.Nashville.

I spent pretty much all day today driving from Orlando to Nashville. I planned on waking up at the butt crack of dawn to get an early start, but my bed was feeling way too good to do that. So instead, I woke up at 7a.m. (which I know is still the butt crack of dawn for most of you out there...) and hit the road at 9a.m.

Smooooooth sailing through Central and Northern Florida. Saw signs for Silver Springs (I've been wanting to go BIG TIME) up near Ocala and wanted to pull off, but forced myself to hold steady.

As of right now Georgia and I aren't the best of friends. Well, Southern and Central Georgia that is. Northern Georgia, I love you. There was massive amounts of construction on I-75, especially near downtown Atlanta. It took me a little over 2 hours to get from Macon to Northern Atlanta, which should have only taken me an hour. MASSIVE storms as well. One in particular, the whole interstate was shut down for a half hour because you couldn't see past the nose of your car. Scary shite. At least people were smart about the situation.

Driving through Northern Georgia and into Tennessee was absolutely gorgeous, especially Chattanooga.

Now I sit here in Nashville. And I'll tell you, I pulled one of THE ballsiest moves I've ever pulled. I didn't have a place to stay here, and getting a room at a hotel was my last resort. So I'm walking through the downtown area and there's an Irish pub, so I go in and sit down at the bar (real quick, downtown Nashville seems like a super rad place: waterfront, ball parks, TONS of music). There's a group of "younger" folk sitting next to me, tattooed, bearded. So I turned to the dude directly next to me, whose name is Jared, and said "You look like a guy who appreciates Jameson, let me buy you a shot", and he replied "What's the occassion?". I replied "It's my first time in Nashville", and his response (which was absolutely hilarious) "Fuck, first time in Nashville? I've got the next round!". Jared introduced me to his friends who were way chill and seemed like good folks. I ended up telling him about the road trip and not really having any place to stay for night, so he offered me his couch (what a dope dude, right? holmes doesn't even know me and totally took me in).

So here I am resting my head in Nashville, TN. Tomorrow, Chicago, IL.

Thoughts at this very moment:
1) Lucero
2) How stoked I am on getting to see the Ryman Auditorium
3) The mix of hardcore, soul, and 80's in my RoadWarriors playlist is crucial right now
4) Need to get some wiffle balls and wiffle ball bat before getting to Chicago

Hope everyone is well.

Cheers.

Sincerely Yours,
Niles C. Anderson

p.s. The battery in my digital camera is completely dead, and I really don't feel like buying a new one, so no pictures for now. I have my 35mm, so all remaining pictures will be taken on good old fashion film. That's right. Remember that stuff? Be patient, and after a week or so of me being back from the road trip I'll have pictures posted.