Gator Girl: SB12 Day 2: Nashville

Wow - it's been a long but incredibly fun day!

We woke up this morning to a small disappointment: no free breakfast at the hotel #firstworldpains. So we were dressed, packed & out the door by 8 to hit up Another Broken Egg in Mountain Brook. We needed coffee in our systems STAT!

Love the mugs!

PDubbs ordered the Castine - a grilled croissant topped with scrambled eggs, mushrooms, asparagus, bacon & hollaindaise sauce. He definitely won this round of breakfast ordering!

After a deliciously overpriced breakfast, we set out for Nashville. And a few short hours later, we arrived at our hotel, ready to explore. Or sit around watching TV for an hour. It's a problem, but I digress.

So handsome :)

We set out without any definitive plans except to meet a new friend later in the afternoon to get our tickets. We walked around downtown, taking in all of the sights, sounds & smells. There were street performers on every corner, belting everything from country to classic rock. Our first stop was to see the Ryman Auditorium. We debated for a good 2 minutes whether or not to spend the $13/person (!!!) to take a "self-guided tour" i.e. just walk around for as long as we wanted. Of course, we went ahead & splurged to (a) buff up on our Ryman/country history and (b) hopefully catch a glimpse of the band. Honestly, it was mostly (b).

We ~~suffered through a boring~~ enjoyed an educational 8-minute video of the history & importance of the Ryman and all of its Grand Ole Opry glory. I was a little too preoccupied with watching the roadies set up the stage for tonight's show! Actually, the Ryman is an extraordinarily beautiful venue. Between the original wooden pews, stained glass and curved walls, it makes for an incredible experience.

We were able to walk around the auditorium at our leisure and ended up staying for an hour watching the set up process. It takes dozens of people just to put on a relatively small show. It was really awesome to see it all coming together and get an idea of what the stage will be like tomorrow. AND we saw Winston while we were hanging around!

We got to go on stage to get a performers-eye view of the Auditorium.

Coming together

Winston('s back)

After an hour, we head out to explore some more and enjoy the beautiful weather. We walked up and down the streets of downtown Nashville & along the river. We had a great time just enjoying each others' company in a new city. There's so much to see and do in Nashville!

Around 5, we had plans to meet up with a very nice lady who had our tickets. But before I get to that, let me back up by explaining my ticket woes. When these 3 shows in Nashville were first announced on the Mumford & Sons website in early February, I didn't think much of it. As with most shows by my favorite bands, I would probably have a conflict with school or life that would prohibit me from going. But I kept thinking about those shows. I thought about them so much that I eventually looked at a calendar (duh) and realized that they conveniently fell right in the middle of UF's spring break! Perfection!

Except I'm a broke college student. So my brain started turning and I looked at a calendar again (duh) and realized that my birthday was coming up. Bingo! So I asked my wonderful loving parents if they could help support a trip for me & Patrick to go see them as an early birthday present. Knowing how much I love this band and their own affection for Nashville, they were all for it. I think my Dad even said "You MUST go to this show!" Thanks, guys!!!

So I set my alarm for 5 minutes before the tickets were to go on sale and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, I refreshed the page and they were ready! I did all the obligatory clicking, typing nonsense words and waiting without refreshing, but I wasn't able to get any. Nor was I able to get any 20 minutes later. Or an hour later. Or a day later. They were gone. And then they popped up on stubhub for 5x face value. Ugh. Patrick can attest to the fact that I was absolutely distraught for days after this disappointment.

But I couldn't stop thinking about these shows! I perused the fan forum on the website every day, hoping for news about new tickets sales. And as I perused, I found more and more people asking for tickets there. I took a gamble and scribbled down my own story that I just described for you. Within minutes, I received an email from a woman on the forum who had tickets - score! After a few more emails, we exchanged contact information & we arranged to meet in Nashville to exchange.

What happened on this forum was amazing. A couple of "older" fans got together to start an "over 35" thread on the fan forum. They got to know one another through talking about M&S music, then life experiences, and eventually became great friends. They even call themselves a family. When these shows were announced, they all agreed to purchase a bunch of the presale tickets and finally meet in person. Unfortunately, many of them couldn't make it but were willing to sell their tickets on the condition that they went to real fans and not some scalpers. So they searched the fan forum for poor souls who couldn't get tickets and offered their tickets at face value.

Which is how we got tickets to our favorite band for our last spring break! I'm so glad this whole situation worked out and I'm incredibly grateful for the kindness and honesty of a few great people. They could have scammed these tickets to make a quick buck. But instead they offered the opportunity for fans to experience this band in such a unique & historic venue. And they are such down-to-earth and genuine people! I feel honored to be among such amazing people who also call themselves M&S fans.

After meeting up with the lovely ladies above, we headed to dinner at Back Alley Diner with tickets safely secured in my purse. B.A.D. was literally in a back alley so we had a hard time getting there. But it was well worth it! PDubbs ordered the Mega Titan Burger and I went for the white bean soup & salad combo. My soup was delicious but I definitely wished I had gotten the burger too! It was pretty dead but it was also a Tuesday night and pretty early by Nashville standards.