Life of the Traveling Wife

After a long journey from Tampa, FL to Marietta, GA for one night, we arrived in Nashville, TN the next day! This is not the first time we have been to Nashville, in fact this is where we spent our honeymoon in 2019! When we visited for our honeymoon we came during the week and felt like we had the whole city to ourselves. We visited the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Musicians Hall of Fame, the Johnny Cash Museum, the American Picker’s store, the State Capitol, the Frist Art Museum, the Belle Meade Historic Plantation, we accidentally interrupted a packed out mid-day show at the Blue Bird Cafe, and explored downtown Nashville on Broadway, Music Row, and East Nashville since our Airbnb’s were located there. I’m hoping I didn’t forget anything! We had such a fun time together that we really wanted to one day see what it would look like to live in Nashville, which brings us to present day November 2022!

We had completed so many of the tourist attractions on our honeymoon, that it gave us a leg up to see more sights and enjoy everything that the locals recommend to us during this short 3 month period.

Speaking of locals, before we moved up to Nashville from Tampa, I had reached out to friends of ours from college who live here to see if they had a particular church they go to. I told them about how I had been watching messages from a church called Cross Point Church because one of my favorite authors/speakers/podcasters, Annie F. Downs, goes to that church and is on the teaching staff there. Our friend Hailea said that was the same church that she and her husband Kyle go to and that Kyle works for! They also said that they had a small group that we could jump into once we arrived, so that’s just what we did! We had been craving getting involved again in a small group and being in community with others, and we absolutely love our group of people that we get to see every week!

With that little bit of backstory about the time we spent in Nashville a few years ago and now knowing the provisions that God has given us in this new city, let’s jump right into what we were up to when we arrived here back in November.

November 2022

[November 10] We finished the remaining four hour drive to Nashville from Marietta, GA. We arrived at our new townhome in Nashville just before 1 o’clock. We were able to unload all of our stuff into the house fairly quickly and then went to lunch in Brentwood and checked out a coffee shop too. After refueling ourselves, we went back to our townhome to unpack our suitcases and get settled in to our new place!

[November 11] We were up around 5 am and decided to go for a drive past the new hospital that Bobby will be working at starting on the 14th. We did some errands to purchase some things we needed for our new place and finished all of that around 11 am. You can get a lot done when you wake up early! We blamed the time change. Even though where we are in the Central Time Zone is only an hour behind, it took a while to adjust. We took a drive downtown and even during the afternoon, all the streets were packed. We enjoyed a beautiful 75° day before the cold front came in for the next few days. Since living here November 2022- February 2023, we have learned that most locals avoid the downtown area on the weekends because of how crowded it gets with tourists and the “WOOO crowd” aka bachelorette and bachelor parties. It’s honestly amusing to see everyone on peddle trollies and scooters belting Shania Twain at the top of their lungs.

[November 12] Bobby and I decided to explore some of the most talked about vintage shops in Nashville! First stop was Black Shag Vintage, then Music City Vintage, and last was Starland Vintage & Unusual.

[November 13] We finally got to go to Cross Point Church in Nashville. I had been watching their messages online even when we were in Tampa because one of my favorite authors and speakers named Annie F Downs always talked about Pastor Kevin‘s messages in her podcasts. Annie is also on the teaching staff and has the opportunity to speak at this church a few times a year, so when that time comes, I will be really excited for that! After church, we met up with our friend Hailea from Liberty and her husband Kyle!

[November 14] Bobby’s first day of his Nashville assignment! We are so thankful that Bobby is now working dayshift. We are both up early in the mornings and are able to have dinner together every night. I was able to do a ton of work for my Etsy shop and took a bike ride around our new neighborhood.

[November 16] We went grocery shopping downtown, which just felt fun to be in the city getting some of the things we needed. Afterwards, we went over to the Parthenon in Centennial Park.

[November 18] We went to Frothy Monkey and walked the shops on 12 South. Then we made our way downtown to check out Good Citizen Coffee Co. After, we headed to Radnor Lake State Park to walk the trails around the lake. Radnor was on my imaginary Nashville bucket list to visit while we live here. The trails are so nicely kept and the lake is absolutely beautiful. We saw a buck and an armadillo (never thought we’d say that in Tennessee, but after some research, they have been migrating eastward through Tennessee for the last 40ish years).

[November 20] We went back to Cross Point Church and checked out the Opryland Mall & Bass Pro Shop near us.

[November 21-23] Bobby and I both worked during these days. I created new products for my Etsy shop and revamped a few things on my blog’s website for future uses.

[November 24] Thanksgiving! Bobby and I stayed in Nashville for Thanksgiving this year and I made all the fixings that we would spend the day eating and napping off. So thankful for our Facetime calls with my family on Long Island!

[November 25] Bobby and I went to Retrograde Coffee in the morning and I mailed out some orders I had gotten from my Etsy shop. Then we went to Seven Oaks Park and played a round of disc golf. It was right after they had a tournament there, so they had an extra course set up that normally you would not be able to play. There were so many people and groups playing the courses and enjoying the warm weather. As we were leaving, we were pretty sure that we ran into Matt Thiessen from Relient K.

[November 26] We went to the holiday market in Germantown. We walked all the different artisan booths and got ourselves some fresh raviolis from the Italian store on the corner to make for dinner. Then we checked out the Nashville Disc Golf Store. We saw a sign yesterday at the Seven Oaks course advertising for this store and wanted to check it out the next time that we were in the area. There is a huge disc golf community here in Nashville that we learned about while talking with the owner of the store. We told the owner that we lived in Pittsburgh for a few years after being married in 2019 and really loved playing the courses there. He said that he went to Pittsburgh played some of the same courses that we played in tournaments. It’s always fun getting to connect with people over a common activity! After, we went to Cedar Hill Park and took a walk around the small lake that is there. This park is close to where we live, so it’s very convenient for a quick mile walk. Afterwards, we went to sip cafe for their specialty hot chocolates.

[November 27] We went to Cross Point Church in the morning and then went to a music store. Bobby also released the second episode of Modern Day Faith Podcast. If you haven’t listened before, you can find MDF Podcast wherever you stream: Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, and Anchor.

[November 28] We drove by Bobby’s hospital so that he could grab something from work and then we went to the post office so that I could mail out another order from my Etsy shop. Afterwards, we went back to Cedar Hill Park to play the disc golf course. That night we had small group at our friends, Hailea and Kyle’s apartment.

[November 29] We took another walk at Radnor Lake State Park, but this time we parked at a different entrance across the lake, so that we could see more of the park and trails. We found the visitor’s center too, which had a small nature exhibit inside of it. While we were driving back to our townhome, we stopped by Dave Barnes and Jon McLaughlin homes.

Let’s Get Connected

Thanks for reading along! Subscribe down below to receive more details about our travels! We really enjoyed our first month here in Nashville while it was still warm enough to enjoy the outdoors and revisit places we’ve been to here in the past and explore some new places and meet new friends. More details to come! All the love from Music City! 🎙️🎸🎶

Madison Basile

Long Island, NY> Lynchburg, VA> Pittsburgh, PA> Tampa, FL> Nashville, TN