We arrived in Nashville last Thursday and stayed until Sunday the 2nd. Leaving Memphis was delightful. Memphis was a city that felt depressed and hit hard by the pandemic, economically. I haven’t looked into it further but that is exactly how it felt all over the town. Nashville was quite the opposite.
Friday, we ventured into downtown to check out Broadway Street. From what we read, this was the place to go and see the action. It was packed. Nobody was wearing a mask. This made me feel uneasy. Cowboys were everywhere! The businesses were preserved in the past with their country vibes and rock n’ roll art. It was really cool. We meandered around and checked out Printers Alley, an alley that had restaurants and bars in it with art. Similar to Freak Alley in Boise but with places to hang out in.
We came across a bar called Bowies, after David Bowie from the Talking Heads. We didn’t go in because it was a bar and we have a baby. So we walked down a bit, looking at all the huge buildings. Eventually we made it to Broadway Street.
To paint a picture of it all, imagine tour buses with their tops cut off with music blasting and people dancing up top. There were dozens of buses like this. Tractors pulled similar wagons that supplied plenty of beer. The patrons were clearly having a good time, singing country and rock n’ roll songs. One girl flashed the crowd! It was so loud that everyone had to talk or yell to be heard. Lots of college kids were everywhere. Maybe it was the end of finals week there. I don’t know.
The next day, Saturday, we ended up just hanging out at our RV site. We got things ready for our trip to the Smoky Mountains National Park for Sunday and ended up hitting a brewery after Henry was all napped up called Yazoo Brewing Company. It was so very relaxing. The place was huge and had a large outdoor seating area overlooking the trees. We saw a ground hog and kicked our feet up for a couple hours before it started to rain. I bought Laura a shirt.
We’ve been cooking mostly at home and every other day going to a restaurant or brewery. Our cooking skills have gotten really good! Laura has the Instant Pot dialed in. She is great at making a big pot of shredded beef or chicken. She made chuck roast the other day with chipotle flavoring. It turned out really, really good. It lasted a few days, putting it over mashed potatoes and tacos the next days. She fries soft corn taco shells after dipping them in the juice from the Instant Pot with a sprinkle of paprika. So damn good. I’ve been the breakfast chef. I’ve been using our gas griddle pretty much daily. I’ll cook bacon or sausage, red potatoes, peppers and onions and a couple eggs. We have all the hot sauces and dipping sauces to flavor it up. We will make oatmeal a couple times a week to keep the fat down.
The time spent in close quarters is good for us. We have to work together and watch out for each other’s mind sets. Sometimes, as you can imagine, Henry can be a little taxing and one of us needs to step in to help. It’s a work in progress but we’ve got it 90% figured out.
Being parents is interesting. Henry is number one now and everything else second. I struggled with it at first but I’m learning that it’s okay to play second fiddle. It is hard to change like this when you’ve spent your whole life working hard on school, business and doing whatever you want, whenever you want. It’s refreshing to have a different focus on life entirely. The thing I wanted to avoid being a new dad was getting entirely wrapped up or staying wrapped up in business stuff. It is important to have that all balanced, but the main reason I decided to step away was exactly that. I couldn’t find balance running the two business’s inner workings and continue seeing my patients. I was in a ground hog day lifestyle for a long time and it was effecting my health, both physically and mentally.
I am still working for the clinic. I review daily chart notes, billing, recruiting and I work on marketing with web presence and social media. My other duties are to do payroll and all the human resource things as well. I train new staff doctors, teaching them our charting system called WebPT. My goal is to continue providing a great place to work with excellent wages and a relaxed atmosphere. This all takes a bit of work to keep in touch daily with the clinical staff and office staff. Everyone is easy to work with and fortunately, there is absolutely no drama at all. Go back 3 years ago and there was nothing but drama.
Nobody that is an entrepreneur enters business without hurdles. You can have all the right intentions in the world and end up getting significantly screwed if you don't protect your business. I've had several major impacts to both businesses over the years and it has been due to not protecting it. Iron clad contracts are the main way to legally protect the patient and clients data from being used to open a new business without purchasing that chunk of said business. Making it very clear that no clients or patients would be there for the taking without financially obtaining them with a business purchase or many years of hard/honest work. I have always earned my business growth, either with buying a business or earning the trust from my patients for referrals. Unfortunately, not everyone is like me in that realm. You live, you learn and own what you did wrong and change for the better. Onward.
Back to our adventure! The Great Smoky Mountains were fun. Largely a wetland forest with daily rain and one day it rained hard from 6am to 4pm! I'm talking buckets and buckets of rain with loud thunder and lightening strikes nearby. The Smoky's are known for their black bear population. This wasn't something I liked at all because I am afraid of all bears. We only saw one lumbering along the highway after taking the wrong exit which added an hour to our trip home. Oops.
We hiked into Laurel Falls Saturday after the rains stopped and got to see the true beauty of this region. There are so many deciduous trees here. It rains so much that trees grow through rocks and the ground is always wet. Water drips out of rocks and waterfalls are pretty much everywhere. Sunday, we hiked the River Trail to another water fall. That hike was hard. It took us 2 hours to do and it rained half the time. Henry was a champ for the first part. He slept for half the hike, dangling in his backpack. We went into Gatlinburg for lunch afterward and learned there was a huge town just 6 miles away.
Gatlinburg is a little ski town with amusement parks and home of the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. We didn't venture in because Henry can only last about an hour before he either needs a nap or he needs food. So we just had lunch and looked around a bit and headed back to the campsite. All in all, I am happy we went off grid for 3 days. It was nice to rough it a bit and not have our phones glued to our hands. This changes our situation when we do not have water or power. Our solar system works well if it's sunny but when it's rainy, we have to rely on lanterns. Our fresh water stores last about 3 days if we are very conscientious of how we use it. It's good to struggle sometimes. It makes you value the stuff you take for granted everyday.
Currently, we are in Ashville North Carolina. It is a quaint little hippy town that has lots of quality restaurants and breweries. We ventured out to the downtown area yesterday and did a little walkabout. We had lunch at Wicked Weed Brewing Company and strolled around with Henry. The town is like a big northend of Boise. We looked up housing prices and they are quite high here. Comparable to Boise's market currently.
The people here are super relaxed. Lot's of Tennessee accents and a lot of hipsters. It's a liberal town that celebrates it's humanely obtained foods and options for vegans and vegetarians. It feels good here and reminds me of home. People seem to genuinely care about quality and craftsmanship. I like that a lot.
We are here until Sunday, staying at a KOA on the east end of the city about 15 minutes from downtown. It's a nice little park that is in dense trees. It is colder here compared to what we are used to and the low got to 48 last night. It was the first night we used the heater in about a month.
From here we are going to Durham North Carolina for a night or two, then hitting the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a few more beach days. Then we're off to Virginia to see my sister Nina then on to Upstate New York so Henry can meet his grandparents for the first time.
Thanks for reading!
Nate
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