along.
I caught sight of the Tennessee State Museum before we hung a right onto Deadrick Street. It wasn't place I had planned on visiting, but I made a mental note of it anyway because a sign mentioned free admission. I figured I could pop in if I had extra time to kill.
Next thing I knew our driver was pulling into the roundabout at the Doubletree entrance, and I was on my way to the lobby to check in. Due to my lack of sleep the night before, the plan was to get my key, head upstairs with my luggage, and take the world's longest and most luxurious nap. You can imagine my disppointment when the registration clerk informed me that my room was not ready, that I'd have to come back closer to check-in time. If I had requested an early check-in I might have kicked up a fuss, but since I didn't, and since I knew it was only 10:30 a.m. and that I wasn't technically entitled to my room until 3:00 that afternoon, I resigned myself to finding a way to occupy myself over the course of the next four-and-a-half hours. Lucky for me I was able to check my suitcase and my backpack, and the woman took down my cell number, promising to call as soon as something opened up.
And so, armed with only my purse, my Nashville visitor guide map, and a free Nashville-based entertainment magazine that I'd grabbed from a table near the elevator, I set off to explore my immediate surroundings....
Time to head home, so I'm gonna have to cut this short. I'll try to resume this later tonight, though I'm curious in the meantime to know what you think of me breaking what would normally be an extra-long single entry into more digestible bites. Does it make you want me to continue my tale? Or would you rather have it all in one shot? Just curious.
