So I decide, against my better judgement, to fight the weather and the crowds in downtown Nashville, TN and take my family to see the 4th of July Celebration 'Let Freedom Sing' at Riverfront Park. I brought along my wife, two daughters, mother-in-law (Wanda) and sister-in-law (Kim). Wanda was really the deciding factor since she had never seen the 3rd largest fireworks show in the nation, plus Wynonna Judd was the headliner and she is a big fan. As we left the house I checked the weather forecast, a 10% chance of thunderstorms seemed like good odds so we headed out for family fun.
If you have never been in Nashville during the 4th, try to imagine squeezing 100,000 people into an outside space built to hold 25,000. It is a ridiculous situation to put yourself into, but the people are extremely friendly and everyone is excited, joyous, and overly patriotic. Even though the gates don't officially open until 12:00 noon, some people were there at 4:00 am to get center stage seats. We arrived around 1:30 and the place was already packed.
After we found a place to lay out the blanket and set up our seats we had a picnic. Although the humidity and heat were kind of high, we stilled kept the 'fun' we were about to have in mind and decided to go for a walk around downtown. We stopped at the 'Family Fun Zone' so Harlee could jump on the big blow-up thingy.
While we were waiting for Kim to get her $6 lemonade, the vendor told us there was an 80% chance of thunderstorms being reported by the event staff. I told my Wanda, "...what does she know, she's just a lemonade vendor". Well, later on after we had returned to our seats I found it unappetizing to be eating my own words. The rain did come and we sat under umbrellas trying to keep the girls dry while our butts got soaked in our fold-out chairs. And that was just a precursor to how the night would end. The MC for the event warned us about the coming storm. At least we weren't the only idiots that didn't listen, we HAD to stay and see Wynonna after all. Wynonna did show up, but for only 4 songs, then her management decided it wasn't safe for her to be on stage due to the coming storm. The event staff made the choice to light the fuses a little early since there were so many people still waiting it out.
After much debate between the adults, we chose to head back to my office building before the storm came and hopefully make it there to see most of the fireworks. WE DIDN'T MAKE IT. As soon as we got into the crowd of people the bottom fell out. I threw Melissa and Wanda the umbrellas to keep the girls dry, threw three chairs over my shoulder, grabbed the roll-behind cooler, and started pushing the double stroller through the crowd. (Did you pick up on how much I was carrying? Just stressing the situation). For some reason the people in the crowd weren't as friendly to a man hauling this load in a torrential downpour as they stared in disbelief. Maybe it was because they were all transfixed on the amazing fireworks show going on during the storm. Maybe they couldn't believe what they were seeing. Or maybe I was just reaping the wrath of Karma from insulting the poor lemonade vendor.
I finally made it the 4 blocks to the parking garage. Standing there soaking wet in complete disgust, I hear the booming sound of the spectacular fireworks show I had waited ALL DAY to see and now didn't even have a view of. Once my family had caught up with me, we headed to the top of the garage and managed to see the final 20 seconds of the finale as the rain slowly STOPPED. In retrospect, we should have just stood strong and watched the show instead of leaving and trying to beat the storm. I had the safety of my family in mind and thought I was making the mature decision.
As we returned home, after an hour and a half of traffic and driving, I jumped in the shower and turned on the DC and NYC Fireworks I had recorded while we were gone. It wasn't nearly as impressive, but we still all sat in front of the TV and enjoyed a family 4th of July experience.
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