Drive for the Cure Baseball Trip: Nashville Recap

July 17

What a trip it has been. We have traveled all over the central and eastern parts of the United States and traveled to 15 ballparks in a mere 19 days. A feat I truly never believed possible. However our trip was not quite over. We headed to Nashville for one more night of fun and to celebrate Nate Daddy's b-day. One of his best friends Preston lives there (by the way Preston is about to make it big as a singer/songwriter look out for his stuff) so we decided Nashville was a good place to finish our trip.....great decision.

As we closed in on Nashville, we planned to stop at my favorite chicken place Bojangles Chicken and Waffles! Yes that's right Bojangles. I not only love the name but the food is really good. I had talked it up all trip and was worried it would not live up, but my worries found deaf ears as Nate and Collin loved it just as much as I do. Preston met us there and after we finished our delicious and of course healthy meal, we headed to our hotel. Turner again graciously purchased our hotel room for us which was a suite in the Hilton right downtown. It was a great room with an awesome view. We knew at that moment we were in for an epic trip.

We dropped our luggage off and headed out to see some of the town with our tour guide Preston. We went to meet his manager at a studio. We passed by some famous studios and rolled up to one that looked like a house remodeled to be a studio. As we entered we got to me the guitarist that played the famous song "Wipeout". He was supposedly one of the best surf guitarists ever. Felt cool meeting a guy like him. We then met his manager who was really nice. We found out later he had worked with artists like Trace Adkins and Brooks and Dunn and had several gold and platinum records under his management. We got a tour of the studio and learned a lot about the ends and outs of the sound quality and production techniques that goes on there. It was a unique experience that none of us had seen before.

We left there and went to Preston's house for awhile. He has a mini recoding studio in his basement, so of course Collin had to play down there. It was a lot of fun. Preston played drums, I played the tambourine, Nate played some shaker thing, and Collin played piano and sang. We had some fun jamming.....I think we had a platinum sound.

We headed back to our hotel to suit up for the night....we had to look good for our last night out. We all got dolled up (we aren't women Josh.. but I won't change it cuz you get mad when I do) and headed out to dinner which landed us at Margaritaville. We all ordered margaritas and settled down with some great food. Preston got a chicken sandwich that definitely was a mix of rooster and ostrich as it was the biggest piece of chicken we had ever seen. The food was great and even got a 20 dollar donation towards our Parkinson's efforts by a man sitting down next to us who had asked what we had been doing.

Towards the end of dinner two friends of a girl Collin and Nate knows met up with us to go out. There names were Jewel and Meg. They of course loved our suit attire and were excited to go out with us. We went to our first bar and saw a couple enjoying some passionate extra curricular activities that were borderline appropriate at best especially at 10 pm. We decided to move on and found a great place. There of course was live music everywhere and this bar had a cover band playing. We worked our way to the front which turned out to be great cause the singer preceded to jokingly....well kinda jokingly.... Make fun of our attire (everyone besides us where in country bumpkin clothing) he even pulled Nathan up on stage. When he asked Nathan what he did and the response was nothing right now, the man had a field day. He began singing a "real man of genius" Bud Light commercial, making fun of us and Nate. It was hilarious and Nate was a real good sport....we all didn't mind cause the singer bought us all a free drink called a Fireball. We danced and sang for a long time and then came the most unbelievable thing I have ever seen. The singer asked his old 80 year old man friend to come up on stage. They began to play a song and the old man started dancing in a way that really should turn your eyes away but for some reason you can't. It's like when you come up on a bad wreck and you know you need to look away but your eyes won't let you.....yea this old man was that wreck. Between all the crotch grabbing and body rubbing was some dance moves that would send women to therapy. It was ridiculous and a sight to see. We of course all got pictures and Meg even danced with him a little.

After that we knew it was time to move on. We went to a karaoke bar next that had maybe 15 people in it. We all sang a ton of songs with Nate and Preston rocking a great rendition of "I Believe in a Thing Called Love". I think Nate needs to get a physical check after singing that high! The Texas Trio (that's us) got up and sang Sweet Caroline and had the bar rocking....well okay we turned a few heads but we all were rocking so that's what matters lol. We finished the night at that bar and officially closed the book on an epic epic trip. It was a great finish to the funnest three weeks of my life. We woke up the next day filled up in Bojangles and made the 13 hour trek back to Houston, Texas. We all have been blessed from above as we made the whole trip with no car problems and we are still best friends! Back in Houston and reflecting on what has just inspired in my life, I just want to say summer 2012 will go down in my book as the best summer of my life! Thanks to everyone who has followed our blog, thanks to everyone who made this trip possible, and thanks to everyone who has donated to our cause!

My (Josh) list of favorite parks-

Boston (Fenway Park)
Baltimore (Camden Yards)
Chicago (Wrigley Field)
Pittsburgh (PNC Park)
Texas (Ballpark at Arlington)
Cincy (Great American Ballpark)
St. Louis (Busch Stadium)
Washington D.C. (Nationals Park)
Philly (Citizens Bank Park)
New York Yanks (Yankee Stadium)
New York Mets (Citi Field)
Detroit (Comerica Park)
Houston (Minute Maid Park)
Milwaukee (Miller Park)
Cleveland (Progressive Field

Collin

1. Fenway Park
2 .Wrigley Field
3. Camden Yards
4. PNC Park
5. Yankee Stadium
6. Great American Ballpark
7. Comerica Park
8. Busch Stadium
9. Nationals Park
10. Citizens Bank Park
11. Citi Field
12. Minute Maid Park
13. Miller Park
14. Progressive Field

Nate

1. Fenway Park
2. PNC Park
3. Camden Yards
4. Comerica Park
5. Busch Stadium
6. Great American Ballpark
7. Wrigley Field
8. Nationals Park
9. Yankee Stadium
10. Citi Field
11. Ballpark at Arlington
12. Citizens Bank Park
13. Minute Maid Park
14. Miller Park
15. Progressive Field