Southern Comfort

Jer and I are sitting at Fido’s in Hillsboro Village. I used to come here several times a week when I was a Nashvillian and being that my boyfriend is coffee-expert and an aficionado of the café, I couldn’t wait to take him here and show off my stomping ground.

Driving into Nashville I felt a surge of joy. As happy as I am to be back in California, there is something so homey and comforting and exciting about being in Music City. It’s beautiful here. It’s charming and quaint, it’s green and rolling hills, it’s brick and steeples, it’s southern hospitality. We are staying with Deanna and Rick, two of my faves. Deanna was my songwriting teacher when I was at Vandy and my subsequent mentor for everything from lyrics to life when I graduated. We were greeted last night with a huge helping of homemade pesto sauce and aged cheeses followed by a typical culinary masterpiece a la Rick. Charles, Wendy and their glorious daughter Serena joined in for supper and it was really a perfect night.

So far this morning at Fido’s I’ve just been trying to coordinate with all the people I want to visit. I’m so so so excited to see you all.

We left Noni and Papa’s on Sunday morning after a brief adventure with a flat tire the night before. (We are fine and fully inflated). As I have since I was a little kid I felt the tears welling up as we waved goodbye to them. They are just so dear to my heart.

We decided to skip New Orleans in favor of saving money and time on the road so we hightailed it to Little Rock instead. The drive up to Arkansas was really quite picturesque. We took the lessor travelled Interstate 79 out of Texas instead of the 35 and it was so so pretty. We winded along east Texas and into Louisiana and finally, the Natural State. I feel kind of bad admitting how surprised we were that is was so pretty, but I guess we weren’t the only ones. At the hotel there was a brochure that said something like ‘If you’re like all our other visitors you were probably surprised by the natural beauty here!” Yes, yes we were.

Jer woke me up with coffee on Sunday morning and the day was magical! (thanks for all the warm and sweet birthday wishes everyone!!! so so kind!) We cruised around Little Rock and hopped on I-40 for the drive up to Nash. We took a detour in Memphis and walked around Beale Street. Jer was realllllly excited to see the Mississippi River (which he has nicknamed the Mississip). The drive continued to be gorgeous and soothing and welcoming. And now were are in Nash until Friday and I can’t wait to show him every single thing I love about it.

It’s still so surreal that we are on this trip and getting to explore and see everything that we are. I just feel so thankful for every minute.