Venturing Out in TN

Day 2 - Dog Park & Murals

After a great night sleep, I got up, made my caffeine-free concoction (yum) and went outside to journal.  Julie has this beautiful backyard.  Not too big, but plenty of trees, tiled patio and adorable Southern furnishings. 

Julie was making pancakes and bacon before she left and offered some to me.  Very generous, but my sensitive belly politely declined.  She went on to tell me her daughter is vegan, and they don’t have much dietary overlap.  My parents can relate.  We talked about health, fitness, and people’s preferences in their health journey. 

I found Buddy’s go-to park.  A brief 3-minute drive.  It’s so cute!  There’s a dog park and walking trail.  We took the wooded path, and she told me Buddy would lead the way.  Admittedly, I put a lot of trust in him… and thankfully he came through.  He led me in and took me right out.

I thought the dog park was super neat.  Usually parks clear large areas to fence off the section, but this park kept the landscape.  You walked into the fenced areas and there were big trees with roots, rocks, and uneven terrain.  There were places to sit for the humans, but I thought it was great how they conserved the land.

Before I left for my trip, a good friend of mine started her travel consulting company.  She’s a phenomenal woman with a background in business who’s done several international adventures.  I was stoked and wanted to support her ASAP.  I asked if she’d be interested in helping me with TN since I was stopping there with nothing planned. 

(The two of us from Memorial Day. She’s teaching me how to rock climb.)

She was great and knows I don’t want anything super structured.  Makes me feel boxed in. (:  She created a google doc of suggestions with all the necessary details for me to plan with my own agency intact.  (She does more traditional itineraries, but as you can tell, I like a swirl of unconventional in my travels).

https://www.newmantravels.com/

One thing she found was a mural walk.  You can do a self-tour of all the murals in the downtown area, which was 10 minutes from my house-sitting gig.  I drove to the infamous road “Gay Street” where I found convenient metered parking and walked to the welcome center. 

I was impressed.  People were at the front offering advice and suggestions. It’s a hub for other activities, and overall a super straight forward way to tour the area.  I told them I was interested in the mural tour and a woman provided me with a map and directions. The map was very simple and had pictures of the murals by a number system.  On the other side, the map listed the numbers on the designated street corners.  An easy read, and I could walk to the murals that suited my fancy.

Pros- Downtown is open but not too far apart.  The walking is manageable, and the area isn’t congested.  It’s pretty freakin cute too.  The number system on the map was straight forward and even though I couldn’t find one or two, it’s a great opportunity to walk around and see the area.  There were some great pieces I really enjoyed.  I’m a big fan of local art. 

Cons- I was a little underwhelmed with some of the art.  Partially because of my pre-conceived notions.  I was expecting huge masterpieces on the side of brick buildings.  But some of them were the size of me and slick to find, one being a concrete staircase.  I was anticipating huge displays and the dimensions varied.  I think I would’ve appreciated it more if I had that in mind.  There is a cool alley that’s ALL murals.  So that was a neat spot!  Unfortunately, it was located in the back of a series of restaurants and businesses.  So people took their trash out there and had smoke breaks.  Still a cool concept with awesome artwork.  But a detail that would’ve been good to prepare for.

Here are a few of the pieces I enjoyed:

Overall, a cute area, decent weather, affordable and accessible parking.  Plus, it helped me scout out the farmers market for tomorrow. :)