Road Trip, Day 5 – Part 1: The Road to Nashville

Ok, so we’re up to Friday. Friday was a long day & a crazy awesome night, so I’m breaking it up into 2 posts or else it’d be wicked reaaally long.

We got up around 6:30am in our little motel room in Checotah, OK & hit the road early. Our goal was to drive through the rest of OK, all through Arkansas & through half of Tennessee, ending up in Nashville for the night. We got through the rest of OK in probably about 4 hours, then drove the endless drive through AR. In typical Tricia fashion, she kept laughing to herself at a joke from some movie where the hero sucks at some training camp or wherever he is & there’s this fat kid who has ulterior motivations for getting him to stick with the program (if anyone knows what the hell movie this is, let me know). The dialogue was something as follows:

Hero: Why do you want to help me so badly?

Fat Kid: You’re my Arkansas.

Hero: What?

Fat Kid: Do you know what keeps Mississippi from being the worst state in the Union? Arkansas. You’re my Arkansas. As long as you’re around, no one will notice how bad I am.

Anyway, at around 10:30am, I decide that I’m hungry. We’ve been passing Dairy Queens at literally every exit in OK & AR. Being that ice cream is my ultimate favorite food ever, I decide that I need a Blizzard like Nicole Richie needs a hamburger. Since it’s only 10:30am, we decide that we’re going to wait til we get a few more exits til we stop. 3 more exits go by – No DQ. 6 more exits – nada. We cross the border into Memphis, thinking that at least we’ll see a Starbucks, but still nothing. At this point, we’ve been up for hours & we’re under-caffienated & hungry since we haven’t eaten since 6pm. Still nothing. Finally, 260 miles after we say we’re going to stop at the very next DQ, we FINALLY come across one, despite them being about 10 miles apart beforehand. Hooray for Pumpkin Blizzards & french fries:

So we finally get to Nashville around 4:30pm. We decide to check out a Hilton bc it’s directly across the street from the Country Music Hall of Fame, next to Titans Stadium, a walking bridge, a giant concert hall, Broadway, etc. Basically it was prime downtown Nashville locale. I’m a little worried about the price since Tricia had said when she asked me to go with her that she’d pay for all the hotels & I don’t want her to have to waste her $. She basically tells me to shut the fuck up, that we’re in Nashville & we’re going to do it up the right way. Word from the valets is that rooms are going to be $199. I’m like, “forget it” but Tricia makes an executive decision. We’re just SO happy that we don’t have to be in a car for at least the next 18 hours that we start talking to EVERYONE that works there. Now, you saw the video above. We’re dirty & tired from 8 hours of car with only ice cream & french fries to eat all day. Plus, my hair was in 2 BRAIDS for God’s sake. There was absolutely nothing attractive going on when we got to that Hilton.

We go up to the desk to check in but there’s a small line. A clerk, Doug who was about 25, (yes, we learned all of their names) says that he’ll take us over at his desk. We thank him. The rest goes as follows

Tricia: I have AAA card. Does that matter here?

Doug: I’ll do you one better. The room is supposed to be $299 but I’ll give it to you for $169.

Yeah. So we make friends with him, Daniel (the valet), the bellhop whose name I can’t remember right now, one of the managers, etc. We had them show us on a map where we should go out that night. It was awesome. They all knew us & started to refer to us as the “NY-California duo.” I know it sounds creepy, but it really wasn’t. It’s a totally different atmosphere than in NY. I can’t describe it, really. Everyone was just very…friendly.

So the bellhop, who was from northern AR & doesn’t really drink but was amused by our nonstop chatter regardless, shows us to our room. Except it wasn’t a room. Noooooo, it was SUITE. THAT’S RIGHT, BITCHES! We got a suite at a freaking Hilton on a Friday night for almost half-price. It was awesome. So we get ready, I take lots of video in order to prove our nice the joint was & we’re off for a night on the town. How did it turn out? To be continued…

The classiest Hilton I’ll ever know:

The view:

Finally, some pictures: