I left Atlanta in kind of a funk, emotionally exhausted and a little tired of traveling. That morning, I had stopped at a gas station to check out the status of the items in my cooler and found them, not surprisingly, all spoiled and floating in about a foot of lukewarm water. See, you can't ignore your cooler for 6 days and expect everything in there to still be good. I have learned. I was having such a shitty day and feeling so overwhelmed and exhausted that morning that I didn't even throw everything away, I just drained the cooler and bought some more ice to keep the spoiled food from being even more gross when I was ready to deal with it. Tasty!
So I got a late start, was feeling crappy, and had a cooler full of nasty food in the trunk. All I really wanted to do was find a bed, crawl under the covers, and wait for the day to be over. Luckily the drive from Atlanta to Nashville soothed my rankled nerves and put me in a much better mood, as did the fact that I was going to get to see my friend Drew, who I know from my college days and haven't seen much since then (he works at the Sudekum Planetarium in Nashville which I think sounds like the coolest damn job). I pulled up to his place, we did the awkward haven't seen you in 14 years thing, and, due to the fact that neither of us had a game plan, ended up just hanging out on his sofa watching Firefly. It was perfect...exactly what I needed.
A little later on we headed out to a nearby Mexican restaurant so I could have cheese dip (they don't have it on the west coast, you know), then we proceeded to the Science Adventure Center where he works to watch the giant 25th anniversary Nashville fourth of July fireworks extravaganza. We had just settled on the lawn in front of the museum when it started to rain. Sadly, it showed no signs of stopping, so we ran to the museum and stood under the overhang for a while, still watching the fireworks. Eventually the rain got so heavy that it drove us inside. Then the fog rolled in, and we couldn't see the fireworks anymore anyway. I couldn't help but laugh...weather-wise we were probably at worst case scenario but at least we weren't downtown with no available shelter. Anyway, after the fireworks Drew showed me around the astronomy portion of the museum, which I enjoyed immensely. I always feel like a little kid in those places...everything is so exciting and interesting! I'm sure I looked like a giant goober with the grin on my face :)
After the tour we took in the patriotic laser show in the planetarium (folks in nashville really love their patriotism, as demonstrated by the loud cheering and whistling every time the laser show hit a high point. It was a singular experience) and then headed back to Drew's so I could drop him off. I'm so glad I got a chance to see him again.
That night I slept in a motel in Glasgow, KY, fairly close to Mammoth Cave. The idea was that my friend Joel (also from a million years ago) was going to drive down from Louisville to catch up and see the cave with me. He did drive down and we did catch up, but we never did make it to the cave. It's my fault mostly...I was still a little down from Atlanta and wasn't feeling particularly cavey. So we just hung out, which was fun too. The next day I met him in L'ville for lunch and continued on my way to Lafayette, IN to see my friend Mychii.
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