Road Trip 2025, Day 2: National Museum of African American Music and Chattanooga Christmas Trees

 

Today we drove to Nashville, and the traffic into town was insane, but eventually we got downtown and went to a Mexican restaurant with this beautiful turquoise wall.

It was right next to our actual destination, the National Museum of African American Music. I was in heaven there, listening to music and creating some music of my own. Part of our price of admission (we both got the Educator Discount because of Travalon's job) was a wristband you could use to save playlists and whatever you created, like a blues song, a video of yourself singing with a gospel choir, a hip hop beat, etc. Meanwhile, Travalon took photos.

This is a wig and costume George Clinton wore in concert:

This is right up there with the Jazz Museum in Kansas City. Do not miss it if you are in Nashville. Afterwards we walked around the area - the Ryman auditorium was right across the street, and the crosswalk is painted to look like the famous stained-glass windows.

Here is the Ryman Auditorium.

I have no idea what this building is called - I always call it the Cyclops Owl.

Not sure what this beautiful building that looks like a castle is either.

This huge Christmas tree was outside of a Baptist church.

This funny little contraption is a coffee shop! No seating available.

I loved the Christmas decorations at this outdoor mall full of high-end shops.

The traffic out of town was even worse, and the weather was drizzly, but we listened to gypsy jazz swing and were having a great time until it really began to rain as we drove through the mountains with tons of semis around us. We finally made it to the Welcome Center outside of Chattanooga, where the person manning the desk couldn't tell us if there were any Christmas displays downtown. (In contrast, the women at the desk in the Welcome Center when we first entered Tennessee were extremely knowledgeable and helpful.) They did have a pretty Christmas tree there.

We decided to find the Chattanooga Choo-Choo and stumbled across a large display of Christmas trees on the way. Here are some photos.

This is a Bahamas tree. We'll be there soon!

We did find the "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," but it wasn't an actual train, it was a beautiful old train station converted into a sort of mall. Oddly, instead of parking being free after hours, it was MORE expensive, so we just stopped long enough for me to powder my nose and Travalon to take photos, and we didn't get a ticket. Here are his photos.

In the next building over we could see a very cute green trolley, so maybe that runs during the day. Sorry, no photo - it was too far away to get a good one with our phones, and Travalon didn't have his good camera with him. 

After that we drove to Dalton, Georgia, where we are staying the night at a Country Inn and Suites. We got here late, so we ate at a nearby Waffle House, since they are always open. Plus, grits!! Even they had a Christmas tree.

Check out our server's name!

Back at the hotel, we swam in the pool, which was not warm but was fine once I got moving. Now it's my usual bedtime, but because we are now on Eastern time, it's actually much later. My phone has adjusted, but neither my FitBit nor Boethius my MacBook Air have adjusted automatically. Weird... I could have sworn they did in the past. 

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