For the first time since they got married with eleven days notice back in July, Carrie-Anne and I flew to Nashville last week to spend three days and nights with our youngest daughter Carley and her new husband Collin. To those who have asked, they’re doing great. And we had a blast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Collin and Carley live in a really nice 18th story condo in a downtown Nashville high rise right smack dab in the middle of everything. From their living room window you can see the Tennessee Titans stadium on the banks of the Cumberland River four blocks away. On the other side, four blocks outside their front door, is Bridgestone Arena where the NHL’s Predators play and where the CMA’s were held the evening we arrived. They’re three blocks away from the historic Ryman Auditorium and two blocks off rowdy Broadway Street where the night life goes late and loud. For a couple of kids in their 20s, I’m not sure you could find a cooler place to live.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Collin is the content director at CBS Sports’ 24/7 headquarters in Nashville in the old CMT building downtown, three  blocks from their apartment. Collin graciously allowed me to tag along Thursday morning as he Zoomed with other CBS Sports producers, sharing content and planning the day’s tapings and broadcasts. I sat in the control room as Collin supervised a couple of in-studio college football segments previewing the weekend’s biggest games. It’s all TV and live-streaming, not radio, and the technology is so much more sophisticated than when I was in the business twenty years ago. But I did feel the bug start to nibble a little bit, especially when I disagreed with the analysis of one of their hosts.

 

 

 

 

 

We did a ton while we were there – they showed us a really great time. We saw the capitol grounds, the Vanderbilt campus, the Nashville Sounds’ super nice Triple-A ballpark, and the creepy 41-foot-tall statue of Athena inside the Parthenon. We toured Ryman Auditorium, went Duckpin bowling, ate on the balcony at Prince’s Hot Chicken, and took in the revelry on the roof at Jason Aldean’s place right after the CMA’s. We hung out at 6th and Peabody, where Carley works, and met some of her friends. And we ate and ate and ate. And talked and laughed. And reminded Carley that she’s off the health insurance and the car insurance December 1.

They got married and moved so far away so quickly, it doesn’t seem real to me most of the time. If I’m not careful, I can still think of Carley as being away at school or on a long trip and she’ll be home soon. Well, she’s home. And it’s in Nashville. And they’re doing great.

Peace,

Allan