Gulf Shores to Nashville

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Leaving Gulf Shores!

Woke up to a cloudy day for our first half of our travels home. One last morning walk on the beach with Leo. The winds and surf had picked up since yesterday. Not too many out on the beach early. Just a few walkers and another dog getting a morning walk. Storms expected along our route home. We packed up our belongings into the truck to head home. We ate an assortment of leftovers for breakfast. Spaghetti, pancake sandwich, pasta with shrimp. One last check to make sure we didn’t leave anything behind.

The truck was loaded and we headed out of Morgantown. Just north of Gulf Shore we started getting the rain and storms. There were some really good claps of thunder and lightning strikes to the ground. We didn’t run into too much wind, but there was a tornado warning in the area just west of where we were. The traffic was slowed by the rain. We drove in the rain for about an hour. Our route on I65 was running between 2 lines of storms for quite a way. The second line of storms was not as strong and really only a drizzle when we crossed through it. We ran into a few traffic slowdowns on our route, but overall travel went smooth.

We booked our next stop online and made our way to downtown Nashville. We were staying at the Sheraton Downtown. Right across from the Capitol building. The internet was down when we arrived, so they had not gotten our online reservation in their system. We sent the email confirmation to the nice lady at the desk and she got it all sorted out. The Sheraton was one of the only places that did not charge extra for Leo. We went to park the truck in the parking building, but it was a bit too tall. Hit the warning sign on the way into the building. We went back to talk to the concierge about the valet parking. We had already paid to go into the parking building so he let us park it in the valet area at the entrance without the extra fee. We headed up to our room on the 25^th floor. The elevator was one of those nice ones with the glass open to the central area of the building. All of the rooms were around the outside and the center was open all the way up to the top floor, the 25^th. Leo stayed near the door every time he got to ride the elevator. He was not too sure about the window thing and the going up and down. The room had the perfect view of the Capitol building.

We then set out to find a restaurant with some outdoor seating so Leo could go with us. We stopped a small park where the locals took their dogs. All the trash cans had poop bags attached. We asked the owner of a bulldog for some suggestions for restaurants. She recommended the Church and Union Nashville. It had a small outdoor seating area. We were able to get a table outside. It seems that only crazy people from Wisconsin sit outdoors to eat when it is cloudy and 68 degrees. We ordered drinks and appetizer and then our meal. We got our meals, but the appetizer did not arrive at the table. The waiter apologized for the error and then said the first round of drinks was on the house. The appetizer arrived after the meal and that was also on the house. We ordered another round of drinks to go with that. We all were satisfied with our meals, but then they brought us 3 deserts as well because of their error. The deserts were very impressive. 2 different layer cakes and a meringue and white chocolate coated banana crème desert. We struggled to finish the deserts.

On the walk back to our hotel we took a detour to find the entrance to a speakeasy place we saw online. It had the red telephone booth outside on a back out of the way street and no signs. You had to know it was there to find it. The way you can get in is by dialing the right number in the booth. You were supposed to ask the concierge at your hotel for the number. We were not planning on going in with the dog anyway, but wanted the picture at the phone booth.

We headed back to our hotel and up to our room to watch the Badger Basketball NCAA game. Leo had a few woofs whenever he heard a door shut, but otherwise he was a good dog. Badgers won the game! Another great day of travel done and in the books.

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Photos

Nashville Capitol at Night
From the Sheraton Downtown

Leo Watches Nashville
Church and Union Restaurant

Dreamscape Gulf Shores
Morgantown