Jason Priestly’s Thoughts on Nashville and Dallas

Note: Happy New Year, my loyal blog reader. While I’m still easing into 2011, I invited my friend Jason Priestly to guest write this post. Jason was with J and I on our holiday trip to Nashville and Dallas, and I have faith that he will write with the same eloquence and spelling errors as you’ve come to expect from this blog.

Guest writer Jason Priestley.

Hi all. First, a thanks to Nik for letting me write today’s post. After the first season of Call Me Fitz wrapped last year, I was wondering how I’d fill my time off. Originally, I was going to meet my wife and kids at the old family house in Victoria. But jeez, that’s what I do every holiday. Luckily, Nik and J-Dawg invited me to travel with them to their family homes in Nashville and Dallas. If you can imagine, I’d never been to either city so I was pretty enthusiastic about the whole plan.

I flew up from LA on the morning of Christmas Eve. We met for a quick lunch at my favorite joint in the city (The Stinking Rose) then took a shuttle to the airport. Travel tip: a “shuttle” is like a limo, but you have to share it with strangers. Did you know that you can prepay with a credit card online? I didn’t.

Since I flew a direct first class flight, I arrived in Nashville a few hours before Nik and J-Dawg. I rang up my pal Luke Perry on my Razor to shoot the shit, and by crazy coincidence he was in Nashville too! Luke swung by the airport and we went bungee jumping while we waited for the others.

Unfortunately, Luke couldn’t join us for the rest of the trip. It’s probably for the best, as Nik gets unreasonably jealous when he’s around.

Here are a few photos that Nik took:

Leaving sunny LA.

Snow in Tennessee. It’s way less than I’m used too, but Nik seemed excited about it.

Driving to Paducah, Kentucky. We rocked out to Barenaked Ladies the whole way!

A shredded cloth warehouse in New Deal, Tennessee. Ah, Americana!

I joked that these icicles where colder than Shannon Doherty’s nipples. Whoosh!

A saggy porch.

This old general store no longer looked in business. Kind of like that poor, old Ian.

An abandoned Food Lion.

A 13 dish feast at Monel’s. Man, so much southern food.

Abandoned house.

Storefront.

Kittens on the porch of a quaint country shack.

This lake isn’t frozen enough for ice hockey.

Barn.

Blue Heron standing on the ice.

Deer.

Walkway.

Thorny locust tree.

J-Dawg.

Pods.

Walking through the woods.

Horse apple, A.K.A. “Tori Spelling Apple.”

Barns.

Nashville and Paducah were great. As a celebrity, I’m used to people acting differently around me. But this family seemed to accept me as one of their own. All the dudes and I bonded over cars, and everyone seemed really curious what it was like to own FAZZT Race Team. Basically, it’s awesome. Additionally, I enjoyed the company, hearty food, and what Nik calls “kicking the feather.”

On the 29th, we said goodbye to J-Dawg’s family and flew to Dallas.

Man, that house is filthy. But his parents are so cool. It’s too bad I have an allergy to cats though, as those little buggers were spilling out of the woodwork.

Some more photos Nik took:

Possum eating cat food on the porch.

The flying nun.

Nik said that he planted these wild onions as a child.

Overlooking the not so scenic Trinity River in Dallas.

The Commerce Street Bridge leading into Dallas’ historic Jail, Jail Expansion, and Courthouse District.

Old sign.

In front of Nik’s mom’s vintage clothing store.

How many grades of unleaded gasoline do you need?

An old basketball.

Kicking it.

The “gang” posing with their finished 3d puzzle.

Planting a geocache.

Nik found his old BB guns. I almost pissed myself taking these photos.

Hiking along a secondary levee.

Nik’s family photographed through the reflection of a sunglass lens. High concept photography, right there.

The arch of Santiago Calatrava’s soon to be famous “Bridge to Nowhere” over the Trinity River.

This cute portrait of J-Dawg and Nik give me and Naomi Lowde a run for the money.

Levee walkers.

Nik’s hilarious father running with a lost bumper.

Finding a geocache memorializing the site Oswald shot officer J. D. Tippit.

Nothing is sweeter than street-side cotton candy.

Tori Spelling looking for food in the back of a truck.

Destroying garbage with bowling pins, a Daum tradition apparently.

Dallas was fun, but I had to leave right after New Year’s Day to gear up for a project I’m developing with none other than Frank Dungan, Jeff Stein, and Tony Sheehan. Talk about going full circle! And no, it’s not a remake of Sister Kate!!!

Thanks again Nik for letting me write this post and be part of your holiday.

Until then, Jason Priestly OUT!