Music City Adventures

I am in Nashville for the Presidential Debate tomorrow.  We had an incredibly smooth trip here and setup went fabulously.  My hotel room is the bomb.  Awesome King size bed.  HDTV.  Oh, how I wish I had these things at home! 

The wireless internet is pretty sweet, too, so even though I'm pretty exhausted and we have an early call tomorrow morning - I have to share a great story with you.

Wes, Sally & I met Wes's friend Eric out tonight on Broadway for dinner.  We went to this great BBQ restaurant called Jacks.  It was perfect.  BBQ served on styrofoam plates.  Yum-o!!

So, we're sitting there, eating and talking and I realize people keep walking by the window to the outside and stopping and taking pictures.  I say out loud "What are all of these people taking pictures of?"  I was puzzled.  I looked around for anything out of the ordinary but I couldn't spot anything.  Just a neon sign that said "open" but hello, that's not out of the ordinary!

Then Eric realized that Gene Simmons was sitting in the booth next to us, alone.  Ahahaha!!  So then, we went from talking pretty loudly to whispering about him and formulating our plan to have our picture taken with him.  Then, Gene Simmons turns around and STRIKES UP A CONVERSATION WITH US!  I am not even kidding you!  We talked about a lot of things.  Richard Simmons (how he's not him and I told him he has way better moves than Richard Simmons!), the Presidential Race, how he likes his chicken... I mean we're like pretty good friends with Gene Simmons now.

So, Sally and I got in a picture with him.  Wes took it.  Eric witnessed it all.  So, there you have it.  My first night in Nashville and the celebrities are approaching me.  Oh yeah, baby!

Sally and I both had the urge to open our mouths in the picture, but we're classy ladies, so we held back.

My favorite part of our dinner conversation with Gene (yep, we're totally on a 1st name basis) was when he was telling us about how he is sometimes mistaken for an Elvis impersonator.

Then he sang "Don't be cruel..."  and he actually sounded really good!

I think he enjoyed us!  It was a fun encounter!

After Jacks, we went to a Honkeytonk Bar and heard a bit of live country music.  I definitely want to come back to Nashville for a visit.  It is a great town!  I didn't hear any Kenny Chesney cover songs, unfortunately.  I *may* have seen a guitar hanging on the wall that had been signed by Kenny, but I wasn't wearing my glasses, so I'm not exactly sure.

That's all for now, kids.  Tomorrow - McCain vs. Obama, part 2.  I'm looking forward to the debate!