Mi Vida Loca!

The roads of Nashville

Ah, yes driving around in a strange city is FUN! My first experience was as we came into Nashville on I-40 I noticed that there was an exit for Old Hickory. I know that my brother lives off Old Hickory and thus I assumed we were close. then I realized that he does not live off of THAT Old Hickory. He lives on the complete opposite end of town - ANOTHER Old Hickory. And no, they do not meet. We arrived at our hotel, called my brother and got directions to his apt. The directions were to take Maryland allllll the way until it "T"s and then go left. We started down Maryland and as we crossed an intersection I looked at a street sign (a habbit of mine to make sure that I am on the correct street) and I saw we were on Church St. I exclaimed that we must have missed something when my mother - who has been here before - assured me "no, that happens in Nashville, streets change names randomly." Sure enough, Maryland turns into Church St and then into Cloverland before it T's into Edmonson. Great! As the visit wore on I also learned that just because a street crosses the interstate, that does not mean that it will enable you to get ON the interstate - and there is no service road. We made several "detours" attempting to work around this obstacle. The final adventure was tonight. My christmas gift for Reagan was a Pampered chef item I bought from my brothers girlfriend, thus I did not receive it until AFTER I saw Reagan in Little Rock. Since she also lives in Nashville, not far from my brother, I decided to deliver it to her house instead of mailing it. I called and got her address and she told me that her roommates should be home to receive the package. She gave me a directional tip and I figured it would be easy to find. Well I went to mapquest to get the directions from my brothers apartment and then back to our hotel. It was somewhat complicated, but when I saw the directions back to the hotel I recognized what she had said. Had we been going to her house from the hotel it would have been easy. As it was, we were not. I digress. The directions were as follows (with her actual street address not revealed of course!).

Right onto Old Hickory
Left on Nolensville
Left on "Maybe" 1.6 miles (this was not a light and thankfully there was a street light illuminateing the teeny tiny street sign)
Right on "Correct" 0.1 M
Left on "Possibly" 0.5 m
Left on "Might" 0.2 m
Left on "Wrong" 0.1 m
Right on "Right"0.1 m

Sounds fairly simple. NOT. We made all the turns, but when on "Possibly, we quickly realized that there was no street on the left, but instead a forced curve to the right and then we looped all the way around back to "Correct". Ummm okay. Where was "Might" Did we miss it? Well no, because there were no streets to turn on! Well mom suggested that - being Nashville - maybe "Possibly" came out somewhere else and we should try going a "back" way. So we turned left onto "Correct" and then left at the next light and drove. . . . I was about to give up when I saw "Might". MIGHT!!! Hey! thats a street we should turn on! So I made a left and we drove searching for another street on the directions. Sure enough there was Possibly. Interesting. Well we are apparently going the right way. And then there was "Wrong" street. and yay - "RIGHT"!!! So we turned and per Reagan's directions were heading towards "the last house on the right". Ummmm. Wait a minute. It shouldnt' be this far. Okay wait thats Franklin ahead. I think she thought we'd be coming from there. Which means it was technically the first house. Turn around, go back. Pull into drive, lights are on! Yay! Roommates are home! Rang doorbell....... knocked on door.... heard a timid "Who is it?" to which I of course replied that I was Reagan's friend and they opened the door. I am sure it was strange indeed to have a visitor at 9pm on the Monday after Christmas when they had JUST arrived home! I got to meet the famous cat, Mr Tubs, who was very happy to get more loving as he was neglected over Christmas. Thankfully it was easier to leave than it had been to arrive. DANG THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THE STREETS OF NASHVILLE!!!! At least the trip was not boring. Happy new year everyone!

posted by Jan @ 7:45 PM