Monday, September 14, 2009

The one with the road trip

As you can imagine, moving across many states is no easy feat. Packing for a semi-permanent move in a convertible is next to impossible.... So I thought! If there was a Nobel prize for the Science of packing the most stuff into a convertible, I'm fairly certain I would win.

I split my stuff into piles of stuff I couldn't live without and stuff I didn't want to live without. The rest of my things I just assumed there would be absolutely no room for. Well I got all of my "Can't live without" stuff in the car so I started piling in all of the "Don't want to live without" items.

At this point it was about 9:45am on Friday morning. We were supposed to leave 45 minutes ago but with a few small open spots left in the convertible (even after packing every item I thought I had room for), I ran to my room like a contestant on "Supermarket Sweep" (which is probably my favorite game show of all time) and grabbed anything and everything I thought would fit into the last few tiny spaces. My quick thinking and out-of-this-world packing ability scored me room for my Tinkerbell pillow (From Disney World's best store, the Emporium!!), 3 pictures in frames, a teddy bear (I swear I'm not 6), a photo memory board and a really cute pair of boots. After I was convinced I couldn't cram in one more thing into the car, it was time to go!

The weather was amazing for the majority of the trip. We never put the top up on the car the entire drive! We stopped the first night in Bloomington, Illinois. The most interesting part of Bloomington had to be the hotel front desk clerk who felt like telling us that he's going to visit his relatives next week who, despite where they live, are NOT hillbillies. The fact that he felt the need to tell us they aren't hillbillies most surely means they are.


The next day we got up bright and early to make the final 6 hour drive into Nashville. We got a little lost through the windy roads of Tennessee (the GPS sending us to a road that didn't exist sure didn't help anything!) but we had arrived!!!



This was my first view of downtown Nashville:

It is clearly not as big as Minneapolis in terms of sky scrapers and big buildings but the town of Nashville is actually pretty huge! I live on the west side of Nashville in an area called Bellevue. I'm definitely not used to being able to drive for 30 minutes and still technically being in the same town! You can get through Center City (my hometown) in about 30 seconds!

Saturday night, my mom and I went to a potluck w/ Shanelle (my friend here), Tami (her mom and also the person I'm living with) and Shanelle's boyfriend, Jon. It was a pretty fancy potluck if you ask me! MN potlucks most certainly involve beans, a hot dish or 10, maybe some sandwiches w/lunch meat or something. This potluck had lamb, grilled veggies and not a hot dish in sight! When I wasn't eating much, I was forced to reveal that my diet is pretty comparable to that of a 10-year-old's (think PB&J, chicken nuggets, pizza etc) haha.

After the potluck, my mom and I went to downtown Nashville. Broadway is the street that is LINED with bars-all of which have live music.
We started at the "World Famous" Wild Horse Saloon. It was a pretty sweet place w/three stories and a huge dance floor complete w/ a TON of people line dancing. Despite my mom's efforts, I definitely did not line dance. Maybe some other time!


We went to a few other places, I was too tired from the drive that day to remember most of their names but I thought "The Stage On Broadway" was a pretty punny name and it was a pretty cool place too. My mom seemed to enjoy telling strangers that I was new in town and didn't have a job or any friends... because who wouldn't want to be friends with me when you put it like that, right!? lol

Anyways, the reality of the big move had finally start to sink in and I found myself wondering how mad my mom would be if I asked to just turn around and drive back. I know that being scared is a normal reaction and I know I'll stick it out and see what happens, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't overwhelmed with all these new and unfamiliar surroundings.
This is an entirely new ballgame than when I moved to Florida. I had none of these feelings of being scared because not only did I know it was temporary but I had been there before (and who get's scared at Disney World?! No one! And they kept us so busy there was no time to be home sick!) On the trip down here I realized that in 2009, I will have lived in 3 different states! Pretty crazy and pretty sure that will never happen again!

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

like i've said many times before, you can call me anytime you feel you need to talk!

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