Caravanning the USA Part 8 Huntsville to Nashville

Next stop: Nashville, Tennessee. Country music capital of the world, gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains, and the stomping ground of a certain Mr. Jack Daniels. Three very good reasons to point the car north. The two-hour run up the interstate was completely uneventful. And when you’ve got a two-tonne box on wheels following you around, uneventful is the best possible review. No drama, no dings, no swearing. We’ll take it. Then we hit Nashville itself. Word on the street is the city is growing like crazy, with plenty of folks relocating from California. Whatever the reason, the roads in and around the metro area are one giant construction zone. Add city drivers who take no prisoners, where it’s every man for himself, and you’ve got some genuinely hair-raising moments with a caravan on the back. Dog eat dog out there. Once we got set up at the RV park, the Fireballs were duly administered. Purely for medical reasons, of course. Doctor’s orders. Well, my orders. Now, the park was about 25 to 30 minutes from the city centre, in what you’d politely call a “sketchy” part of town. Which means a trip to the local Circle K always delivers some interesting characters and sights. Good for the soul, questionable for the nerves. But the real story was Lower Broadway. We headed into the city on a Monday night, a school night, fully expecting it to be quiet. Wrong. So wrong. A cocktail trolley full of young ladies rolling past, a monster truck with the tunes cranked, and more cowboy boots on the pavement than a Texas rodeo. It was absolutely popping off. Bars everywhere, country music blasting out of every single one, and some venues with two or three bands playing across multiple levels at the same time. If that’s a Monday, we can only imagine what a Friday or Saturday night looks like. Country music nirvana, no doubt. Even our RV park got in on the act, with live country musicians playing every night from 5:30 to 7:30pm. When the campground has a better entertainment lineup than most towns, you know you’re in the right place. We also dragged ourselves away from the honky-tonks to check out Belle Meade, a 200-year-old historic mansion. Super impressive, with a seriously rich history. Well worth a visit. Now, in this episode we’ve got two bonus features. First up, a long overdue tour of the inside of the caravan. We totally missed doing this earlier, so thanks to a friend for calling us out on it. Consider it done. Second, we take a deep dive, so to speak, into how RV sewage setups work in the US. Not the most glamorous topic, I know. But it’s an important one for every caravaner, so grab a coffee (or maybe not) and stick around.