NOTES FROM NASHVILLE - PART II - THE JACK DANIELS SALOON

We were fortunate enough to get to stay at the Opryland hotel while in Nashville.

It's a big hotel.

Really, really, big.

It has several restaurants, boutiques, garden walkways, and goody shops, including Godiva Chocolates and Haagen Dazs. Kayla and I enjoyed walking around browsing in the shops and watching people. We even got to spy on a wedding reception that was being held in one of the little garden atriums.

One of the restaurants was the Jack Daniels Saloon. Paul and the kids ate there on our first evening in Nashville. I was fighting a head cold and didn't have an appetite, so I stayed in the room.

Anyway, it was pretty close to our room, so they weren't gone very long.

And when I say it was pretty close to our room, I mean so close that when the live band began playing at 9 o'clock that night we could hear EVERY WORD OF EVERY SONG. We could not just hear the thump, thump, thump, of the bass, or the applause after each song. We could hear EVERY WORD OF EVERY SONG. In fact I was quite surprised when they started singing "Nine to Five." I was even more surprised when I started singing along with it at 12:45 a.m. We could hear the musicians introduce the next song. We could hear individual voices as the crowd mingled. And we got to hear all of that until one in the morning.

Every. Night. That. We. Were. There. Even Monday night, which is a school and work night.

And, as Blake said, "They're not even that good....tomorrow I'm going down to look at them so I can get a visual of what a lousy band looks like."

We were not happy.

Why didn't we call and ask for another suite?

Well, when you travel with kids, of any ages, you have lots of stuff. You have food that's already been unloaded into the little refrigerator. You have clothes that have already been thrown on the floor. You have earphones, and chargers, and game cartridges, and books, and magazines, and coats, and sacks from the shopping you've already done.

You have the laptop that dad brought and the extra pillows that mom has to bring with her.

So you have to really weigh the inconvenience of moving against the inconvenience of being kept awake until one in the morning.

Plus, we had already made a couple of calls to the front desk because our suite did not have the couch we were promised, there were no extra blankets in the closet, one of the televisions didn't work, and the refrigerator wasn't working. And frankly, we weren't thrilled with the less-than-warm response we got from those calls.

Thankfully, our kids are teenagers and they were not really bothered by the loud noise. (In fact, I think we were called "too old fashioned" a couple of times for being appalled at the noise.) Also, we did not have to get up early any of the mornings, so we knew we could sleep in once we were finally able to drift off.

So we decided to put up with it; even though we were paying good money for this hotel experience.

But, come on!!

Shouldn't an upscale hotel like that be more aware of where they are placing their guests? There were many, many families with young children in that hotel, who were sure to have been bothered by that loud music like we were. I kept saying "We CANNOT be the only family that is upset by this...." To which Paul would reply "I'm already drafting my complaint letter in my head...."

We actually came home a day early, partly because of the hotel experience.

Couldn't the booking people tell their guests "Now, this room is above a saloon, where there will be loud music ALL NIGHT LONG, are you into that? Because if not, we can move you a mile or two away where you won't hear it." 'Cause the hotel is that big.

So, the e-mail has been sent telling them of our disappointment. It was sent in response to the "guest survey" they sent us upon our arrival home. They may be sorry they asked us how our stay was.

So, tell me, my ones of readers. How would you have handled it?

Tune in next time for.....THE MYSTERY OF THE BLACK NAPKIN.