2025 Big Truck across the Southeast, day 2

Day 2 began a little slowly, as that first big travel day combined with the oppressive heat and humidity really took it out of us. Today's plan to check out the Nashville Zoo was sounding less and less appealing, but we're here, so we might as well give it a shot. Opening the door to the big truck felt like stepping into the path of a hair dryer, and it was immediately accompanied by a symphony of cicadas or whatever was making this noise.

We got ready, sucked it up and headed for the zoo. Along the way, we encountered this.

Every time we travel, we see something new, different, intriguing, etc. This was no exception. Speed cushions? We've seen speed bumps, speed humps (I know that was a previous blog entry at some point), but never speed cushions. Kudos to you, Nashville - you do you. Once we got to the zoo (absolutely beautiful, by the way - more on that later), we realized that 100 degree heat with 100% humidity sucks no matter how great your mindset is. This guy pretty much summed up how we all felt after only walking around for about 5 minutes.

We soldiered on, determined to experience the rest of the zoo and embrace the suck. This little guy lifted my spirits, as I can never see that word without hearing this scene in my head.

Further into the zoo, we saw rhinos,

giraffes,

but ultimately found the most popular exhibit in the zoo.

A small aside, if I may. All throughout the zoo, wherever there is an indoor exhibit there is space allocated outside for stroller parking. This is something that first came to my attention while visiting Disneyworld. I had no idea. Well, we've obviously been out of the stroller game for quite some time, so I was not prepared nor aware that the Overlanding trend had reached the toddler stroller world.

Whatever marketing genius figured out that all new dads will shell out $500-1000 on a glorified wagon as long as you make it 'tactical' deserves every commission coming their way. These things have so many add on pouches, cupholders, molle panels, first aid kits, and it appears to have become a competition. Some of the ones we saw looked like they could support the kids for several weeks unattended, and there are no doubt some freeze dried meals and extra ammunition hidden away for the impending apocalypse. Rant over, we now return to our regularly scheduled programming. . Back to the zoo - we found an indoor exhibit to find some respite from the heat, and one of the first things we saw was the likely inspiration and origin story for the famous Dig Dug arcade game.

Next, we ran into one of my favorite creatures, the legendary Hellbender. Every time I see this exhibit I want to know which metalhead scientist at some point was given the task to name this, and went full Beavis & Butthead without realizing how many parents have to answer why a random salamder is such a badass.

Once we wrapped things up at the zoo, we needed to grab some lunch. Cue TennFold brewing, an oasis in the triple digit heat.

We wolfed down lunch, headed back to the campsite, and whatever ambition we had immediately disappeared. Yesterday I mentioned that we might be running into a couple of locals. Mikayla, Kimberly's neice, lives downtown and we were hoping to be able to meet up with her and hear about life in Nashville. We were able to work it out, and it was great catching up!

After dropping Mikayla off, we wrangled one final meetup before leaving town - our friend (and songwriter/recording artist - like, follow, subscribe) Joe Jenneman. If you've never checked out his music, please do. It was great catching up with Joe and learning about the Nashville music scene from an insider. I'm attaching one of the few known photos of him with a shirt on. Cheers Joe!

After catching up with these 20-somethings living on their own in an exciting downtown scene, it was a good reminder to seize the opportunity when it is presented, not regret it years later. It's a big part of these trips - tomorrow is never promised, so let's get out and see what we see. Along the way we'll get a chance to check in on some of our people, and doing so tonight made for a wonderful evening. Tomorrow - headed to Stone Mountain, GA. Cheers!