Finally! Heading Southeast to Orlando, Florida for a 3 month travel nurse contract! Driving from Iowa to Florida was quite a bit shorter than the trip from California, but I still made plans to stop and see friends along the way. Also, I have mastered Tetris in my car. I’m too proud of this to not share:
Nashville, TN
The Drive out of Iowa
My first day I drove to Nashville, Tennessee. My college friend lives there, and even though she had to work most of the time I was in Nashville, we were able to get together for dinner the day I drove into the city. I decided to spend another day there because I’d never been before. Keep in mind, country music is really not my thing. At all.
First things first. The drive was terrible- and I am not one to say that lightly. It takes about 8.5 hours from Iowa to Nashville. Unfortunately for me, it was storming everywhere in the midwest the day I left. I am not exaggerating. It was some of the scariest rain and lightening I’ve ever seen. The other down side to my drive was that GoogleMaps took me through a lot of side country roads. Now, normally, this may not have been so annoying, but with the rain it was. It slowed me down a lot, and if it was a scenic route, I couldn’t tell, nor did I want to stop.
Old Friends, New Eats
My first night in Nashville, I got checked into my Air BnB, showered, and got ready to meet my friend, Nicole. If you want a place to stay similar to where I stayed, the Locale Lofts in the Gulch is a great spot! She picked me up and we went to a restaurant she’d been wanting to try called Folk. It had an upscale hipster vibe with Italian-style fare. We shared a Margherita pizza and dish of olives and both got a drink. They had an extensive wine list, as well as a list of signature cocktails. I drank an “In Spite of it All” which has brandy in it and was delicious! My friend drank a “Bless Your Heart”, a gin-based drink. After dinner, we thought about going out, but we were both tired and just wanted to catch up.
Downtown Music City
I let myself sleep in the next morning, and it was great. When I got up, I decided to find a quick breakfast and coffee around where I stayed. I was not disappointed! I found a place called Elegy Coffee and had a chocolate croissant and a coffee called the Honey Bear. If you are in Nashville, if you do nothing besides get this coffee, you’ll be winning. It was so freaking good!
Since I’m not familiar with the city, I just found a parking lot close to the Country Music Hall of Fame and walked to 5th and Broadway. It was hopping, even on a Sunday morning. I walked down the entire road to the river where you can see the Titans stadium and the big pedestrian bridge.
Broadway Bars
I had about an hour and a half to kill, so I went back up Broadway listening for some music that wasn’t the same twangy voice that I heard in every single bar. No offense if you like today’s country. Anyways, I found Kid Rock’s bar, Big Ass Honky Tonk and Rock ‘n Roll Steakhouse, where I heard LED ZEPPELIN! I grabbed a beer as soon as I entered and just stood against the wall to watch the band. They were so great! They played everything from The Eagles, to Creed, to Snoop Dogg.
Country Music Hall of Fame
In the early afternoon, I got a ticket to go to the Country Music Hall of Fame and to tour Studio B. It was just up the road from Broadway, so that worked out well. The Hall of Fame was much more interesting than I was expecting. Like I’ve mentioned, I’m not a fan of country music, but I was raised on the old classics like Waylon and Willie. It was really cool to read about and hear their stories, along with a few others that I know well. There’s an entire area right now dedicated to Martina McBride, who I used to listen to growing up.
Studio B
The highlight of the whole thing was the tour of Studio B. It is not included in your ticket into the museum, so make sure you add it on. Our tour guide’s name was Don and he was excellent! You can tell he has a passion for preserving the history there. I got to sit in the studio where Elvis and thousands of others have recorded hit albums. The “X” I’m standing in in the photo below is called the “sweet spot” inside the studio. Apparently, it’s the best place for the vocalist to stand to get the right acoustics. I saw the piano that Elvis played on; it’s been in that spot since the 50’s. And Don played a bunch of music and changed the lighting with each song. It all made it a very memorable experience.
I walked through the museum before I went to the studio, which I would recommend to anyone who wants to do it. It gave me a lot of background on the history of country music and I felt like I could appreciate the studio more that way. Total for the 2 tickets it was about $50 plus I tipped the tour guide.
Assembly Food Hall
My friend recommended going to Assembly Food Hall for dinner because it has a lot of options. It’s a little bit like an outdoor mall and then a big food court inside upstairs. It’s not really fast food though. Some places you order at the counter and take your food to sit in the large general seating area, some are sit-down restaurants, and there is even a bar. I decided to eat at the seafood place called Dock Local. I ordered a lobster roll and sat at the bar, Single Barrel, and had a beer. Everything was really good, but I really liked the beer I got. It’s a local beer named “The Rose”, a light, but flavorful blonde ale.
That evening, I decided to just head back to my Air BnB and relax. I know it sounds weird, but driving tires me out, and it was a full, busy day. My friend got off work super late so I didn’t get to see her again.
Atlanta, Georgia
The second day of driving from Iowa to Florida, I drove to Atlanta- only about a 4 hour drive from East Nashville. I got coffee at Elegy again before I left (I couldn’t resist that Honey Bear!) It rained the whole way again, but not as bad. The traffic was not fun though. I hit a few slow downs and re-routes, but this was the prettiest part of the whole drive from Iowa to Florida by far. The southern part of Tennessee is so nice with the mountains, I wish I had stopped to take some pictures.
By the way, I’ve never seen so many cops on one road in my entire life. Keep an eye out if you take 75. Anyways, I met a girl in Fresno at my last nursing contract who is from the Atlanta area, so she met me in the city. We stayed at The Sonesta Select in Midtown, which was a decent location right off the highway.
Ponce City Market
My friend called some of her family and asked where we should go for dinner, drinks, and fun. They recommended that we go to Ponce City Market. Here you can pay $30 to get access to their rooftop, all the games, and mini golf. To be completely honest, I didn’t feel like it was worth that amount of money. We still had to pay for drinks, which were pretty pricey. The views were amazing and we had fun playing some of the games, but the mini golf was so lame, we didn’t even finish the whole thing.
Smith’s Olde Bar
We asked one of the bartenders at Ponce where a good spot to go to play pool was and he recommended Smith’s Olde Bar. This turned out to be a really cool place-especially for a Monday night. There was live music, pool tables, and an old charm to the place. I kept saying “You can just tell there’s history here.” I still don’t know what that history is! But I’d go back there for sure.
Siva’s
We had taken an Uber to Ponce, and asked the driver what she recommends around town. She told us if we like Hookah, a place called Siva’s is a good spot. So after we had enough of playing pool, we went to the hookah lounge. They don’t have a website so you have to find them on Facebook or Instagram. It was a fun late-night atmosphere and pretty crowded for a Monday night. They had a late night grill open too, but we didn’t eat.
Atlanta to Florida
The drive from Atlanta to Orlando is only about six and a half hours, so it wasn’t a bad day. I started my morning looking for a local coffee spot and found Condesa coffee in downtown Atlanta. It was really good coffee and exactly what I needed to get going on the drive.
Another day of many, many cops on the road. Since I’m posting this late, I can also say I got pulled over on my drive back to the midwest after this contract. So be careful!
If you want to hear about the first part of this long road trip, read West to Midwest. If you have road-tripped from Iowa to Florida, what are some of the stops you made? Did you enjoy one area more than another? Let me know in the comments!
