Rewind back to 3 months ago when Ben and I planned our Nashville roadtrip to celebrate my birthday. We were going to take my MINI all the way to Macon, GA, trek up to Chattanooga, TN (because from what Pinterest told me, the downtown area was PERF), and then take our happy hearts over to Nashville to celebrate my birthday the only way it should be celebrated. It was going to be the perfect way to ring in 24, because really what else is there to be excited about after you turn 21?
It all was. Until it wasn’t.
The night before we were supposed to leave, winter storms were moving in all across northern Georgia and covering Tennessee – promising more inches of snow and ice than we were prepared for. With much hesitation (and quite a few tears), we cancelled our trip. We could find a way to celebrate my birthday here at home. We had 6 days off of work and we’d make the most of it. We’d also consider driving North two days later to Georgia aka the best compromise we could make for the birthday girl because she’s never seen snow and that’s all she wanted for her birthday. *Cue the “OMG what?”, “HOW?”, etc. etc.* Trust me, I’ve heard it all. 24 years old and in true Floridian style, have never seen snow.
We spent my birthday hugging puppies, walking around Hyde Park feeling all kinds of artsy in my new hat (that was meant to be worn in Nash bc ~*artisty vibes*~), discovering a cute new juice bar, and ended the night out gambling with my family. No complaints, I was a happy gal but I couldn’t wait to get on the road the next day destination: north for mission: SNOW.
Friday came. After a required B-Fast stop at Starbs, we were off on our snowventure. We started out hopeful, excited. OMG snowballs. OMG snowman. Totally making snow angels. Hours came and went, road trip game after road trip game was played, and yet no. snow. We couldn’t believe it. Every part of our drive through most of Georgia was snowless, but we were determined. How far would we drive? Tennessee? Kentucky? WHERE HAD IT ALL GONE.
It was dark. We were getting ancy, as spending 8 hours in a car will do to a person. All hope was starting to be lost util we were an hour out from Tennessee in such northern Georgia that I can’t even remember the name – we struck gold (er, snow). Remnants of snow started appearing on the sides of the highway and immediately we knew we had to pull off. We discovered an abandoned parking lot LITERALLY. COVERED. IN. ICY SNOW. I COULD NOT CONTAIN MY EXCITEMENT (all caps – clearly, still too excited). I threw on my Hunters and jumped out of the car. What a different world it was for this Florida girl. I was elated.
Had we stopped there, we would have been fine. Had we stopped there we would have completed our “Mission: SNOW” and we could have gone home happy. But, in typical Kahla & Ben style, we figured we were only an hour out from Tennessee and a day late to our trip so why not just keep going?
Chattanooga was just as cute as Pinterest had promised. We visited Maple Street Biscuit Co, found more snow, and just had a grand ole time exploring all of what downtown Chatt had to offer.
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| The Squawking Goat – Flaky biscuit, all natural fried chicken breast, fried goat cheese medallion and house made pepper jelly |
We had high hopes for our second trip to Nashville (this time engaged :)!!!!), but unfortunately traded in our downtown country Saturday night for a night in the emergency room, a terrible stomach virus/food poisoning, and two trips to two different Walgreens for prescriptions. Quite a trade off, huh?
Sunday came and we wanted nothing more than to just get home. We somehow conquered the 10 hour drive through not so pretty conditions, rain and fog mostly. It wasn’t the ending we had in sight for our trip, but it was an experience nonetheless. We were home and in bed within 10 minutes of our arrival – no joke. There’s nothing like your own bed, even after you realize you left two of your pillows in the Nashville hotel room.
The gift kept on giving, because 3 days after we were home I inevitably caught what we thought was food poisoning for Ben but CUH-learly was not. Down and out for two days in bed. I haven’t been that sick in the longest time.
We’re back to functioning like normal humans, thankfully. And of course we’re already trying to plan when we can get ourselves back to Nashville for the weekend that never was. We deserve a redo.