Broadway Dinner Train
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville was the last stop on the 2-week tour of the South that Mom and I went on in 1989. It was the first time I’d ever been south of Kentucky and the scenery was very different! On that trip I’d driven through the mountains in pea-soup fog, through twisting and turning back roads in Chattanooga city traffic in Atlanta and I saw my first ever train coming down the middle of the street in Columbus, Georgia! We had planned to see caverns in Alabama, but they were clos3ed for the season when we got there. The brochure didn’t say anything about closing in October! After spending the night in Cullman, Alabama, we headed north through Tennessee, making our final stop of the trip, two nights in Nashville.
We’d decided before we left that we’d each pick one place where we’d splurge on a really nice hotel and we’d go Knights Inn/Days Inn for the other nights of our trip. Mom picked Nashville. We stayed at the Sheraton Music City, very posh and comfortable room and close to everything. We’d already been on a riverboat dinner cruise in Chattanooga and a Dinner train in Atlanta. There was just something about eating while moving that made the food taste better. Well, okay, that and that most dinner trains are the food equivalent of a several star restaurant.
We got to the depot early. Dinner trains seat 4 to a table and parties of 2 are seated with other parties of two. If you get there first, you get to pick which seats you want! It was still light when we boarded the train, but the sun was setting when it left the station. We were seated with a couple celebrating their wedding anniversary. The conversation was fun and included what we all did for a living, how they met and how our trip had been. Casual small talk you enjoy with strangers when you’re seated together for dinner.
The tracks went along the Cumberland River for a good part of the ride. It was beautiful to watch as the sun was setting, with the last of the colors in the sky quietly reflecting off the moving water. I’ve always had a romanticized feeling about riding on a train. A dinner t4rqin is one of the most romantic places. Yet it’s someplace, as many times as I’ve been on dinner trains that I’ve never been with a date. I haven’t even ever been with my husband. Strange.
After a wonderful chicken dish for dinner, it was dessert time. All four of us chose the same dessert; pecan pie with chocolate sauce. Oh my! It was wonderful! I dint as vividly remember the dinner as I f=do that wonderful dessert!
After dessert, I sat with my coffee and gazed out the window for a while. Mom and the couple we dined with chatted. I was a little blue because we’d leave in the morning back to Michigan and our trip would be over. I stared out in the black night and marveled at the beautiful lights that twinkled on the river as we passed little inhabited areas. I rejoined the conversation as the table as the wait staff was clearing off the last of the dessert dishes and cups. Yeah, I had to surrender my coffee cup before we got back, but it was just a plain beige cup. When we got back to the depot, I had to stop in the souvenir shop, of course, to get a mug to remember the beautiful trip, twinkling lights, a friendly strangers and the last destination night of a great vacation with Mom.
2 comments:
Enjoyed the travelogue. I would like to visit that part of the country one day.
The dinner train sounds like fun. My friend and I went to Nashville twice but did not see this train. We'd have enjoyed it very much. One of our trips there was to be a part of Fan Fair, which was great. I will check out the Walgreen info. I can always use the extra savings. Thanks. You have a great day, hugs, Edna B.
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