Day 1
So half way through my shift at work Tuesday (the day before our planned day of departure) Nexus contacts me about leaving that night after I get off work at 11pm. I was very apprehensive about this. I had gotten up early with little sleep so I be able to fall asleep after work and wake up early so we could be on the road early the next morning. Long story short I was convinced to leave that night. After we drove all night to Nashville (12 hour drive) and got checked into our hotel we made our way down to Broadway. We grabbed a small bite to eat at this awesome little BBQ joint who's name I can't remember. The brisket was good but their creamed corn was awesome.
After we got done we made our way over to Layla's to check out what time Hank III was playing. It wasn't till 8pm or so, so we went across the street to the world famous Ernest Tubb Record Shop. We looked around over there and met a sweet older lady named Erlean. She was so friendly and made us feel at home there at the shop. Everybody who worked there seemed to really love their jobs. They had tons of CD box sets I would of loved to buy but I would of been broke afterward. The sign outside the shop was awesome as well.
We then headed back over to Layla's and figured we'd have a few drinks before Hank took the stage. We came to find out that none of the honky-tonk's charge for their shows. You tip the bands whatever you feel like. So you can give them $10 or $20 if you like them or if you don't toss them nothin and move onto the next honky-tonk. There was this lovely lady by the name of Sarah Gayle Meech and man could she sing her heart out. She'd play a song or two of her own then do a few requested covers from the audience and go back to a few songs of her own. She had to play for almost three hours and she rocked it. Hank III played next and all I can say is a Hank III show is an endurance test plain and simple. I've seen him five times now and he plays around three hours each show. This first show was going to be only his country music and the Friday show would have the harder stuff. Now Layla's is a very small joint. I doubt there could of been more than fifty people at this show. Could they of fit more people in? Mst likely but they didn't. Hank tried out a few of his new songs that night and I didn't know if I liked them or not, but after hearing them again Friday I decided I loved them. We got back to the hotel and promptly fell asleep after being up for 36 plus hours without sleep.
Pics from Day 1
Day 2
We got checked out and headed back down to Broadway so we could check out all the tourist traps and bars. Grabbed a quick bite to eat at this burger joint that was also attached to a bar, I can't remember it's name but it's right across the street from Layla's. They had sweet potato fries and were so damn good. I LOVE ME SOME SWEET POTATO FRIES!!!! 
We wondered over to the bar to get ourselves a refreshing beverage to help wash our tasty food down with and they had pitchers of PBR on special that day for $6! We had found our base of operations for the day. Nexus and I decided we wanted to look about on Broadway and Lurch wanted to stay and drink beer.
Wondering out of the bar we head off in search of adventure and random things to buy. There are a lot of clothing shops and bars down on Broadway. Most were forgettable for the most part but we did stumble across this guitar shop that almost seemed like a museum. The cheapest guitar I saw in this place was $1,500 and the most expensive was $35,000. Hell they had a $30,000 banjo! Thirty K for a banjo?! I couldn't believe it. Everything in this shop was out of my price range to say the least. We went into a few of the clothing stores as well and they were almost as pricy. Boots upwards of $500-600 a pair and button down shirts for around $100. I needed to be making more money than I do now to go shopping here.
We finally got tired of putzing around and headed back to the bar where we had left Lurch off earlier. Now this trip was my first time meeting Lurch and that man can make friends anywhere he goes. We come back in and he's drinkin and laughin away with these old guys. One was an ex Navy Seal and the other was a retired Marine and they were both cracking us up the rest of the day.
Pics of Day 2
Day 3
Our third day consisted of a bit of sleeping and a trip to the Jack Daniel's distillery before we went to catch the second Hank show. Lurch was a bit more hungover than Nexus and I so he stayed at the cabin and we went to the distillery. The distillery was about 2 hours away and it was a fun drive. I really hate driving in new places but Nexus had her Tom Tom and he got us there safely. Now let me put this out here but I hate HATE Jack. I think it smells like old gym socks/the boys locker room in high school and tastes even worse, but I figured I needed to go. I needed to confront my hatred for this drink and maybe come away with a better understanding of it and you know what? I did! Still don't like the smell or taste but I had fun and I learned a lot about Jack Daniel's. Everybody should go at least once in their life to this place. It's the only place in the world that JD gets made. We weren't able to take pics inside the distillery sadly. Now some fun facts about JD. Jack is charcoal filtered and it takes one drop of JD ten days to make it through the ten feet of charcoal. Each cask that Old no.7 made in is only used once. The caskets are then sold to other distillers (Jameson's) or people who turn them into furniture. The town of Lynchburg is a dry county. This means they can't sell any Jack there but they can sell you a bottle and they kindly fill it with some Jack Daniel's for free. All the bottles sold there are exclusive to them. You can buy the same stuff at any store but these bottles can only be gotten there in Lynchburg. I did end up buying a bottle since I was there. Picked up a bottle of the 2010 Limited Edition Ducks Unlimited Single Barrel. I haven't opened it yet. I'm thinking of letting it age for a bit before I have any. We headed back after our buying our bottles for our second Hank III show.
We made it back to the cabin in good time and picked up Lurch and headed in to Nashville. We got to the Exit/In good and early so we could find some food and get in line. Grabbed a pizza across the street at this place that was smaller than our house. We ordered there four cheese (mozzarella, colby jack, feta and the fourth I don't remember) pizza. It was so gooey and tasty. We then headed back to the Exit/In and got in line. We came across some of the people we had met at the first show. When we got up to be let in, Nexus ordered our tickets online, they told us she only ordered two tickets and not three. Even though she had receipts for them all. Nexus and I headed in to try and figure it out and try and get Lurch into the show. Inside we ran into Jarred one of the gutter punks we had met at the first show, who come to find out had been staying at Hank's home the last few days. We told him the situation and he said he'd get Lurch in somehow. So he ran off and talked to the band and we eventually got Lurch in. Man does Hank III put on one hell of a show. I really can't say that enough. He kicked off the show with his country set and after two hours plus of that he took a small break. Now Hank was going to be trying out his new band A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Domination). It's not like Assjack at all. It's more of a doom/sludge metal band. Now I wasn't into this as much but I did like it slightly more that his Assjack stuff. After the show we got to meet the band and thank them for helping to Lurch in. They were all super nice and took the time to talk to us. We eventually headed back to the cabin and got some sleep.
Pics of Day 3
There are more pics but a lot are of just Hank III and until I get the ones off my SD card this is it for now. I think this may very well be my longest blog here. LOL! Now some music.
I highly suggest checking out this documentary The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia.
