» Honeymoon Across America: Day 2

R and I continue to be both married and on a cross-country road trip, which are two things worth celebrating! We weren’t sure what could take Day One’s visit to the largest mini village in the world, but day two brought its A game ending up our favorite day yet. Here’s why.

DAY TWO

Charleston, WV —-> Nashville, TN

DETOURS

FREE THINGS ACQUIRED WITH “WE’RE ON OUR HONEYMOON!!” MENTION:

Room upgrade: Aloft Hotel, Nashville*

*we need to be telling more people that we’re on a honeymoon…

PLAY BY PLAY-ISH

There is one street in Charleston, WV where hippie intellectuals hang out to, we imagine, talk about the fact that they all found each other in Charleston, WV and should probably move to San Francisco. We found it and had breakfast at Taylor Books there. It was so. so. amazing to finally have soy milk again.

Kentucky is more beautiful than you’re imagining it is (unless you’re imagining it’s more beautiful than, say, Paris, which it is not). We could have spent all day at the Kentucky Horse Farm petting horses and watching horse shoes and paying respects to fallen champions (that’s just R though because I like horse racing but not enough to take a somber photo with Secretariat).

Torture

If you are anywhere near the Buffalo Trace Distillery and have even a small interest in bourbon, go. It’s worth it alone for Jimmy’s “Trace Tour” (you haven’t heard a guy make the classic “run Forrest, run!” joke so many times – and all unnecessarily – since 1994) plus if you’re as lucky as us you might just see them bottle 23 year old Pappy Van Winkle…that you can’t touch, taste or buy. If you know what that means then you know what that means.

Running for Jailor in Frankfurt, KY is a really big deal. Makes sense.

I’m voting for Billy because of the lock shape inside his O, obviously.

It only rains when I drive. Literally.

If you have 7 and only 7 hours in Nashville, TN you should eat fried chicken at Hattie B’s, see a show at the Grand Ol’ Opry, walk through the totally insane Opry Hotel and then head downtown to Broadway to bar hop. If you have any more than 7 you should go back to Hattie’s a second time.

It’s WAY hotter everywhere we’ve been than we expected A. because this part of the country is having a little heat spell and B. because we forgot that it doesn’t get cold at night like it does in LA. Today we will be buying shorts.

And finally, if you are in Nashville and have the opportunity to take an Uber, do so. You might just get Wayne in his cream Lexus Sedan, in which case you’ll learn, among a whole host of amazing things, that you need an Uzi in South Memphis (“just mind the dark folk”).