25. May 2026
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Six US States And Nashville (Day 11/12 – 9th/10th June 2025) – Going Home

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Time to go home. The last somehow two days of my Six US States and Nashville trip majorly featured my trip back home to Germany. However, I started the day with at least a little bit of sightseeing.

 

Travel Preparations and Warbirds in Evansville

I stayed until 11:30 in the room of the Hampton Inn Evansville Airport, preparing the suitcase and working on Flyctory.com stuff. Before heading to the airport, I visited the Evansville Wartime Museum. As I saw some planes on pictures, I expected an aviation museum. However, the museum goes much deeper and shows the impact of WWI and especially WWII on the region around Evansville. A very interesting place with lovely people. Finally, I also had another simulator flight on a Cessna. Let’s hope that this one won’t become a (too expansive) hobby for me.

The return at Alamo Evansville was easy and friendly. I was a bit nervous about scars on the car after I hit a branch in Muscle Shoals before. However, Alamo inspected it and said there is no damage from their point of view. I am sure it would have been a few thousand Euros at Hertz Malta or other rip-off places. The fun story of the day was an American Airlines flight to Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) delayed by four hours, because the original pilot did refuse to fly the plane for whatever reason. I headed into the nice airside area of the airport, worked on another review and then headed to the gate. This also lead to some confusing when the inbound plane from Chicago (ORD) arrived. Ground staff was visibly in discussion whether the Embraer is finally at the right gate.

 

A First Short Hop

The Embraer flight to Chicago (ORD) was easy, apart from a rather late slot time. Chicago (ORD) is simply mad. I did something like sleeping on the plane, apart from enjoying the drink and snack they served. The walk from the arrival gate to my flight to London was almost exactly the same I did on the first day. This time, I had no issue getting into the American Airlines Flagship Lounge, grabbing some urgently necessary food before going back to the gate. I really felt weak and even a bit of sick at that time.

 

A Below-Average Long Haul Performance

The incoming plane (from Dallas/Fort Worth… again…) was half an hour laid and the ground crew could not catch up a single minute of it. I asked for a (paid) upgrade, which was declined – later, they gave new boarding passes to other people, which felt a bit of weird. I did not like the flight from the very first moment. This included having two infants on their parents’ laps in the Premium Economy cabin. American Airlines does not seem to have the policy that they have to be buckled up for take off and landing. One of them was sitting on the armrest at take-off, the other on the ground. Overall, the service was not too good, the food was even worse than on the flight to the US. But, at least, a load of Melatonin made me sleep very well.

We arrived in Heathrow at an outside parking position of Terminal 3. Regarding that it is Heathrow, the transfer was almost perfect. It “just” took them some ten to fifteen minutes to provide stairs and buses. After passing security and being pissed about other passengers, who use that area for socializing, I just had 30 minutes until my gate for the Dusseldorf (DUS) flight was announced. Thus, I went for the short route – and a quick drink at the Northern Galleries Lounge (i.e. Business Lounge). I currently have quite a series that Dusseldorf (DUS) flights depart from the Terminal 5 sattelites – which added a bit of stress to the commute. I did not enjoy the flight too much, rather due to my health and energy situation.

 

Coming Home

I was very exhausted before and during the flight. Thus, I doubted a bit that I can make it home safely, but I could recover a bit. After taking the SkyTrain, I went back to the parking garage, where my car was located. I had a safe drive home. Look forward to be back in the States in nine day – Weird Al Yankovic is calling and I will follow his call to Las Vegas! Thanks for joining me on this travel.

 

Tops and Flops

I don’t want to write a full reprise of the trip. I overall enjoyed my road trip a lot, even though it was more stressful than expected. The heat was killing me. And of course, I struggled every day with the decision not to cover CMA Fest – even though I somehow knew that this was the right option to take.

Nonetheless, I want to have some Tops and Flops – the best (and worst) experiences I had on this trip.

My three least enjoyable experiences on my Six US States and Nashville trip were:

  • The Women Basketball Hall of Fame. I looked that much forward to the place. Finally, it was not up-to-date, not well maintained and major parts were closed.
  • Xperia: Smoky Mountains. The idea of a virtual aquarium is great. The technology they use is partially not sufficient to suit my expectations
  • Dolly Parton’s Stampede: The show was good, the meal reasonable. Nonetheless, the VIP Experience was rather stressful to me.

On the other hand, I absolutely loved these four (I just could not limit to three) experiences on my trip:

  • The scenic drives in the Great Smoky Mountains. Regardless whether it was Roaring Fork Rd, the Foothills Parkway or the Tail of the Dragon, it was amazing to explore nature from that perspective
  • The Lincoln Museum in Hodgenville, Kentucky. The small place gives such a superb overview of the life and death of the former US president as well as its influence nowadays. Great place!
  • The Jesse Owens Museum. Even though there could be more original exhibits and the location is quite unfortunate, they do an amazing job illustrating the life of the US Olympic athletics athlete.
  • Evansville Airport (EVV). This place is so efficient. Especially when arriving late in the evening, it felt like an absolute treat. Loved it!

 

My Song of the Day: Miranda Lambert – Baggage Claim

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:

Doesn’t Miranda Lambert’s song fit perfectly to a travel day? I thus used this one as my featured song of the last episode of this trip report. Looking forward to the Breland show in Cologne, I also loved the idea of One door closes, another one opens in his newest song with Ella Henderson, which is the last song addition to this small playlist. The other two songs I picked are Drunk On A Plane by Dierks Bentley (no comment about a potential realistic background…) and Blown Away by Carrie Underwood.

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

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

 

The Flyctory.com Club of Excellence

There are not too many reviews (of any kind) which make it to a 5.0 on Flyctory. Praise the best ones:

 

Trip Report Inceptions

Here are the starting postings of each Trip Report I posted in here so far

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