The disappointment is more in reference to some unfortunate news I received today as opposed to my feelings about the city of Nashville itself. I had been diligently watching my standing bid to transfer to Los Angeles throughout the day. I was convinced that if they had estimated five vacancies and two people had already transferred out of LAX, then surely they would bring some people in to replace them. Not a single first officer was transferred to LA for this month, which was a devastating blow to my morale to say the least. To further disappoint, not one person was brought in to Houston, so the status quo remains: another month of unpredictable reserve away from home.
By now, I needed a restroom, so I walked into the nearby Opryland Inn & Resort. I could see that it was large on the outside, but nothing really prepared me for the interior. It was like I had walked into Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. There were boats taking people on tours on the fake rivers that flowed around the convention center. And what you see in this picture is just a small fraction of the rest of the hotel. As I continued to explore, I found there were entirely separate wings of this indoor/outdoor extravaganza. There were fountains, waterfalls, and elevated catwalks to view it all. To me at least, it was far more impressive than anything I would have seen inside the "opry." After taking a lap, which probably took me over an hour, I headed back to my far lesser hotel across the street. A couple hours later, a friend I had met during a trip to Israel years ago, met up with me to go back to the superior hotel and grab some hummus for old times sake.
