A stressful morning trying to book a hotel in Nashville, somewhere between 'safe' and 'affordable' (notice how I left 'cheap' off the list). I had a nice breakfast in Bowling Green in the hotel, but the delay of booking tonight's accommodation meant I missed the main thing I wanted to do today. :(

I'd been recommended to visit Mammoth Caves, so it was back up the I65 to the national park . The best, funnest tour was Grand Avenue, but that only goes once a day at 9am, and it was after that by the time I got there. However, there were plenty of other tours, as well as free history interactives, RESTrooms and free wifi. Yeehaw.

I went on the Domes and Dripstones tour instead, which was about two hours long, and still pretty cool. We even saw a group from a spelunking tour crawling up out of a hole so small and tight, that I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself.

I didn't really make friends with anyone. Ranger Jason and Ranger Joe were busy corralling the loose cannons on the tour, and many of the others were SUPER ANNOYING families all using OUTDOOR VOICES TO COMMUNICATE THE SAME THING WITH ONE ANOTHER ALL THE TIME. WATCH YOUR HEAD EVERYBODY. WATCH YOUR HEAD. WATCH YOUR HEAD. STEP HERE EVERYBODY. STEP HERE. WATCH YOUR STEP.

On top of that there was a family of hippies, with three kids under the age of about 3 . The youngest was in a baby sling on his dad. They roared and cried and climbed over everything, and their BLOODY PARENTS did the exact same thing. I'm surprised Ranger Jason didn't cry too.

The caves themselves were pretty cool. There are good stories behind them, or at least I imagine they're good stories. I couldn't hear a damn thing over the kids and the parents. Some guy bought up land and blasted holes in the ground and there were cave wars and the Great Depression and stagecoaches. It was hard to connect the dots between the wails.

To avoids the wails, I stayed near the back of the group towards the end, which meant I got to wait in peace and crickets on my own for about three minutes outside. Then the last of the refugees from hippies emerged, and we sat and waited for our bus. There were only 8 of us and the two guides. The guide commented on our decreased numbers, and a woman said "We're the ones who wanted to escape the BAD children." She was loud and American, but turned out to be a nice woman and she was thrilled that I was from Ireland. She pointed out to her son that I was more fascinating than a big butterfly, so, yeah. A new compliment for me.

I had some nice chicken tenders and chips there, and loads of free refill sprite (!), then it was off on the road again. It wasn't a very long drive to Nashville, but it's busy and boring and there are roadworks everywhere . And once you hit the city, there are a gazillion lanes, and you can't use them all because of the roadworks, and you have to use others if you're going a particular place, because of the roadworks.... It was a little terrifying.

But I easily made it to my hotel, so go me. And it's pretty nice. It's a new acquisition by Hilton called Home2, and they're kind of long-stay suites with kitchenettes and all sorts. But there's a good complimentary breakfast and my room is clean and my car is parked indoors and off the road.

I was WRECKED, but decided to go and see the Country Music Hall of Fame first, then come back and sleep. It's just about a mile into downtown from where I am, and it was a nice walk, if a little hot and sticky.

There were only 45 minutes left in the museum when I got there, which was GREAT, because I don't actually know all that much about country music, although I like it, and there were VERY FEW KIDS .

I wish there was a rule that when kids were being little brats in public, any teacher had the right to go up and lay down the law, and the parents would have to accept it. It's VERY frustrating when "Hey Buddy, we maybe should try something else, hey?" is OBVIOUSLY NOT the way to stop Buddy smashing the iPad and running into all the visitors and setting off any other wild kids in the pack.

So the CMHoF was great because I flew around the sites, took all the pictures I wanted, had a little go on the interactives, and then bought a commemorative tshirt, because this place is sanctioned by Taylor Swift and her word is law. :D

I walked all around downtown then. There are a lot of boot shops. A LOT. Like, if you piled up all the animals that the leather came from, you'd have a farm that McDonald's would have a serious interest in. There was one cowboy boot shop that sells so many boots, that if you buy one pair, you get two pair free . That's the line. I'm not fully sure if it means you get "pair number two" free, or you actually get "two free pairs along with the pair you also bought, resulting in three pairs of cowboy boots". I didn't buy any, because I did too much buying earlier on, plus I have neither space nor desire for cowboy boots

Broadway (or just upper/lower Broad if you're really Nashville) is cool. All kitschy boots and Stetson bars with music pouring out of them. There are even these utility boxes all over the streets that just play country music for the public. And I think "honky tonking" is a verb, but I'm not sure what it means....

Anyway, I was tired, thirsty, sick and sore, so I didn't wait for dark to walk back over a mile to my hotel. I just had some chex mix and Doritos to eat, because I was not feeling good. The tasty but unhealthy food is getting to me. And yeah, I know that eating a bag of Doritos is only adding to the problem BUT I'M TIRED.

So Nashville is GREAT and I'd love to spend another night here, but my hotel is booked out tomorrow night. So instead of relaxing and sleeping early, I panicked over where to stay tomorrow night, bearing in mind that I need to have my car back in South Bend early next week.

So I decided to stay two nights in Memphis, and instead of staying downtown, I'll stay out near Graceland and sing Paul Simon songs, "Walking In Memphis", "Galway to Graceland" and any Elvis songs I think of all the way. Good plan.