Even I am surprised by the length of yesterday's blog. Yes I've talked about the length of my blog (among other things) a hell of a lot before and I know that's what everybody's probably come to expect, but even by my standards it just went on and on, and I'm not sure why. It just kept going. But if you managed to get to the end of it, firstly congratulations, and secondly you'll know that we had a big night. Some of it even crossed into today, which is not an excuse or justification for its length, but it does mean that today had a very delayed start as a result. It also means that I'm trying to justify that this blog will be decidedly shorter, especially in contrast to yesterdays! Perhaps that may even be why I've just made such a long paragraph here; I just need length today. In truth, after last night I - and Stace for that matter - needed a lot more than that today. We were rough. So much so, it took us almost half the day to get out of bed, hence the struggle for any meaningful length in my blog today. When we finally did rise from our slumber it didn't really make any difference anyway. We were still rough. We'd also missed that legendary breakfast they served here, which didn't help matters. We'd made quite a habit of missing breakfasts that we had included in this trip anyway, but today I had mixed emotions because of it. One one hand the missed opportunity just hurt that little bit more given this breakfast was actually edible. But on the other hand, given Stace and I were responsible for half of America's total consumption of fast food yesterday as a result of our Macca's run on the way home from the pub, we probably didn't really need it anyway. Nevertheless, when we finally did get out of bed and belatedly join the day, we were hungry. On days such as this, I'm acutely aware of the threat posed to all of civilisation if we weren't to put some plans in place to get food quickly. Stace's hanger issues are well documented already, and when that is combined with the roughness that comes from a night like last night, you'll understand that we're entering a North Korea threat to the world type level. Like the whole of America likes to think of itself, it was up to me to save the world today. So save the world I did, with an immediate plan to get ourselves composed, get ourselves fed, and get ourselves downtown for a final day of touring Nashville. Out of necessity even I was quick in the shower this morning, and within half an hour of fully waking up for the day, both Stace and I were ready to tackle it. Such was the immediacy of the threat, we decided not to venture too far for food. We were lucky in that our hotel was in a neighbourhood that had lots of food and entertainment options, but save for the first night here, we'd sort of under appreciated that. This morning was quite the opposite though; our appreciation was just as big as our hunger. We found a place across the road from the hotel called Two Bits, a cool looking joint filled with retro arcade games and what looked to be a pretty good menu. What was technically a late breakfast for us was in reality an early time for lunch, so we basically had the whole place to ourselves and we found a seat at a high table along the wall. That particular fact offers nothing to this story, other to underline how good my memory is - I'm almost a year behind in writing this! You're pretty impressed now hey? With both of us suffering a little bit of burger overload (I can't believe I just said that), Stace decided to order a salad to get her fill of greens, while I ordered a Ruben sandwich which, let's face it, was basically a long burger with crumbling silverside instead of a meat patty. I also ordered it with a side of 'tater tots' because I was intrigued as to what they were. In typical American style, Stace's salad took up most of the table! They don't do anything small...lucky nor does Stace. Haha. My sandwich (burger) was pretty good, and my intrigue surrounding tater tots was a bit of a letdown; they were simply potato gems. But lunch was good overall in that it went a good way to cure our roughness, completely short circuited Stace's hanger bomb, saving the world entirely with it, and it gave us a bit of a plan of attack in how to survive the rest of the day to get a bit out of it. So with lunch all finished, we decided to head to the Johnny Cash Museum. It was a good plan because it was located downtown, meaning we'd get to see an interesting museum, and it also meant a last chance to see Nashville before we bid it farewell early tomorrow. We were alerted to the museum when we saw it on our first day here, as it's located directly opposite the Goo Goo Shop. At the time we made a mental note to maybe come back here and today, with our mentalities struggling, we were rewarded for our forward thinking. We were also rewarded by this museum (great segue) because it was fairly amazing! It started in the entry, where the staff were really friendly, but also continued all the way through from the moment we walked through the doors into the exhibition proper. The space was laid out so it was like a journey through the life of Johnny Cash, but it wasn't just pictures and stories to make it interesting. It had everything from his school report cards, clothes, furniture, jewellery, guitars, and even hand written notes between him and June Carter Cash. It's like they knew he was going to be famous way before he ever was, because there is no good reason you'd keep so much stuff. If it wasn't Johnny Cash, you'd have sworn the person had a serious disease as a serial hoarder! It was brilliant and really immersive, and swallowed up a couple of hours as we wandered through. Note, this is not a paid advertisement for the Johnny Cash Museum, but if anybody wants to pay me for it, I'll happily take your, well, cash! Get it? Moving on from there, we decided to have just one last dawdle along Broadway before heading back towards the hotel. Nashville really is a sweet, energetic place and we'd had a lot of fun here! It's worth noting that pretty much 2 of our days here both Stace and I were nursing hangovers, but this place makes you forget about that and continue partying on. Whoo! On the topic of drinking, I bet you've heard the joke about 2 people walking into a bar? Well that's no joke, but it is a good segue because true to form, we decided to have a last drink at a bar along Broadway, to refresh us for our mid afternoon walk back to the hotel. Before I go into all-too-familiar painstaking detail about that walk, I do want to point out my hot segue form this blog. Like a sausage, it's sizzling! Anyway, after that I won't bore you with the walk as if you've survived reading this far you'll know we've done it more than a few times. Perhaps the highlight of it this time was being sober enough to appreciate crossing over the train line again. Ah trains. After last night's antics, we were both pretty content in staying low key tonight and finding some dinner in the local neighbourhood. Actually truth be told, I'd read about a famously good fried chicken joint that was close by, Hattie B's Fried Chicken, and I was fairly keen to down as much of that deliciousness as humanely possible to make the most of it, so I framed this intention as a 'quiet night in'. Fortunately for me, Stace was keen on that too. Unfortunately for me, she wasn't keen on chicken. Not that that was going to stop me. We stayed in the hotel long enough to freshen up and then headed out to find our dinner. I had a clear ploy in mind to 'stumble' past Hattie B's, and after a 5 minute walk I'd found what, with the benefit of hindsight, I would call new heaven. Across the road though, there lurked a clear and present danger - a crazy looking Mexican restaurant! Chuy's Tex-Mex restaurant was where Stace's heart was at, and because my heart is with her, that's where we went. It was a fun looking place, with indoor palm trees, heaps of colour, and it had an underlying Elvis theme, so not all was bad. And we had the most eccentric and joyful waiter you'll ever see serving us! He was so excitable (and coming from me, that's saying something) and so excited he was serving us, we couldn't help feel energised! So much so that our non-alcohol night quickly turned into fishbowl margaritas! Whoo! He also made sure our corn chips were filled to the brim no matter how much we ate, and by the time we ordered our meal we'd pretty much had a main each already in corn chips and dip. Because of that, we decided to share a bowl of nachos for dinner; a responsible choice to ensure we didn't leave in a food coma. Fat chance - the size of the bowl of nachos would've given a bike wheel a run for its money. And by the time we were done we basically could've made like a bike and rolled out of there. But it was good, and when we were done we bid farewell to our waiter, and I honestly think he could've hugged us. And I probably would've hugged him too, but I had bigger things on my mind. Despite feeling ready to burst, the dream of fried chicken was never going to die. So no sooner had we rolled out of Mexican, we found ourselves across the road at Hattie B's. I was so excited. Mercifully, there was a long line. Not only did this reiterate it was good, but gave our stomachs some time to make some room. By the time we had reached the front, I'd convinced Stace she needed chicken too, so we both ordered 3 pieces and sides, and waited in earnest for our order. Naturally, I had a beer. After 10 minutes of the most anticipatory waiting of my life, we were on our way back to the hotel, chicken excitedly in hand. Back at the hotel, there was a flood...of saliva streaming from my mouth as I sat down to devour it. It was heaven on Earth. Jesus - nay - every religious figurehead reincarnated. The most wonderful experience you could ever imagine. And then some. Never had I tasted chicken so succulent and juicy, and a coating so crispy and delicious. And in all likelihood I never will again. It was perfection. Holy **** I'm losing my mind now at how good it was. Holy **** I just drooled on my shirt at how good it was, and I'm currently on a train. Ordinarily, that would be something to be embarrassed about. But this was extraordinary, and if anybody thinks I should be embarrassed, I feel sorry for them, for they won't have tasted this magic as I have. They have not lived. As a bonus, Stace couldn't eat all of hers, so I got to experience even more. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't hoped for this when I convinced her to get some too. In the end, if you thought last night's food effort was amazing, this was even more so. I. Ate. So. Much. It was the best. I was so caught up I didn't even get a photo. Afterwards, I was in a food coma and in heaven at the same time. I tell you, there's no place better. As it was our last night, we did have to pack, and the Everest of our clothes pile was exceeded only by my belly. To make sure we took full advantage of the washing facilities at our disposal, we decided to put on a little bit more washing, given the last couple of days had been hot, and I'd also seen a lot of trains (wait for the realisation of the dirtiness in that joke). Luckily we had just enough coins for one more wash, so Stace ran downstairs to get some more powder. I wasn't able to move. Unfortunately she brought back softener. Honestly, this was turning into a circus. Not keen to dig into the drying coin, I managed to move just enough to scrape around my bag and found some unexpected coin (the best kind), which covered her mistake, and our washing adventures could continue. Or at least hers could. I wasn't able to move. We spent the rest of the night overcoming our food fullness, while I also spent mine on cloud 9, while we waited for our last bit of washing to be finished and dried. By the time that was done, we'd largely dismantled the clothes pile and packed it away, so with the final packing of the newly dried clothes, our day and time in Nashville had drawn to a glorious end. See