Days 5 and 6 Nashville and Columbia, Missouri

Christmas day in Nashville wasn't very exciting, Sylvia did laundry and I went to the hotel gym and walked down to the river. In the afternoon we wandered over to the Omni Hotel for lunch which turned out to be pretty good. There were few places open until later in the afternoon, but we managed to find one or two and checked them out. Didn't do much more than that except to decide where to get a room for tomorrow.

Tomorrow came and it was freezing. We checked out and drove 435 miles up and over to Columbia, Missouri. It wasn't a bad trip until it started snowing and tensions got tighter which lead to the normal lively discussions. Fortunately the snow only lasted the final 150 miles as did the lively discussions. Columbia considers itself one of the better foodie towns in Missouri, so after two hours of deciding where to have dinner we picked the 44 Stone Public House. It was a relaxed Pub atmosphere with an interesting menu. Sylvia had ground lamb sliders with pickled onion and yogurt, and a side of shaved Brussel sprouts with bacon and garlic. I had an app of fried chicken livers with mushrooms and truffle oil over arugula, and a roasted lemon and thyme brined chicken with buttermilk mashed potatoes. Everything was excellent, even the Buffalo Trace Bourbon Manhattan. We sat at the bar and it was especially nice to talk to some locals. Definitely worth the stop.

I've never had a drink or spent the night in Nebraska or Iowa so that's where we will spend the next two days. It doesn't look like a particularly good idea, but why not? wtf.