By: Samie

Travel Dates: July 10th-15th, 2024

Day 1

(Flying into BNA, Getting to Airbnb, Supper at Hattie B’s, Zanies Comedy Club)

Summer is a beloved season for many reasons, especially living in the Midwest. Our nostrils no longer freeze close when taking a quick walk bundled up against the wind. The days get longer and the extended sunshine burns away at the cold seasonal depression that had been gnawing away at us all winter. Color once again paints the landscape. It is once again acceptable to down an iced coffee. However, for us, another reason we look forward to summer is because of the opportunities and freedom it provides us to take trips and travel!

Our summer 2024 got to kick off right away with an amazing trip to Washington D.C. with the Aberdeen Central Marching Band to participate in the Memorial Day Parade. Little did we know, this would only be the beginning of our summer travels, and that once July hit, we would manage to make our way back halfway across the country and out of the country before our summer would come to an end.

July 18th would mark our 4th wedding anniversary. We were tossing ideas around of how we could celebrate. When it comes to traveling, we had planned on doing a rotation to keep our travel budget in check. We would alternate our summers with a local trip (no more than a 12 hour drive), a national trip (somewhere we could fly to within the country), and an international trip every third year. Since we had done our international trip for our honeymoon last summer, it meant this summer’s rotation was supposed to be a local trip.

From the beginning, we knew we wanted to make a little trip as part of our anniversary. We had a few ideas that would fit within the parameters of our local trip, but nothing quite felt right. One location that had piqued Luke’s interest was Nashville. I’m not quite sure how it made its way into his radar, and I had already been to Nashville twice with my family but had enjoyed it and was willing to add it to our list of places to get to someday. However, I decided to casually check out flights to Nashville and was pleasantly surprised when I found tickets out of the Sioux Falls airport for only about $55 per person round trip! It couldn’t have been more meant to be! We only had to drive 3 hours instead of almost 6 to get to the airport. The plane tickets couldn’t get much more affordable than that. Even though it wasn’t local, it was just too good to pass up. We booked our trip right and officially made plans to celebrate our anniversary a little early in Music City!

Our flight out of Sioux Falls was schedule to depart at 12:59pm. We had never flown out of the Sioux Falls airport by ourselves, so we like to arrive at unfamiliar airports a little earlier just in case. This was also the first time we were going to check a bag instead of only traveling with carry-ons because we were planning on returning home with some choice alcohol. We wanted to make sure we gave ourselves enough time to learn and complete the checking process before it was time to board for our flight.

In order to do this, we left home around 8:00am and were able to park in one of the Sioux Falls Airport lots around 11:00am. Fortunately, being fairly seasoned travelers, we were able to figure out how to check a bag pretty easily (it also helps that it really isn’t a hard process and everything is clearly marked) and were able to make our way through security quickly and efficiently.

We attempted to have lunch, just a shared basket of chicken tenders, at the cafe just on the other side of security. However, we weren’t expecting it to take about an hour for our food to get to us because of the disorganization and improper use of customer numbers when bringing food to tables, and we barely had any time to eat before it was time to start boarding for our flight. Luckily, our gate was right next to the cafe, so we didn’t have to run or anything, but it was probably the biggest hiccup we have faced when traveling. That is definitely not me complaining because if that is the largest inconvenience we have faced, we have been extremely fortunate in our travels!

The universe also decided to make up for it because once the plane was completely boarded and the doors closed, the final seat next to us was still open, so Luke got to scoot over, and we actually had a reasonable amount of room to sit and be comfy in economy seats on a small airplane!

After about only a two hour flight, we touched down in Nashville. When looking more into what we wanted to do during our time there, several vlogs we had seen mentioned how unreliable the public transportation is in Nashville and how difficult it can be to drive in Nashville if you rent a car because the roads weren’t built for the size and traffic congestion the city has come to be and have. Most people suggested simply taking Ubers to get around, and we wouldn’t have felt very comfortable renting a car and driving ourselves around anyway, so we were okay with this option.

It was a very bustling airport, and many people were attempting to get an Uber around the same time and in the same area, so we had to wait a little while, but the pickup spots were clearly marked, and our driver knew how to maneuver around the busy airport and traffic. We gave them the address to our Airbnb and made our way over to the area we would be staying. As we approached our street, Zanies, the comedy club we would be visiting later that evening, came into view, and we realized how close we were to it!

After our driver dropped us off right outside the house with the listed address, we had to figure out how to get to where we would access our Airbnb entrance. We ended up having to backtrack up the street in order to enter the first alley, walk down until we reached the second alley that had us turn right and reach the garage of the house where the area above it had been converted into the Airbnb we would be staying at.

We did our usual routine of getting settled a little bit and letting our bodies recover from the natural tenseness that comes with traveling, despite how much we enjoy it. We had bought Zanies tickets for the 7:00pm show, and it said doors opened 45 minutes before. Our seats weren’t assigned, and we wanted to get there right when doors opened, so we wanted to make sure we gave ourselves enough time to have supper and get to Zanies by 6:45. Another pro of the location of our Airbnb is that it was right down the street from one of the locations of the iconic Hattie B’s Chicken! We made the short walk over and were walking into Hattie B’s around 5:00.

Deciding what we were going to order for our first meal in Nashville was a little tricky, but we had been preparing for this moment for a while with all the research we had done and videos we had watched. However, we also wanted to try a little bit of a lot of things, so we had a very full table in the end! For our chicken tenders, our main course, Luke went with Medium heat, and I wasn’t feeling as brave, so I went with Mild. For sides, we shared bacon cheddar grits, Mac and cheese, Cole slaw, and fries. For drinks, we had to go with a southern classic, sweet tea. Finally, we enjoyed a banana pudding and peach cobbler for dessert.

Nashville is known for its banana pudding dessert, and I honestly didn’t think it was going to be something I was really into. Bananas are pretty hit and miss for me. I figured the peach cobbler would be the dessert for me. However, the freshness of the bananas against the heat and humidity was absolutely magical. In that moment, I realized that banana pudding might become one of my new favorite desserts! Don’t get me wrong, the peach cobbler was also immaculate, however, it was heated and would make a much better fall or winter treat.

Unsurprisingly, we weren’t able to finish all of our food, but because our Airbnb, Hattie B’s, and Zanies Comedy Club were all so close together in a nice little triangle, we were able to walk back to drop off our leftovers before heading over to Zanies.

Despite us making our way to the front doors of Zanies before 6:15, when our tickets said they were scheduled to open, we were let in right away, and the club was already quite full and packed tight. We were seated at a table near the front where another couple was already seated, and we politely chatted with them while we ordered our drinks and waited for the show to start.

For drinks, Luke ordered a Jack Apple Mule, and I got something called a Stress Reliever. The Jack Apple Mule was a mix of Jack Daniel’s, sour apple, and ginger beer. My Stress Reliever was a mix of vodka, cranberry rum, peach schnapps, cranberry, and pineapple. Yes, it was delicious.

The night we were going was called All-Stars night. This meant there were no names actually put on the schedule. It was kind of a gamble for the audience and whoever was there that night is who we would see. We wouldn’t have any idea who it would be until we heard them announced and saw them take the stage.

Now, a couple of our favorite comedians are from Nashville, Nate Bargatze and Dusty Slay. We already knew we would be catching Nate Bargatze at a comedy festival later that summer and that he keeps a busy schedule and would be unlikely to pop by unannounced. We also knew that we would already be catching one of Dusty Slay’s sets at the Grand Ole Opry that weekend. This also meant we knew he was in town and figured there might be a pretty good chance of him making an appearance at tonight’s show. On our drive to Sioux Falls, we listened to the crew’s podcast because an episode had just come out that day. The podcast is called the Nateland Podcast and not only features Nate and Dusty, but two other Nashville comedians named Brian Bates and Aaron Weber. Even if you aren’t a big podcast listener, we highly suggest you give it a listen. It is an extremely hilarious group that has our stomach hurting from laughing every time we listen, and they are all clean comics, so you could even listen to it with kids in the car without needing to worry about vulgar speech!

When the show was about to start, we had to lock our phones in pouches that wouldn’t be released until it was time to go. It absolutely makes sense, but that also means I wasn’t able to get any pictures. The night’s show was hosted by a comedian named Zac Townsend, and we thoroughly enjoyed him, and he did a wonderful job! We hadn’t heard of him before that night, but he was very funny! All of the comedians that night were good, and to our absolute pleasure Brian Bates was there…and so was Dusty! We got to see half the podcast’s stellar crew, and by summer’s end would see 3/4!

We knew we might hear some of Dusty’s set again at the Opry, but we didn’t care! We were so excited to see him, and it was completely surreal being so close to him in that small little comedy club. When we left, we honestly couldn’t even remember a lot of what he had said, but we remembered laughing so hard our stomachs hurt and that we had tears rolling down our cheeks. It was an absolutely wonderful evening of comedy, and we highly recommend making a stop at Zanies if you are ever in Nashville!

Once the show released, we paid our tab, got our phones unlocked, and made the pleasant walk to our Airbnb to call it a night. Despite only being in Nashville for the evening, we had a very eventful time and were ready for bed. We knew we still had a lot of adventure and food to come!