It all started when my work needed me to go to Atlanta for a week of meetings at our office out there. Myself and 2 co-workers flew out Sunday afternoon. Everything was good, we taxied out to the runway and the pilot hit the throttle. We were off...however, about 1/2 way down the runway (which is pretty fast but not fast enough to get in the air yet) all of the sudden the acceleration stopped and we were braking...hard. My first thought was we were on the wrong runway and some plane was landing on top of us. I had no idea what was going on but it certainly gets your heart pumping. We soon found out a door sensor came on and although they thought the door was fine, they were safe about it and aborted take off. Only problem was between finding a gate to go back to, fixing the sensor and filing paper work, we were delayed on the plane for 1 hour and 45 mins!! Not a great way to start a trip. We made it to Atlanta and by the time we got to our hotel it was very late and we were really tired.
Our meetings went great and we had a good week working. Wednesday night Shane flew out to meet me and we were going to spend the weekend down there. I had been to Atlanta several times before so we decided we would leave Atlanta and see another part neither of us had been to. We decided to go to Nashville.
We stopped by Stone Mountain Park on our way out of town Thursday. They claim to have the worlds largest piece of exposed granite. It also has a Confederate Memorial carving in the granite. There was a hike to the top that for some reason I thought we would be able to see the carving from the top. After sitting in an office all week if felt good to get outside and get a good hike in. However, it was a mile each way and the hike was straight up for the entire mile. I was pretty tired when we got to the top and was disappointed there was no carving to be seen. Although the view was pretty. After we made it down, we just drove over to the carving and took a picture. It was kind of cool to see.
On the way up:
The top:
The way down:
The confederate memorial carving...see the people (or small little dots) at the very top, that was us!
After that little adventure, we headed up to Chattanooga, Tennessee for the night. I just like saying the name of that city, say it, it's kind of fun. We ate dinner at my favorite dinner restaurant of the south...Steak n Shake. Yum. I was excited when we got to our hotel and I looked out the window and saw my favorite breakfast place...yes you guessed it, The Waffle House. Of course we ate there the next morning. I could live in the south because of those 2 places to eat!
Picture from our hotel room:
After breakfast we headed to Nashville, Tennessee. Those of you who have been watching the news know where this is headed but obviously driving into Nashville, we had no idea. We had a gorgeous drive up to Nashville and I still think it was one of my favorite drives I've ever been on. Just seeing something new, how green it was, the river and lakes we passed and up and through their mountains, it was gorgeous.
We got there Friday afternoon and knew it was supposed to rain on Saturday so we bought a pass that we could choose to do 5 different activities. Since it was hot and sunny we walked around downtown, walked across the pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland River, around Music city, got some ice cream and then went on a Duck boat tour. We've never done a Duck boat tour and I've heard good things about them but wasn't that impressed with ours. We did learn some interesting facts, like Tornadoes rarely go through a downtown area, Kentucky is only 45 mins away and we took a cruise down the Cumberland River (all relevant information a little later.)
Cumberland River and LP Stadium where the Tennessee Titans play (notice the tall banks of the river)
Then we headed over to Opryland resort, we got some tickets for a backstage tour of the Grand Ole Opry House for the next day and walked around the hotel and resort. It was gorgeous inside and so relaxing to see the grounds, they had a little water show to music, etc. Then we ate dinner at Opry Mills shopping center and went and checked into our hotel.
The next morning, sure enough we woke up to rain. Not really thinking that much about it, we went about our days activities. It rained and rained and rained! I thought, wow, I haven't seen it rain this hard for this long, ever. But I think we both just figured, well it's probably normal for Tennessee, I mean, it is really green here. So we just kept on going.
We saw The Hermitage, President Andrew Jackson's Mansion, 8000 square foot house on 1120 acres of land. The house was huge and really cool to see, especially after just being in Nauvoo and seeing their tiny houses compared to this one. Unfortunately we didn't get to see much of the grounds because we didn't have umbrellas and remember...it was POURING.
We then headed over the the Opry House and took a backstage tour. I loved the tour and found it all fascinating to hear the history, see the dressing rooms, we got to go on stage and even stand on the famous center stage wood circle that is so famous. I love the picture of Shane and I because as many of you know, Shane is not a country fan so I don't think he was as impressed as I was and it kind of shows in this picture. :)
By now we are soaking wet. I don't know why we didn't go buy umbrellas but I kept thinking, oh it will slow down, and oh, well we are doing all things indoors today. However just to get from the parking lot into anywhere we were getting drenched. It was hard to see where we were driving with how much water was coming down but we just kept going still not thinking that much about it.
We headed over to the only full size replica of The Parthenon in the world. Kind of cool but we didn't stay that long...notice the pouring rain still.
Shane's favorite picture he took of the trip, he thinks he's the Incredible Hulk! Authors note: Shane just informed me he was being Samson not the hulk. Both are a good reference though.
Next we headed over to The Country Music Hall of Fame. Thinking again we could just park next door and run in, only to find out Jimmy Buffet had a concert nearby and the 'event' parking was $20 anywhere near the Hall of Fame. So we found some parking about 5 blocks away, took a short cut through the convention center and as we were walking over we heard this alarm going off. It wasn't super loud but we heard someone say 'oh that's the tornado siren.' No one else seemed alarmed by it and kept going like they didn't hear anything...so we did too. We got into the museum and had been there about 5 minutes when the alarm sounded inside, loudly and told us to get into the stairwell to wait out the tornado watch. At this point I'm thinking 'are you kidding me?' Then I remembered our duck boat tour saying that tornadoes rarely go through a downtown area and we were right in downtown. So I still really didn't feel that nervous about it. Finally they let us out and we enjoyed the rest of the museum.
Standing in the stairwell
See, it's fairly common if they have to post a sign about it in the stairwell:
Elvis' car and gold piano, notice how wet Shane's shirt is and we've been inside for a good 30 mins. by now.
When we got back to our car...even more soaking wet. My feet are wet, my little sweatshirt jacket it dripping wet, but it was only 5:00, so we thought, well we've never been to Kentucky before...let's go to Kentucky for dinner. So even though by now we're seeing signs everywhere that there is standing water, we keep going. We get to Kentucky eat dinner, drive by Kentucky Downs race track (bingo was just getting out so we didn't stay...and it was still raining!!) On our way home we stop at K-mart for a few treats and when we try to get back on the freeway we can't because the on ramp is flooded so much that they closed it. So we get out my iphone (so handy) and take side streets back to our hotel.
Only at this point do we realize we might have a serious situation on our hands. We get dressed into dry clothes and I'm so happy to have my wet clothes off of me, we turn on the TV to see what's on to watch. Only...every station in Nashville has the news on and weather tracking tornadoes and road closures due to flooding. The news kept telling everyone not to leave their homes, and just stay indoors. All of the sudden I thought, are we going to be able to get back to Atlanta to drop off our rental car and catch our flight home? Sure enough we find out, the freeway we took up from Atlanta to Nashville was closed. After most of the tornado watches had passed, we went to bed.
Our Saturday night in Nashville
I woke up about 7 the next morning to a tornado hitting our hotel and we were on the top floor of our hotel. I couldn't believe the hotel hadn't sounded their warning for us! Ok so I was pretty out of it and it was just wind and rain but I really kind of thought it was a tornado when I first woke up. When I was finally coherent we got up and as I turned on the TV the satellite was out, we had no TV. We got on the internet to see what our situation was. The storm was to the west so we couldn't go that way. The roads to the south were all closed. The storm was headed east but there was one freeway still open to the east that we could take. We had to act fast because I knew that if everywhere else was closed and the storm was headed that way then that freeway was sure to be closed soon as well. We threw all our clothes into our luggage and by this time I'm feeling a little panicked that we might get stuck in Nashville. We got to the lobby and walked past about 20 people sitting there not daring to go out. And we headed out.
I have to give props to Shane who did an amazing job driving. However, I was scared to death. It was still pouring rain so between the rain coming down, the water on the roads and the spray from other cars, we couldn't see the road all that well. At one point we were in the middle lane and we came down a hill where the right 2 lanes probably had a good foot or more of water covering them. I felt like the movie Twister where they're running from the storm and keep looking back to see how close the storm is coming. Luckily we out ran the storm and made it through just fine but I'm sure that part of the freeway was going to be completely covered in water shortly. We drove for about 30 mins and as we got out of Nashville, the rain slowed and then completely stopped and the rest of the drive was clear and fine. My heart was pounding for that time but I was sure happy to be out of Nashville.
Here are some pictures we took on Friday and Saturday and then a similar picture taken just a day or 2 later that I got off the internet. Very sad to see the devastation and having just been there in person makes it all the more real then just seeing it on TV. We really do feel fortunate we were so safe and able to get out of there on time and safe.
Notice the red rollercoaster looking thing and how far above the water it is...they called it a sculpture
Inside Orpyland Resort and Hotel
Inside Opryland resort after the floods:
Opry House and Opry Mills shopping center (the water is supposed to be the parking lots and grounds of the Orpy House)
So I took this picture because I thought the speed limit sign was so random:
Same picture taken a little further back
I-24, the freeway we drove into Nashville on:
Nashville received 13 inches of rain in 2 days, 9 inches of that fell on Saturday and we were running around thinking it was normal. The Cumberland River rose 12 feet above flood level. Apparently that kind of rain is NOT normal for Nashville...
Nashville was fun and a trip I'll never forget but I'm checking Nashville off my list for quite a while.
Our flight home was also delayed for almost 2 hours and they had to kick 2 people off our flight as well. One wouldn't put her seat up and started swearing at the flight attendant. The other guy wouldn't check his luggage when there was no room in the overhead for it and pushed a gate agent. Fun times, fun trip and I was oh so happy to be home, back in my own bed. Home sweet home!
