2 Aussie Nomads

Stretchy jeans. The person who invented stretchy jeans should receive a Nobel prize for fashion.

I’ll explain that in more detail later.

Have you ever heard of someone who has received an injury or a knock to the head, and when they next woke up they were speaking with a foreign accent?

I have had that exact experience. Well, not me personally, but someone close to me.

No, not MBW either.

Jolene. Yep, it’s like she has a new personality, and no speech impediment any longer.

Last night we stayed at Shannon’s place in Hot Springs Village AR. Hot Springs Village (or HSV for short) is a 26,000 acre private gated community, essentially for retirees.

Shannon has this amazing home in a quiet cul-de-sac. In fact, his house is the only one in the cul-de-sac and he has purchased neighbouring allotments to ensure complete privacy.

You could – quite seriously – go for a walk from his house and get lost in the woods, and not see another person.

While I appreciate that you would have no specific reason to disbelieve me, here is a Google Maps screenshot with the red placemarker showing the location of his house.

Shannon lives in an “apartment” up those stairs, and we essentially had the remainder of the house to ourselves.

Shannon was extremely easy-going, and nothing was too much trouble.

“Help yourself to anything in the fridge. There’s coffee and breakfast, and movies, and beer, and …”

All in all, a very successful AirBnB experience. A bit off the beaten track, but well worth the drive to get there.

There was one drawback though. It was very cold.

We got up this morning to -2°C again. The Don II was covered in ice 🙁

Lucky The Don II has seat warmers.

We headed off from Shannon’s around 8.30am because we had a long drive.

We told Jolene where we wanted to go to (Dallas TX) and in a broad American voice she gave us driving instructions.

She has never spoken like an American before! And better still, she can now say “Walmart Supercentre” and “Nashville” and make them sound right.

I do find it a little annoying when she says “turn onto Constitution Aven-oo”, but that’s the way that they say it here.

Apparently MBW set Jolene to talk like an American last night to see how long it would take me to notice …

As usual, the combination of cold weather, coffee, and faulty plumbing meant that we were looking for restrooms by 10.30 … and we found them in a place called Hope, Arkansas, at their local Walmart.

Specifically it was a Walmart Supercentre, and I’m going to miss Walmart when we come home. It has just everything you need, and stuff that you don’t.

You can get some really cool stuff there: Christmas clothes …

… hats to keep your ears warm …

… Santa and elf PJs …

… and of course, donuts. 58 cents for a glazed donut, and because we used their restrooms, we thought that it was only proper that we bought some donuts.

So we had donuts and coffee for morning tea. In Hope AR.

Hope AR is the place that little Bill Clinton was born, and his house is now an historic site.

We didn’t feel strongly enough to go and have a look at it, so we just had coffee and donuts, then headed off again on our way back to Dallas/Fort Worth to complete the road trip.

Now I’ve previously spoken about the big caravans that you see getting hauled all around the United States. We saw this one (below) as it went past us at about 85mph.

Not the biggest one that we have seen, but when you look at the back of it, it is almost as high as a semi-trailer.

Then we saw a bigger one – a triple axle affair.

Almost as long as a semi-trailer!

At Texarkana we crossed over into Texas.

There were a couple of clues that we had crossed into Texas – speed limits were suddenly raised to 75mph, and everyone started driving like they were possessed.

I had my cruise control set to 82mph (133km/h) and people were still flying past me.

Somewhere around the Texas state line, MBW said 7 little words that I never thought I would hear her utter.

“I’m tired of listening to Christmas music”.

A cold chill went through my body. That’s like Mrs Claus saying she no longer believes in Christmas.

Although, to be fair, we had listened to all styles and types of Christmas music for several days – country, Michael Bublé, oldies, newies, you name it.

The other thing that happened somewhere just after the Texas state line was that something started squawking and I was concerned that The Don II was about to have a breakdown.

But we both got this unusual message on our phones:

Apparently he had shot a Houston police officer and was on the run. There’s a reason not to pick up hitchhikers!

We had stopped in Hope AR for morning smoko, so where do you think we stopped for lunch?

What is the opposite of Hope? Despair? Close enough. We stopped at Sulphur Springs TX for lunch.

It sounds like a pretty depressing place, and it lived up to its name. We had donuts again to try and cheer the place up a bit. And fried chicken. Plus salad.

I could swear that The Don II is actually smiling in the first photo – he knows that he is back home in Texas 🙂

From there we had a pretty clear run through to tonight’s AirBnB in Dallas/Fort Worth. This one is a bit disappointing as they have obviously lost interest in hosting guests. Lucky we are only here for the one night.

We dropped off all of our stuff, went out to the local outlet stores to look for stuff that I’m not convinced we need and then came back home to repackage all of our bags ready for our flight to NYC tomorrow morning.

So that’s about it. The road trip is (almost) over – we just need to take The Don II back to the airport and give him back – and then the NYC bit of the holiday begins.

I mentioned stretchy jeans earlier.

You’ve possibly noticed that there has been an unhealthy bias in our diet towards fried chicken, BBQ, donuts, beignets …

The magic of stretchy jeans is that they fit you no matter what you’ve eaten or how much weight you put on … so you can continue to feel good about yourself 🙂

And that of course is the link to today’s song. “Oh baby you (donuts, BBQ, fried chicken…) got me in the shape I’m in …”

Today’s drive was a long one – but that was expected: 330mi or 530km.

Here is today’s song: Shape I’m In (Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons).

Ciao

#G&KTAKEUSA2019

I felt like the Michelin man when we went out this morning. Somewhere between the Michelin man and a Sara Lee pastry.

There was just layer after layer after layer. All necessary layers though because we started the day at 2°C, and it only ever hit a top of 3°C.

There were thermals, then jeans, a long-sleeved tee-shirt, a flannelette shirt and a jumper, then a jacket, scarf and beanie.

And I was still cold.

I have to say that it made going to the bathroom very complicated, making sure that everything got tucked in back in the correct order.

But it was all worth it because it snowed. Not exactly a blizzard … in fact there was not even enough snow to see it in a photograph, but it was undeniably snowing.

And you can believe me when I tell you that the seat warmers got a good workout today.

We started the day with a trip out to Collierville. MBW had done some research and identified that Collierville has been voted the prettiest main street in Tennessee. And it was a very pretty little town square.

I tried my hand at being Santa …

… but I don’t really have the whiskers for it.

Collierville is about 40km or a little over half an hour south east of Memphis.

Honestly, I felt like I was on the set of Heartland, popping in and out of these little shops in this tiny township.

But it was very pretty. We stopped and had a nice chat with the guy who ran the cowboy boots and jeans shop, and bought a few things from some gift shops. We had a nice coffee at the local coffee shop before heading back into Memphis.

From Collierville TN we next headed towards Graceland – the home of Elvis Presley.

Now before you get too excited, we didn’t go in. It was more of a “drive by” kind of thing.

Neither MBW or myself are huge Elvis fans, and I have a particularly low tolerance to things that are an obvious tourist trap where you pay extortionate fees for everything from parking, to seeing very limited parts of the house and everything else is (ka-ching) extra co$t.

And from all reports, it is not even a particularly well-rated tourist attraction, and located in a particularly grubby part of town.

So we spiced the whole thing up by parking illegally, taking a couple of shots of Graceland on maximum iPhone camera zoom, and racing off again.

But we still put enough planning and effort into the operation to claim “Graceland” as our song for tonight because we did go to Graceland, we just didn’t go IN to Graceland ..

“… I’m going to Graceland, Graceland 
Memphis, Tennessee 
I’m going to Graceland …”

And besides all of that, Elvis isn’t really dead anyway … he’s just pumping gas somewhere on the I-40.

Next stop was Bass Pro, which is like a combination of BCF and Kathmandu on steroids. Seriously.

They sell everything from clothing to fishing gear, guns, boats, quad bikes, 4WD buggy’s … everything!

And like everything else in America, everything is HUGE!

It doesn’t look so big there … is that what you are thinking?

I checked out the gift shop …

After all of that excitement, we decided to walk to Arkansas. Yes folks, you heard me … we walked to Arkansas.

We walked halfway across the Harahan foot bridge that crosses the mighty Mississippi River from Tennessee to Arkansas.

Now in the interests of full disclosure, we didn’t set foot on the Arkansas side of the river.

It was absolutely freezing out there on the bridge, with a very cold wind blowing off the river, making the reported 2°C feel something more like -10°C.

I was pretty sure that I was getting frostbite on my fingers and toes, so we made it to the Arkansas side of the state line marker and scurried back to The Don II to crank up the seat warmers and go find some lunch.

We had been told that Central BBQ is the place to eat in Memphis, and so we went and had a vegetarian’s worst nightmare – half a rack of ribs, smoked turkey breast, smoked brisket, plus sides.

Please believe me when I tell you that it is worth the trip to Memphis TN, even if it is just to eat at Central BBQ 🙂

Last stop of the day was a 3.30pm guided tour through Sun Studio: The birthplace of rock and roll.

The story is that Sam Phillips was a very popular DJ in Memphis and recognised that there were many talented musicians in and around Memphis that had no way of cutting their own record.

He set up the Memphis Recording Studio in January 1950 and allowed anyone to cut a record for a flat fee of $4.00 (about $58 today).

He had many musicians come in and cut their own record, and then one day an 18 year old Elvis Presley came in and recorded his first song.

The Memphis Recording Studio was unable to sign Elvis to a record contract, so Sun Records was established.

Other greats to record at the Memphis Recording Studio include BB King, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash.

Graham (our guide) also talked about how various sound effects were created – such as the sound of the train tracks in Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues“ – using a guitar with the strings all loosened.

The facility was sold in 1959 when Sam Phillips opened a new studio, and the building was used at various times as a barber shop, laundromat and a scuba/surf shop … yet none of the subsequent owners ever changed anything in the building.

When it was reopened in 1987 as a recording studio and tourist attraction, it was still functionally a recording studio, attracting artists like U2, Def Leppard, and Ringo Starr.

We ended the day with a spectacular sunset before heading back to our AirBnB to pack. Tomorrow we head off to Hot Springs Arkansas.

It’s been another amazing day in Memphis. Tomorrow we are off to Hot Springs Arkansas, then back to Dallas and off to NYC for almost a week.

In the meantime, here is a link to Graceland (Paul Simon).

Ciao

#G&KTAKEUSA2019

In a way I’m kind of glad that we have now left Nashville.

I’ve mentioned previously about Jolene’s speech impediment … and she has a real problem saying Nashville.

It comes out as Nasher-ville. Every time we go out, or head home, it’s the same thing. “For the next 23km take the I-40 to Nasher-ville”.

Argh!

We stayed for three nights at Melvin’s place, about 25km out of Nashville downtown. It was a really nicely appointed, self-contained apartment in a nice quiet area of town.

Actually, I wish we could have stayed a few more days in Nashville because it was a really exciting and vibrant place to be.

If you love music – and especially live music – and especially live country music, it is the place to be.

The funny thing is that there is music just everywhere – every bar, every street corner. And they are all good. And they are all competing with each other.

We were in one bar and the band asked for customer requests. In response to the highest bidder they burst into a very good rendition of “Feel like a Woman”.

We went into another bar and the band started playing “Sweet Home Alabama”. Again, very good. Good enough to be on stage.

I don’t have a problem with country music, except that you can only write so many songs about your girl leaving you, or your dog dying …

In preparation for going to Nashville I was listening to a country playlist on Spotify, and some of the more bizarre songs were:

• All my Ex’s live in Texas
• You’re the reason our kids are ugly
• She thinks my tractor’s sexy
• I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy

Meaningful stuff.

Anyhow, if you haven’t figured it out already, today was a bit of a slow news day.

We checked out of Melvin’s place around 9.00am and headed back down to Franklin.

MBW has read a couple of books about the Battle of Franklin, and the books have included historical facts about the battle, woven into a story.

Nothing much happens in Franklin on a Sunday morning – well, not before 11.00am anyway – and so we had a bit of a wander around. It’s a very pretty place.

While it is a very pretty township, it seems that it is also a favourite place for the wealthy to live … I think that I read somewhere that Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman have (or had) a house there.

The other clue was that the local hairdresser can name his price in such a small community.

Richard must be pretty special if he can charge $100+ for a men’s haircut or $150+ for a woman’s.

So after having a wander around Franklin, we had a quick look at Carter House which was a significant location in the Battle of Franklin (AKA the Civil War).

The picture above is of the side wall of one of the buildings at Carter House, and you can see the bullet holes in the side wall – these are from the battle in 1864.

We then had a look at some of the other historical displays around town.

From there we went to have a look at Carnton House which is another significant location in the Battle of Franklin.

It was a location where the Confederate Army (the South) were trying to get to Nashville, but the United States Army (the North) had set up a blockade as their fighting position.

The Carnton House – owned and occupied by a wealthy farming family – was right where the fighting was happening and it was taken over as a field hospital. At one time it is reported as having 300 wounded soldiers inside the house, and hundreds more in the barn, sheds and on the lawn.

We did a tour of the house and in the upstairs bedrooms there is still evidence of bloodstains that have soaked into the timber floors … from where the surgeons operated on wounded soldiers.

The Battle of Franklin was reported as one of the last great battles of the American Civil War. There were significant casualties, despite the fact that the battle only lasted for five hours in the afternoon of November 30, 1864. You can read more about it here.

The casualties were so significant because most of the battle was fought in the dark.

After the tour, we pointed The Don II at Memphis which is our home for the next three nights.

One of the “must do” places to eat in Memphis is Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken … so we went there for dinner.

Their chicken recipe is a closely guarded secret, and they only serve it in one way – hot and spicy.

And believe me … it was HOT and SPICY!

Dinner was fried chicken, fried rice, ‘slaw, fried green tomatoes, and fries.

There’s a heart attack on a plate!

So, to explain tonight’s song and the title of tonight’s post …

Johnny Cash (“The Man in Black”) is a big part of Nashville’s history – there is the Johnny Cash Museum there and he features in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

He was also a favourite at the Grand Ole Opry (until he was kicked out for breaking all of the stage lights when he was performing drunk one night). He was eventually invited back.

But tonight’s song is also in recognition of the fact that MBW and I had hot and spicy fried chicken for dinner tonight, and it still needs to work its way through our digestive systems …

So sing along:

… and it burns, burns, burns
That ring of fire, that ring of fire …

Burning Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash).

Ciao

#G&KTAKEUSA2019

One of the things that I am finding very confusing about being here in the South is the sunrise and sunset times.

Sunrise is 6.45am and sunset 4.30pm, so by 6.00pm I feel like I should be crawling into bed. Having walked almost 15,000 steps today only supports that feeling of weariness.

The weather today was a warm start again. We got into The Don II and pointed him at Nashville downtown for a day of exploring the city.

Jolene was reporting a number of road closures in and around the CBD which was a little confusing for a Saturday morning … but Jolene knows best.

We headed down the I-40 (I think … they all look alike to me …) and noticed how gloomy and foggy it seemed. Not a good start for a day of walking around the city.

Jolene turned out to be absolutely correct about road closures. She routed us a different way again to what we are used to, but found our favourite car park exactly where it is supposed to be.

I took my ticket from the machine and hit traffic. Inside the car park. We did a slow crawl all the way up to L5 which seemed a bit odd – I’ve never parked above L2 previously.

We got out of the car and started our walk only to find that there was a Christmas parade on today with some major streets blocked … so we stopped to watch the parade for a while.

After watching that parade for maybe 30 minutes, we went up to the Ryman Auditorium for our backstage tour. Our Sightseeing Pass entitled us to the self-guided tour, but we paid the extra $10 each for the guided tour – well worth it.

We saw all of the usual backstage stuff including dressing rooms, stage, etc.

The Ryman started out life as a church, built in the 1890s and is known for it’s amazing acoustics. It is also the home of the Grand Ole Opry which is a weekly music show that brings together seasoned performers and new talent as part of a radio show.

The building was disused for approximately 20 years and was facing demolition, but a number of big-name performers (including Dolly Parton) led the charge to have the Ryman brought back to its original glory and restored. It is now a listed historical building.

It still has all of the original pews … a bit uncomfortable for a long show, but apparently they enhance the sound quality in the building.

We have heard that many performers would rather perform at the 2,362 seat auditorium than at a much larger venue – because of the acoustics and the sense of being connected with the audience.

After the tour we had a quick lunch (fried chicken on a waffle … yum … but we won’t be discussing it here) and then went over to the Music City Walk of Fame park where famous music celebrities have a star in the pavement.

We then wandered over to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Lots of crazy going on with Webb Pierce’s car, complete with pistols as door handles and a saddle in the centre console.

After all of that excitement, we did a final wander around to see the last of the Nashville sights including GooGoo’s Clusters …

… yes, we did buy some, and no, we are not bringing any home :(.

We crossed over the veterans bridge …

… and then had a bit of a walk around the city, specifically down Broadway which is where all of the bars and venues are located.

We went into some bars to listen to some live music …

Honestly, the music in those bars was so loud that the beat of the drums and bass guitar could be felt through the concrete floors. It could probably re-start your heart if you had cardiac issues …

MBW wanted to look at some boots …

… and then we went to look at a full size replica of the Parthenon which was built in 1896 as part of the Centennial exhibition and celebrations in Nashville TN. Pretty impressive stuff!

Final stop for the night was the Nashville Farmers Market where we had some dinner … no, not fried chicken, but BBQ 🙂

The little girl in the photo above photo-bombed me … but she was cute so we let her get away with it 🙂

That about wraps up Nashville TN – it’s been a fun place to visit and we would have loved to stay longer. It has some incredible history and the Ryman Auditorium – “The Mother Church of Country Music” – is a place that I’d love to go back to and see some more performances.

I hope that you are enjoying tagging along.

We are heading off to Memphis tomorrow so that should be a blast too.

We will be in Country Music territory for a bit longer yet, so I hope that you continue to enjoy the music choices.

Today’s song is Work Up in Nashville (Seth Ennius).

Ciao

#G&KTAKEUSA2019

I’m convinced that Jolene can read my mind. If you don’t know who Jolene is, you will have to go back a few days and catch-up.

Actually, I’m convinced that MBW can read my mind too, but I guess that is to be expected after being married to her for 35 years.

But Jolene and I don’t have that much history, so it’s freaking me out a bit.

I’ll tell you more about that soon.

Today was a bit warmer. 11°C was the temperature the first time I looked at my phone today – around 8.30am.

11°C is quite a reasonable temperature to start the day. Much warmer that -1°C, but still cool compared to Brisbane winter temperatures.

We discovered the reason for the warmer start when we left our comfortable Nashville AirBnB this morning.

Overcast. Rain. 🙁

Not enough rain to need an umbrella, but enough rain that I needed to use The Don II’s wipers … or to be slightly more correct, to find out how to use The Don II’s wipers.

After all of those big, wide, blue Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South & North Carolina and Tennessee skies, that run of luck had to come to an end at some point.

So I figured out how to use the wipers and we set off on a bit of a drive in the Tennessee countryside.

Specifically, we took a drive out to Leiper’s Fork TN.

Now, today’s post needs some participation from you good readers. The question is, what is significant about Leiper’s Fork TN?

I certainly knew of one thing that put Leiper‘s Fork on the map, but then today I discovered a second thing about Leiper’s Fork TN.

So the challenge to you is to post your thoughts on Leiper’s Fork in a comment at the end of this post. There is no prize – only bragging rights and the warm inner glow of knowing something that nobody else did 🙂

After exploring Leiper’s Fork – and believe me, it didn’t take long – we headed off to Belle Meade Plantation for a guided tour.

We travelled on some beautiful rural Tennessee back roads.

Belle Meade Plantation was originally built in 1807 by John Harding, and the significance of this estate is that they were famous for thoroughbred American racehorses.

In fact, their most significant thoroughbred was called Inquirer, and we learned that out of 142 Kentucky Derby races, only 32 winners were not related to Inquirer. Pretty impressive!

In fact, since 2003, every horse that has raced in the Kentucky Derby can trace its bloodline back to Inquirer. Not every horse that has won – every horse that has raced!

After Belle Meade, we headed over to Franklin TN for a(nother) Segway tour, this time through historic Franklin TN.

Franklin was a significant site for the confederate war between the South and the North, over the use of black African-American slaves.

The battle of Franklin was a particularly bloody war, with 20,000 soldiers from the North, and another 20,000 soldiers from the South. The North had something like 1,500 dead and injured, while the South had around 12,000 dead and injured.

Don’t quote me on the numbers – that’s what we were told.

At one place during the war, the casualties were so tightly packed into a particular area that they died standing up – there was no room for them to fall down.

We saw houses that still show evidence of bullet-holes from the war, and others that had cannon-balls go through ceilings and walls.

Much of Franklin is being restored back to its historical past.

I’m beginning to think MBW will start referring to me as Calamity Geoff … last night I needed to duck out to the car late – in the dark – and on the way back I stumbled into a hole in the front yard of our AirBnB and twisted my ankle.

The one thing that riding a Segway requires is excellent balance. The one thing that I don’t have is … excellent balance.

Today on our Segway tour, I clipped a concrete step with one of my wheels and the Segway lurched to the left, so I overcorrected to the right and fell off – onto the road 🙁

Twisted knee, twisted ankle, sore neck, hurt pride 🙁 I’ll live though.

After all of that excitement, we made one last stop at Carnton House – another significant historical landmark. Carnton House was used as a hospital during the Battle of Franklin.

We arrived too late for the last tour of the day, but stopped and had a quick look around anyway.

Tonight we had tickets for a Grand Old Opry show at the Ryman Auditorium in the heart of Nashville TN.

We got back into downtown about 5.30pm for a 7.00pm show, so we dropped into Pucketts Restaurant for dinner. We were told that their fried chicken and brisket sliders are very good.

Wrong!

Their fried chicken and brisket sliders were AMAZING! Worth the trip to Nashville just for the food.

The show at the Ryman Auditorium was a country and western concert featuring several well known (and some not so well known) artists – John Conley, Kendall Marvel, Eric Paslay, and Dionne Warwick.

We sat in the nosebleed section with the other cheapskates, but it was still a great show and we are really pleased that we saw it.

I know that I have spoken before about the interstates – they are both amazing and confusing at the same time.

Speed limit signs are only posted with the words “Speed limit 55”. No red circle to attract your attention like we have in Australia – so I tend to choose a speed that is somewhere between the slowest and fastest drivers around me.

Coming home tonight from the Ryman, the traffic was not too bad so we sat on around 70mph for most of the trip. We still had one turkey pass us at something close to the speed of sound, which is a bit concerning.

One of the things that I love about the interstate is that there are no traffic lights, so if you have a straight run from, say Knoxville to Nashville, Jolene will tell you to continue straight ahead for 298km.

I mentioned earlier that Jolene can read my mind. There have been several times now where we have been rolling along at 70-75mph, in the middle of 5 lanes of traffic, and knowing that I need to merge onto another highway in 2km. I have either thought to myself – or possibly said out loud – “what lane am I supposed to be in” and Jolene has responded with “you need to be in the second lane from the right”.

Spooky.

Anyhow it’s late, I’m tired, and my various injuries are starting to stiffen up, so it’s time for bed … and to have dreams of becoming a country and western star and performing at the Ryman Auditorium.

MBW often reminds me that things happen in threes – so tomorrow might be an interesting day 🙁

We are having such a fabulous time here in the South. Other than falling off a Segway and being at risk of being run over by passing traffic, today was a blast!

Driving through rural Tennessee, seeing Leiper’s Fork with my own eyes, eating fried chicken and brisket sliders for dinner, and a show at the Grand Ole Opry was the icing on the cake – hence today’s song: Don’t Stop Me Now (Queen).

PS: Don’t forget to make a comment with your answer on the Leiper’s Fork puzzle …

Ciao

#G&KTAKEUSA2019

I seem to have developed an unhealthy attraction to southern fried chicken.

Regular breaded fried chicken.

Spicy fried chicken.

General Tso fried chicken.

MBW: “What shall we do for lunch today?”

Me: “Fried chicken?”

So to be clear, we do have it with salad … but I suspect that I may have eaten my own body weight in fried chicken so far on this trip.

I’m pretty sure that I’ve consumed far too much coffee too. And chocolate. And possibly beignets also.

We stayed at Jaclyn and Katherine’s place last night in Knoxville TN. They finally got home and we had a nice chat with them, then hit the sack.

This morning it was -1°C again. There is a pattern developing that I don’t care for. That’s three days in a row now.

Jaclyn and Katherine’s AirBnB is one of those places where you actually live in their home, use their fridge and stove, etc.

MBW and I generally prefer to stay in places where we have a little bit of separation between ourselves and our host but that hasn’t always been possible.

But it was only for one night.

It’s a funny thing – in different countries you sometimes see things that you have never seen before and seem unusual.

This morning as we were leaving Jaclyn and Katherine’s house, a truck stopped out the front of the house, unhooked this huge vacuum cleaner hose, and proceeded to suck up all of the leaves that had fallen into the gutters.

After leaving the house, we took a spin into Knoxville downtown to have a look around.

Once again, nothing is open before 11.00am so all very quiet in the city.

We saw this sign outside a coffee shop in the city that was open. It’s the story of my life …

After deciding that there was really nothing much to do or see that early in Knoxville TN, we hopped into The Don II, pointed him towards Nashville TN and headed off.

The interstate was pretty quiet and it was a good run – about 2.5 hours.

I mentioned earlier about seeing things that are not common in Australia. On the interstate, it is not uncommon to see a truck towing a number of other trucks all connected to the back of the previous one.

We arrived into Nashville TN around noon today, dropped off our stuff at our AirBnB, and then drove into the city for a tour on a Segway.

Now I want my own Segway 🙁

After the tour, we went on our own walking tour of the city. What an amazing place, with live music in every bar, restaurant, and venue, with more buskers playing on street corners.

It seems like every second person is carrying a guitar around the street with them.

Jolene gave us some trouble tonight on the way home from Nashville TN downtown. We asked her nicely to take us home, and we were making good progress despite the traffic – not her fault – and we decided to do a really quick detour to our local Walmart to get some supplies for tomorrow.

The local Walmart is only a few minutes from where we are staying in Nashville.

She got us to change lanes a couple of times, then get onto a new motorway, then we were hurtling down the interstate at the normal 70mph heading in a direction that didn’t seem entirely consistent with my vague recollection of where we were staying …

Then I happened to look down at the screen and Jolene was reporting that we would arrive at our destination in 8.05 hours, after travelling a further 910km.

This was clearly an error and we corrected it by taking control back into our own hands again … getting us to Walmart and then home with no further mishaps.

No more news for today, sorry.

Tomorrow will be having a bit of a trip around the outskirts of Nashville to look at a Plantation house, and something really exciting tomorrow night … but I will save all of that for tomorrow’s post.

Today’s trip looked like this – 220mi or 352km.

We are now staying in Knoxville TN for 3 nights, so I suspect that we will be doing far more walking than driving for a few days. Should be a nice change.

The title of today’s post (and today’s song) is a country and western song and an ode to fried chicken.

One of my boys introduced me to the Zac Brown Band, and I’ve become a bit of a fan: Chicken Fried (ZBB).

Ciao

#G&KTAKEUSA2019

… what a wonderville … er, wonderful … world. Sorry about that.

I’ve felt a little bit like a Sara Lee pastry today – I’m wearing layer upon layer upon layer.

We stayed at Cindy’s AirBnB in West Asheville last night and it was a delightful stay. Our own sitting area, bedroom, bathroom and a little kitchenette area (if you can call a bar fridge and a coffee maker a kitchenette).

We met Cindy as we were heading out to the North Carolina Arboretum and had a brief chat. She told us that we were welcome to use the gas fireplace in our sitting area so we did, and it warmed the place up beautifully.

It was cold again today. I got dressed for the cold and took the suitcases out to put them into The Don II’s boot/trunk and I noticed that he had ice on his roof.

Hardly surprising considering that it was -1°C again.

I loaded up The Don II and then went back inside into the warmth of the house and started sweating like a fat kid in a marathon. It is really difficult to dress suitably for both inside and outside.

Layers. Layers are the answer.

We went for a drive into downtown Asheville after we left Cindy’s to have a look for some souvenirs and everything was closed.

Asheville is a pretty little township, but nothing too much exciting happens there.

MBW wanted to have a look at the 237 room Biltmore Estate which was built by George Vanderbilt on 8000 acres in the 1890s.

We got there to find that the tickets were approximately USD $100 each to get in a have a look around, and decided that we could spend our $200 better on something else.

Even the guardhouse is bigger than our house!

So we took a spin along the Blue Ridge Parkway instead. It is a really pretty, really beautiville … er, beautiful … drive in the Smoky Mountains.

Sorry again.

The drive was truly breathtaking. The photos don’t do it justice.

We got about 10-12 miles along the parkway and then the road was closed, so we turned around and headed back into Asheville NC to find another way to get to Waynesville, where we would enter the 441 to get over the Smoky Mountains.

Let me explain the whole “ville” thing.

Americans are many things, but in this part of the country they are not very imaginative when it comes to naming towns.

Asheville. Waynesville. Greenville. Linville. Tonight we are in Knoxville. Tomorrow Nashville.

We discovered today that Jolene has a bit of a speech impediment when it comes to pronouncing placenames.

Asheville is pronounced “Asher-ville”.

Waynesville comes out as ”Way-nes-ville”.

The Walmart Supercentre is a “sup-per-centre” with the emphasis on the “per”.

We got to Waynesville NC around 1.00pm, found Walmart and bought some supplies for lunch. They like fried chicken here.

Matter of fact, I’m getting pretty fond of it too.

We also bought some potato wedges to go with it. They sell wedges in North Carolina by the wedge.

So the conversation went like this:

Deli lady: “Can I help y’all?”

Me: “Can I have some fried chicken please?”

Deli lady: “Huh?”

Not a good start. And here I am thinking it was her that talked funny.

MBW came to the rescue and ordered some fried chicken, and then asked after the wedges.

Deli lady: “How many wedges would y’all like?”

MBW: “10 wedges please.”

Just for the record, we did have salad with our fried chicken and wedges 🙂

Now I appreciate that I am no fashion statement as we are travelling around, but I have noticed an increasing tendency of North Carolina men to wear bib and brace overalls. Even shopping.

I’ve always been of the belief that nobody can wear bib and brace overalls and make them look good, and that view has been confirmed in North Carolina 🙂

We found a little Baptist Church just down the road from Walmart, and set up there for lunch. It was still pretty cold so we ate in the car.

From there, we took off to get over the Smoky Mountains so that we could arrive at tonight’s AirBnB in Knoxville at a reasonable time.

The Blue Ridge Parkway was closed so we asked around and found that the 441 was the next best option. Apple Maps reported it as being closed due to weather, but Google Maps said it was open.

Jolene was confused.

We stopped at a McDonalds for coffee and asked the locals, and they confirmed that it was open. So off we went.

At the start of the 441 we came across an Indian Reservation visitor centre. They confirmed that the 441 was open but that we needed to take it easy and watch for snow and ice.

No 80mph over the Smoky Mountains.

It was a truly spectacular drive, and possibly the highlight of our trip so far.

And then we found it. The Tennessee/North Carolina border.

In the picture above, you can see a big patch of ice on the road.

We got into Pigeon Forge TN around 5.00pm and MBW got to try a funnel cake. I can’t describe it, but it’s the next best thing to having a beignet 🙂

And probably as fattening 🙁

Pigeon Forge is one weird place. It’s a bit like the Las Vegas of Tennessee.

These are some of the buildings on the main Street.

Hmmm.

We arrived at our AirBnB around 6.15pm and had breakfast for dinner. Don’t ask.

We were cold and tired and didn’t feel like going out again, and have probably exceeded our daily limit of fat, grease, coffee, and fried chicken … so we had granola and yoghurt and grapes for dinner.

This is what our trip today looked like – 194mi or 310km.

So here we are in Tennessee. And having a ball!

We haven’t met our hosts yet – hopefully they will be home soon and we can get to bed.

The title of tonight’s post and our chosen song is an absolute classic, and in recognition of the spectacular beauty we saw in the NC/TN Smoky Mountains today.

What a Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong) – 1967. Enjoy!

Ciao

#G&KTAKEUSA2019

I was wrong.

Yesterday I said it was cold, but I was wrong. It was cold today.

We woke at around 7.00am to -1°C. On my way to the shower, I opened the door to the outside patio and I can confirm that -1°C is as cold as you expect it will be.

Last night we stayed at Ashley’s house in Harrisburg, a suburb of Charlotte NC, in a Granny flat. Not quite as spectacular as Will’s place the night before, but pretty good. We didn’t actually get to meet Ashley or her husband/partner, but we did get some messages from them so I’ll assume that they exist.

It’s quite funny looking outside, because you see squirrels running around the yard. Not quite what you expect.

By the time we had breakfast and were ready to roll, the temperature had climbed to a dizzying 1°C, and that was about as good as it got for the day.

We wanted to do a drive through the Blue Ridge Parkway today on our way to Asheville NC, so we headed off towards Blowing Rock NC which was the nearest place that we could find to get us access.

Traffic was pretty quiet heading out of Charlotte NC, so it was a nice stress-free cruise along the 16 towards Blowing Rock.

We had a bit of an issue with Jolene as we were cruising along the 16 this morning. If you don’t know who Jolene is, you will need to read yesterday’s post.

Jolene became confused and had no idea where we were. She kept shouting “proceed to the route” over and over, even though we were blasting down the 16 like she had told us to do.

I was beginning to worry that the world had ended and that all GPS technology as we know it had stopped working and we would be stuck in the USA forever … but then she consulted with Google Maps, or Apple Maps, and got her bearings again and we were OK.

So, the usual story of our lives, coffee + cold weather = unscheduled bathroom break, so we were looking for somewhere to stop and spied a McDonalds at a place called Hickory NC.

We figured that it was the right thing to do to buy coffee in return for using their rest rooms.

The team leader at the Hickory NC McDonalds – Stacey – was very friendly and decided that we “looked close enough to 55” to qualify for a senior’s discount … if only she knew 🙁 So we got two cups of bottomless coffee for … wait for it … $1.05, including tax.

That was a little embarrassing, so we searched their menu and discovered that they sell donut sticks, and we thought “it’s a sign!”. So MBW went up to the counter to get two serves of donut sticks and we got them for free because they “stopped serving them at 10.30am (it was now 11.00am) and they could not guarantee that they would be fresh.”

So, two cups of bottomless coffee and two serves of donut sticks – with chocolate dipping sauce – for $1.05 including tax.

In the interests of full disclosure, I need to add that the donut sticks that you can see in the above photo were what was left of my serve, after I had already eaten the first 5 donut sticks.

Stacey was keen to ensure that I got my free refill before we left, and came back with a jumbo sized cup brimming with coffee because my “first (small) cup looked like it had a few crumbs in it …”

I was at risk of caffeine poisoning 🙁

So we kept heading to Blowing Rock NC and found it to be a very pretty – very cold – little township.

As you can see above, they had received some snowfall the night before and some cars were covered with snow.

We discovered that there is not only a township called Blowing Rock, but also an attraction/lookout called Blowing Rock, so we headed there for some photos.

In case you are wondering, yes, it was cold. Still about 0°C.

So cold in fact that this little waterfall at the Blowing Rock was frozen.

After seeing the sights at Blowing Rock NC, we decided to jump on the Blue Ridge Parkway to head down into Asheville NC.

Unfortunately we found that most of the BRP was closed due to winter storms, although we did manage to catch a few miles of it … a very pretty drive.

We stopped for a bite of lunch at the side of the road near Linville NC. Ate in the car because it was still a bit cold out.

We rode the 221 all the way into Asheville.

I took a wrong turn – actually I turned too early – on the way to Cindy’s AirBnB, so Jolene punished me by taking us on a long winding detour through the bad side of Asheville.

I won’t make that mistake again 🙁

Tonight we went to the North Carolina Arboretum – which is the local botanical gardens. They (apparently) look beautiful during the warmer months, but in winter all of the plants die off, so they make a spectacular lighting display instead.

Photos don’t do it justice – it was spectacular. And cold. I don’t think that the temperature go above freezing (0°C) while we were there, but it was fun walking around looking at the lights with MBW, and talking to all the people with funny accents.

Today’s journey looked like this – 227mi or 363km. A bit of a lazy day really.

Tonight we are staying at Cindy’s AirBnB, and after the arboretum we have come back to the AirBnB and been sitting by the gas fire, thawing out.

I forgot to mention the significance of today’s song and post title. It was MBW’s choice tonight and a reflection on the Christmas lights that we saw tonight.

I know that we are not in Tennessee, but we will be tomorrow … hopefully via the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Near enough is good enough.

Tennessee Christmas (Amy Grant).

Ciao

#G&KTAKEUSA2019