Hail to the Walkers (5K and Butch)

October 8, 2011:  We had a fun, busy and long fall Saturday today in Nashville beginning with the 8 AM start of a 5K run/walk until well after 1 AM on Sunday morning with the conclusion of a concert.



With well over a thousand participants in the 12th Annual Germantown Bier 5K Run/Walk near downtown Nashville, it took us a while to even get over the starting line.  This was our first year participating in this event and we could not have asked for better weather.  The route through beautiful and historic Germantown was a lot fun and even included a path through the Nashville Farmers Market.  There is a all-day street festival afterwards with an Octoberfest theme.



 



We finished the 5K with smiles and despite Ashlee nursing a head cold, she finished in good time at under 40 minutes.  Since most of my 5K was walked, I got in under 48 minutes and was satisfied with my efforts.  With our entry fee we got the satisfaction of accomplishment, a cool T-shirt and a free beer at the end.  We happened upon our friends Chris and Tarryn (who are both pretty serious runners) at the finish line and they had already finished their beers by the time we got across the finish line and collected our brews.  We visited for a while, bought a couple more beers and talked a lot about our upcoming trip with them and another couple to Aruba in February.





Ashlee's new found love of corn dogs (she had never had one until a year ago - how weird?) was satisfied as we waited around after the race for our friends, Gary and Cary, who had texted us that they were coming down to have look around the farmers market and check out the Germantown festival.  We had a couple more beers and I grabbed a thick-sliced grilled bologna sandwich (yum!) for lunch.  There was some decent live music going on nearby as well to entertain us.







After resting up a bit back at home, we doubled-back to Nashville and met up with our friend, Ryan, and his date, Dawn, for dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant, The Bombay Palace, on West End Avenue.  We chose our dinner locale because of its close proximity to the legendary Exit/In on Elliston Place where we had tickets to see one of our favorite live bands, Butch Walker & the Black Widows.  We saw Butch at this same location last year (see previous blog) and he put on such an amazing show that we knew we had to catch him again if at all possible.









All hail, King Butch!!  Walker concluded his SOLD OUT high-energy 2+ hour show by climbing up on the Exit/In bar and toasting his band and his fans with a shot of Jameson Irish Whiskey.  Salute!  Behind him are dozens of names of some of the famous artists who have graced the stage of the legendary rock bar since the early 70's.  Thanks to Ryan and Dawn for attending the general admission concert with us despite neither of them hearing of Butch and the Black Widows before today.  They stayed for the entire show and became instant fans.