Completing the loop

My parents gave us a fast guided tour of Nashville today. It was nice. We went to a used bookstore (Bookman and Bookwoman) which was so full of books that were slightly out of alphabetical order and double-shelved. This was followed by lunch at Fido, which was full of college students. We went from there to the Opryland Hotel which is huge and full of plants and absurd and worth seeing, and then to a cowboy bar. The bar was, I believe, called "the Stage" and we saw a couple bands play. They were both better than your average bar band. But then, we're in Nashville.

When we got hungry we moved on to the Station where we ate some pizza and saw a couple other bands. Opening there was a guy named Simon Bruce who wrote boring songs and was accompanied by a very good violinist. While he wasn't entertaining me I entertained myself by turning my plastic water cup into a plastic dog which later in the evening really impressed some girl. The real band was a group called the Greencards (mostly from Australia and England) made up of one violin, one mandolin, one bass, and one guitar. Everyone but the bassist had unbelievable chops and was insistent on proving it to you. The bassist was not bad, but was certainly less demonstrative. She did most of the singing, but they all had fine voices. They were a great band. I'm very glad we saw them.

We finished off the evening with pound cake and fruit and ice cream on the porch, because the weather finally broke, and then the power went out. It just came back on, so I'm throwing this up here and then to bed.

Tomorrow: the final drive.