Bloggers Mark McPhillips, ‘20 and Daniella Maney, ‘20 embarked on a road trip this summer with their friend Samuel Piller, ‘20 before coming back to Conn. We will publish a series of posts about what they experienced along the way.... (Read Post 1)

Waking up today was a bit more strenuous than in days past. What I didn’t mention in my previous post is where exactly Dani, Samuel and I slept in David’s apartment. He lives with a few roommates and it was a pretty packed visit so our area of slumber was David’s bedroom floor. Frankly, it was not too comfortable but I did not care much because he was generous enough to let us crash with him for free. It wasn’t glamorous but it was worth it because we saved a lot of money that we would have spent on a hotel room in Nashville.

We did not have a plan for the day and therefore spent a good chunk of the morning discussing our options. Dani did not get a lot of sleep the night before so she wanted to nap. I wanted to just chill out in David’s place and Samuel wanted to explore Nashville. After a couple hours of just hanging out, Samuel, David and I took David’s dog, Xu, for a walk. He is a spunky, pit bull terrier mix.

We brought Xu through David’s neighborhood and all around Belmont College’s campus. As we walked across the campus, Samuel and I continually drew comparisons to Conn. Belmont is much wider than Conn but has a long stretch of grass similar to Tempel Green. It is always interesting to explore another college campus, and even imagine what life would be like attending school in Nashville. Sure, imagining is fun, but I can’t think of any place I would rather get back to by the end of August.

A few hours later, Dani, Samuel and I went on a quest to find another good southern barbecue restaurant. David’s roommate suggested two places. We tried the first, Hattie B’s, but the line was too long and we were too hungry to wait. The second place, Party Fowl, was where we wound up dining for the evening. We each got the famous Nashville Hot Chicken, a special type of fried chicken found in the city. It was OK but not our favorite touristy food we had eaten so far. We agreed that the barbecue we had in Memphis two nights before was far superior in taste and quality.

We went back to Broadway after dinner to further explore the booming Nashville scene. We chose not to stay for long, though, as it was getting late and we wanted to get back to David’s apartment. Before we went to sleep we took a ride over to David’s girlfriend’s house a few minutes away. On the way back, we stopped at a fast-food chain called The Cook-Out. It features typical fast food, like hamburgers, wraps, fries, hot dogs, and milkshakes, at ridiculously low prices, like $1.19 for a medium fries. It was certainly among the unhealthiest of our meals but it was definitely very tasty.

We arrived back at David’s apartment and got ready for bed. The next day was going to be an early day because Samuel needs to be back in Charlottesville, Virginia, a day early for another trip. He will be traveling with his family to see his grandma in the Midwest.