When I first arrived in Tennessee, I was with my brother, Elliott. I was so thankful he was able to take time off work to be able to make the drive with me. I was not looking forward to the over 2000 mile trip alone, but was prepared for it. Elliott and I packed up my apartment, moved it into my Mom’s house and put what I could fit in to my small two door Cobalt, and off we went. The first leg of the trip was the longest, I started the drive, and we didn’t plan on making a full stop, until Oklahoma City, OK. Any one that knows me won’t be surprised that I managed to mess up the ONE freeway change needed to get from Long Beach to Nashville, but I did just that. We still made good time though, just ended up further south in New Mexico than planning, before heading back on the right path. I’m pretty sure at one point we were a stone’s throw from Juarez, Mexico. After breakfast in Amarillo Texas, and listening to George Strait’s “Amarillo By Morning” a good 38 times, we ended up in Oklahoma City, which had a very disappointing night life. Who charges cover at a bar when we are the only people in town bar hoping? We left Oklahoma first thing in the morning and charged through Arkansas, crossed the Mississippi River, and stayed a night at a Motel 6 in Memphis. Elliott looked up a BBQ joint down the street and we decided to walk there at nine o’clock at night. Cops looked at us like we were crazy, and clearly not from around there, so we pretty much got a police escort the, The Neely’s Home Cookin’ and back to Motel 6, where the light was in fact left on for us.
Arriving in Nashville was one of the coolest moments of my life, it was a Saturday afternoon, and Country Music was everywhere, as a country fanatic coming from Long Beach CA, I felt like I was in my Mecca. However, as an aspiring Country Musician, I was a gold fish in the Ocean. I ended up in Murfreesboro Tennessee, a small college town about thirty miles south of Nashville, home of the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders, because of my mom. My Mom had a friend that she graduated High School with and had reconnected with in the last year or so via Facebook. I talked to him on the phone a few time, he seemed a bit odd but, how nice was it that he would open his home to me and say I could stay with him for a while once I made it to Tennessee? The wheels were in motion to stay in Tennessee, so I had a job set up for myself at the Murfreesboro Old Navy. It seemed to be coming together quiet well.
Larry Nelson (no relation) was also a song writer and guitar play, that was excited to let me stay in his home and write and make music. Once Elliott and I made it to Larry’s place, the red flags started going of in my head like fireworks. He lived in a Trailer Park, I have nothing against trailer parks however, this was your stereotypical trailer park. And Larry was a Harley Davidson, bearded biker, that lived the trailer life. The trailer park rents by the week, and their turnover is very high, so the fact the Larry had been there since January, and it was now, September, made him trailer park royalty. It was a two bedroom trailer, consisting of a kitchen and living room, office/music room, and an empty room for storage. Larry did not sleep often so he had no need for a bed. The whole trailer wreakt of cigerettes, he smoked at least 2-3 packs a day. I love beer, and I enjoy to drink from time to time, but in all my time of hanging out at bars, I have never seen someone put down bourbon the way this man did. He had a little stand next to his ciggerett burned couch, where he kept two bottles of bourbon, a gallon each. After staying there three days, I realized he finished a gallon a day, and then went on to the next bottle without hesitation. I was lucky enough to find an apartment building close by, that was fully furnished and rented to college aged kids for pretty cheap. I had to sign a year lease and it was a nice three bedroom, so I was assigned two roommates, but it got me out of the trailer park and I not only could breath in my new room, but was actually comfortable, which is always important. Larry is a great man, and I cannot thank him enough for opening up his home to my brother and I for the short time that he did, however I could not stay there, I wish him nothing but the best.
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