DAY 6: In the words of River Phoenix, "Look out Music City 'cause here I am & I ain't never leavin'"

We left luxury headed for more luxury, with a stop along the way at Lynn's Paradise Cafe. This first stop of Day 6 was JJDH's most anticipated stop during Road Trip '07. As featured on "Throwdown with Bobby Flay," Lynn's is a world of wack. Seriously, everything weird in the universe. Lynn served us up some of the tastiest breakfast fare in the kitchiest, most colorful environment. NJO had a traditional Kentucky Brown and JJDH feasted on what amounted to breakfast cheese fries, what our waiter called, "a dare." Elfie particularly loved this stop as he felt he blended with the decor quite nicely.

We then hit the road with a few chapters more of our book on tape and arrived in Nashville with the extra benefit of changing time zones...we had a whole extra hour to spend in Music City, USA!

We have both been looking forward to a stop at the world-famous Bluebird Cafe, where singer/songwriter types have been discovered over the more than 20 years this music mecca has been around. We weren't able to get tickets for the late show, which featured known songwriters "in the round." Instead, we arrived for the 6 p.m. show which was dubbed as "Janet McClaughlin." Although we'd never heard of her, we were sure, given the Bluebird's reputation, that we were in for quite a surprise...boy were we!

"Janet McClaughlin" turned out to be the guitar instructor for what had to have been the entire population of Nashville residents under the age of 18. And this particular evening at the Bluebird happened to be their summer recital. As we realized what we were in for, we politely asked the waitress if it was "creepy" that we were there...of course not knowing any of the children playing it seemed a bit strange. Fortunately, the waitress assured us this happens all the time and so we stayed and listened to scales and songs about panda bears (which was actually the highlight) until we couldn't take it any longer. We left with serious PTSD about what is in store for us down the road as parents: Video cameras, creepy second husbands, hot tea for our "under the weather" 10 year old performer, Tinsley, a table full of friends suffering with us and self-medicating with Nashville's local "Dos Perros" beer, and hopefully children with our musical abilities and stage charisma.

Regardless of the performers, we were SO happy to have visited this Nashville institution. We went back to our gorgeous hotel, The Hermitage, Nashville's only 5 star spot to sleep, and bellied up to the bar for a glass of wine and a game plan. We decided to live like tourists and visit the Broadway/2nd Street entertainment plaza. After a lovely dinner and Nashville brewed beer, we retired to our suite at the Hermitage.

CLIFF NOTES VERSION: Paradising, driving, book-on-taping, honky-tonking, self-medicating, touristing, "the big break" dreaming

PICTORIAL DIARY:
Elfie enjoys breakfast among his people @ Lynn's Paradise Cafe in Louisville.
The Janet McClaughin Guitar School of Nashville -- Summer Class of '07 Elfie poses outside the Bluebird Cafe

Inside our hotel...can you spot Elfie?

Elfie waits for the bellman outside the Hermitage with Gypsy in view.