4. August 2026
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Six US States And Nashville (Day 1 – 30th May 2025) – My First Flight To Indiana

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

After I just gave you the preview of this trip so far, my road trip around Nashville was finally starting on 30th May 2025. I did not feel too well on that Friday morning, having had quite a bunch of work and stress and too little sleep before the trip, so I hoped I could relax – and work on that first day of my travel.

 

26 Hours Ahead

In general, I like traveling. And I am not that bothered about long flights. But leaving home at about 4:15 local German time (or: 21:15 Thursday time in Evansville) did make me struggle a bit. Door to door, this should be a some 26 or 27 hour trip to get close to Music City on that first day. At least everything went rather smooth – apart from that I just could not board the first SkyTrain from Dusseldorf Airport Rail Station (where my car is parked) to the terminal, just because it was absolutely packed. No other issues thereafter, so that I had at least a bit of time in the Open Sky Lounge in the non-Schengen area of the airport before heading to London Heathrow (LHR).

You just cannot expect that things run smoothly when you transfer in the major airport of the British capital. The plane was parked close to the transfer bus gates for Terminal 3, where my American Airlines flight to Chicago (ORD) was about to leave. The bus was just boarding when I arrived, the lines at Terminal 3 transfer security were bearable. That felt too good to be true. Indeed, the carry-on luggage scanner broke down, so that my belongings spend some 15 minutes in the machine. You need to take that with a sense of humor – and somehow I really had fun with the security guys. Let’s say, they were not overwhelmingly proud about the hard product they are working with. So we made the best out of the situation. Later than you should expect, I quickly grabbed some nicotine pouches and headed to the terminal.

 

Chicago Calling

The key flight of the day was my American Airlines connection to Chicago O’Hare (ORD). However, as I was too greedy to fly to Nashville (BNA) with BA directly, it gave me two rather long layovers. From landing in Heathrow to departure of the next flight, I had some 4 1/2 hours layover – of which I had spent some 45 minutes already. Terminal 3 is rich of interesting lounge options for Oneworld status customers. This time, I wanted to make use of my American Express Platinum Card and went to the Centurion Lounge at Heathrow, a new experience for me. A really nice and cosy place, which allowed me to almost finish my Songs of the Week post before getting to the gate some 80 minutes before the flight.

The Boeing Dreamliner was parked at the most distant possible gate, so that I already made my target step count easily in London already. As the morning flight to Chicago (ORD) had been cancelled, the flight was absolutely packed. The flight was rather uneventful. I will tell you about the catering in my next Food I Had Onboard post. My typical strategy is Eat, Sleep or Work during a long-haul flight. I wanted to review the new The Castellows EP, but there were some issues with Spotify on my Chromebook. But I did work on some stuff (including this post), before I had a one hour nap. Unfortunately, I couldn’t sleep more, so that I worked on a bit. The most entertaining event of the flight was likely that someone broke the bathroom door and it took the flight attendants some 20 minutes to repair it.

 

Waiting for Indiana

I have been in Indianapolis before, but I drove there, so that the flight to Evansville (EVV) was in fact my very first flight to the US State. However, I had a little less than six hours between landing and boarding the plane for the last leg of the flight. My original booking was an Air Wisconsin Canadair CRJ 200, but it had turned into a Embraer 145 operated by Piedmont Airlines. This also means that the Embraer 145, which is also used by Contour Air, might become the most frequented airplane type of that trip – funny.

Global Entry is a lovely thing – thus, the immigration went super-smoothly and also customs went easy. Due to TSA Pre thereafter, it did not take me too long to be in the American Airlines Flagship Lounge in Chicago (ORD). After some discussion, whether my BA Gold Status allows me to enter, I won. A really nice place to hang out for some four hours. I fed myself with some really nice food – much better than the stuff I had onboard before.

 

The Last Flight of the Day

Of course, I had to walk quite a bit to the gate to Evansville (EVV). The flight was very nice, I finally even got a single seat in the 1-2 configured plane. However, traffic in Chicago on a Friday evening is massive. Thus, the time from leaving the gate to the in-fact take off was about the same than the 36 minute flight to Indiana. Evansville Airport (EVV) looked very charming at first sight – and showed all advantages of a small regional airport. While the luggage was not yet on the belt, I was already at the Alamo counter right across the same room, doing the car rental stuff. My luggage was a bit of quicker than the keys, but some 100 meters later, I was already at the car which will bring me to five more states during the next days. I had selected the Hampton Inn Evansville Airport for the first night (and will stay there the last night of my trip as well). A very welcoming staff. Unfortunately, I had to walk quite a bit to my room until I finally could relax a bit, release my new Songs of the Week and get ready for my first night in the United States.

 

My Song of the Day: Nik Wallner – Nashville, Tegernsee

This trip is about music. Thus I felt present one song each day which somehow accompanied me every day. And I added a playlist of these songs – and some more – on my Spotify account as well:

My song of the first day just had to do deal with Nashville somehow. I am so excited to be back in Music City, even though CMA Fest did not work out. However, the Nashville song I picked is a German one. Nashville, Tegernsee by my dear Featured Artist Nik Wallner describes the positive emotions I had about going back to Tennessee best. And: can’t Nashville be anywhere – as long as you have country music in your heart? The other songs I added are Vic Allen’s new single Ended in a Song (I absolutely love it) and Home Is A Song by Mary Chapin Carpenter – I reviewed her upcoming album Personal History during the flight. I also had Olivia Newton-John’s Xanadu in my mind during the flight quite a bit… So it’s in the playlist as well.

Here is the full playlist, which will grow day by day:

 

Six US States And Nashville – Daily Episodes

Here is an overview of the daily postings. I will link them once they have been published:

There will be no Day 12 report, as this would only cover the flight back to Germany.

 

Flyctory.com about US Aviation

Here are all Airports & Airlines postings related to the USA:

 

Nik Wallner

Here are all my postings related to German country artist Nik Wallner:

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Six US States And Nashville (Day 11/12 – 9th/10th June 2025) – Going Home

Six US States And Nashville (Day 2 – 31st May 2025) – Back To Music City

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