Nashville: The Athens of the South. (But not the one in Georgia.)

Jon and I arrived in Nashville on Wednesday night, and I don't mind telling you that we were both pretty much crawling to the finish line. But, we were determined to rally for our final night on the Country Fried Road Trip! And so, after dinner downtown, we walked a few blocks from our hotel to the Nashville Gayborhood. We weren’t really sure what to expect. As Jon pointed out, when you’re in LA or NY or Chicago, there are just people everywhere all the time. But even when we were in the “downtown” part of Nashville for dinner, we didn’t see a whole lot of folks. In fact, at 8PM, a few of the places we had called for dinner were either already closed for the night, or were preparing to. So the city was pretty much... quiet, and we were scared of another Santa Fe incident.

However, we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at a place called Tribe. It was bigger than I thought, and not at all sad like I had expected--and there were a good number of people in there for a Wednesday night. Of course, it was Drag Queen Night...


...and there was a toilet in the middle of the floor (for a contest, thank God). By now, I think you know my policy on Drag Queens and potties, so you won't be surprised to learn that we had a drink and decided to explore the rest of the small strip of 'mo bars. First, we checked out "Blue Genes." Of course, the moment we heard the screeching sounds of karaoke pouring out of the place, we immediately turned around and ran away. The only other place on the strip was charging a cover, and so we went back to Tribe (which was now Drag-Queen less) and ordered up another round with our new bartender, Chad--who was kind enough to take this photo:


Although he was no Jesse, this kid was pretty much a mess. He was young--maybe 21--and he's one of those guys that is constantly looking around the room and, once he catches someone looking in his direction, immediately begins dancing and humping the air as if to say, "HEY! Look at me!!! LOVE ME!!!" Since he's a bartender, these antics seem like they might get exhausting. As Jon said, "Mommy and Daddy didn't pay enough attention to someone."

He seemed genuinely nice, if not misguided, and we wanted to show you a photo of him. However, we were afraid that if we asked for a picture, he'd take his clothes off and start humping everything. And so, using the methods Jon and I learned while at the Spy Museum in DC a mere five days prior (even though it seemed more like five months ago), we managed to snap a few good ones:




Like I said... we were pretty loopy by this point and when Jon asked what time I thought it was, I said "Midnight-ish." Turns out, it was only 10:40PM. Between driving for five days straight, doing about three days' worth of activities each day, and Chad dancing up a storm around us, we decided that it was maybe time to call it a night. We wanted to explore daytime Nashville before hopping our flight back to LA, and so as we were finishing our drinks, I asked Chad if there was anything we simply MUST see during our remaining few hours in Nashville. Something fun, something weird... something all people must do in Nashville that isn't Opry-related.

He thought about it for a while--a long while--and eventually decided that we should go and see the downtown area (where we had just come from) and maybe do some karaoke. Is this really the best Nashville has to offer, Chad?

The next day, Jon and I discovered that Chad neglected to mention THE GIGANTIC REPLICA OF THE PARTHENON located about two miles from the bar.

Really, Chad? Really?

Anyway, we explored the exterior of the Parthenon...



.. but couldn't seem find our way inside--Which is weird, cuz it had a few sets of 24 foot tall, 7 foot wide doors:

As we were wandering around, a crazy woman started screaming at us about ice cream. Jon was on the phone with Anonymous Ra and tried to tell her that we didn't want her ice cream, because we had just eaten 11 pounds of pancakes (Mine tasted like Christmas!)

But she was undeterred, and began to shout: "Maybe you didn't hear me. I SAID FREE ICE CREAM!"

Terrified, we walked over and discovered she's part of the wacky morning show on Nashville's Mix 92.9!

Clint, Anna, Kim!

As we chatted with our main harasser (Kim) about our vacation and LA, she told us that she's very good friends with Bean of KROQ--an awesome LA radio station (with Bean being half of their morning show.) Within moments, Kim revealed that they were actually exes. As it turns out, people in the South like to tell you deeply personal things five seconds after you meet them.

They were also kind enough to tell us where the entrance to the Parthenon was, while giving us lots of delicious ice cream that we did not want. So when we posed for this photo...

...I used the distraction as an opportunity to put mine down (Thanks again, Spy Museum!) but Jon was still carrying his...

... even as we approached the museum entrance. He was going to chuck it, but Kim was suddenly also at the museum entrance, glaring at him. Jon again tried to tell her that we had just eaten our faces off and she reluctantly took the ice cream back before frowning and walking off.

Awww, we're sorry, crazy radio lady!

Anyway, inside of the structure, we learned that this is the only full-scale replica of The Parthenon in the entire world. It was constructed for Tennessee's Centennial celebration in 1897, because Nashville is known as the "Athens of The South," due to the high number of universities there. I'm not sure how Athens, Georgia feels about this title, but I guess it's hard to argue with a 42 foot tall statue of Athena:

The beauty of this ancient Greek structure combined with the convenience of being right in the middle of America is really just...

... astonishing.

Overall, the I found the exhibits to be a lot friendlier than the ones we saw in Virginia...

...although Jon may not agree:
There are many busts that were recreated using castings of the originals in Greece...




...and as with all great art, you can kind of see at least a little part of yourself in it...

ParthenJon!

Even Greek Gods couldn't escape the horrors of Diabetes.

After leaving the Parthenon, Jon and I made our way around Nashville's Centennial Park...

... took in some more sights...


...

...and after making one final stop to a gay bar we didn't have time for on Wednesday evening, despite it having the best name ever...


...we sadly made our way to the Nashville airport...

...dropped off the car after 1309 miles...


...caused some trouble inside the airport...


...and headed back to Los Angeles...


...which is currently on fire.

Jon has one final post coming, and I am putting together a little video recounting our Country Fried Road Trip--so stay tuned! There is (somehow) more to come!