Head West not so young Man

[daugen]

MJ, no argument about the Biltmore, but it was the town or the castle and I was more interested in the town. Which was very nice. And the ticket discounted was 55 bucks. It really is a destination stop all in its own and one could easily spend two days there seeing everything. Didn't want to rush it.

Filled up at a Pilot truck stop, 3.54 which is cheaper than at home.

Going to venture out in a bit and walk a little. There are a few residents of this Tennessee campground that are bordering on seedy, two guys in a service truck pulling a good sized trailer, both with backwoods beards, who have been hauling cases of beer back to their trailer. Which of course has some seriously nasty music playing. Probably just a portable meth lab...

 

[daugen]

Lenoir City Tennesee
a bit chilly here this morning, was surprised the heat kept coming on last night but not when I saw it was 42 out now. But clear as a bell and beautiful weather for the next week. So...I have been calling "down South" and so far the folks in Tupelo said come on down, as did the folks in Bay St. Louis East of New Orleans. Going to stay there for four days, my longest stop yet, and really absorb the Gulf Coast and New Orleans of course. Now if the folks in Pelahatchie MS are ok from the storm, I'll be good.

Headed to Nashville this morning, should be an easy and pretty drive, now that I'm through the mountains. There are three rv places all lined up less than a mile from Opryland, so no problem finding things. And a few last pics from the campground here. Now while I thought I heard some musical strains from Deliverance....the night was quiet. Actually there is constant heavy truck noise from route 40, this must be a major trucking route because the semis are constant and 24/7.

Hopefully with no rain for awhile the rv will stay clean. Working steadily it's about an hour and a half to wash the rv and the car. Of course it took me two hours to wash my old boat so I guess I'm making progress. We had so much rain that it really cleaned the road dirt off so the highways, which just accumulates on the towed car like crazy. So thank you Mother Nature.

 

[dave1949]

Nice pics. Enjoying your narrative Drew.

 

[daugen]

Nashville TN

happily tucked in a huge rv park next to two other big parks, up the street from Opryland. Boy this place must be a serious human zoo in the summer. About ten restaurants in a row on this service road. I have a gift certificate to
Cracker Barrel so I'm headed there. Tomorrow I will drive around Nashville itself, go to a neat car museum and then Sat night I am pleased to report that I scored a very nice main floor ticket to the Grand Old Opry. Nothing showed up online but I called and got the sweetest old lady and boy she did me right. Of course I was quite nice to her and asked her advice on what seat to get. And she must of given me the nicest one left. So I"m going to the Opry. I missed the Biltmore in Asheville and I'm not going to miss this for sure. Elvis does nothing for me, btw...

Lane Motor Museum - Nashville - Reviews of Lane Motor Museum - TripAdvisor

Grand Ole Opry | Grand Ole Opry

The drive West from Lenoir City to Nashville was just beautiful. Rolling land like Virginia, and what was very interesting is that as soon as I crossed the Tennessee line in the middle of the mountains, signs started to announce Planned Tech Corridor. So Tennessee is going to develop that part of the state, or try. And then a large Tech Center sign I passed but too busy driving.

Today I'm just going to chill out. I have to get some prescriptions filled and I dropped them off at a local CVS.
I'll pick them up later this afternoon, drive around a bit, figure out how to park at Opryland which the lady said to get there more than two hours ahead to get a place to park. ? They must want you to get there early, shop in their own shops spending even more money, and then come to the show. Fine tuned I'm sure.

A fine day. Now to get back on the phone and confirm reservations for the next week. I work about a week ahead.
and then a nap. Too much excitement....

 

[Larro Darro]

Drew, I went to the Opry during my Sr class trip back in the spring of 1979. Can't remember who I saw, but I did enjoy the show. The one thing I remember was the AC was turned down to about 55 degrees. I was in shorts and a T-shirt and just about froze.

Larro

 

[daugen]

Larro, I was thinking about that, and was going to take a light windbreaker with me. thanks for the reminder.

Had a nice dinner at Cracker Barrel down the street, never been in one, steak was good, big salad was good, and half the baked potato was good. I believe that potato weighed in at about two pounds...
Funny, the dinner almost didn't happen. The place says country store. I didn't know, so I poke my head in and here's a retail store filled with tourist stuff. Went back to the car, turned on the gps again, went to restaurants, and yup, Cracker Barrel, 100 feet. Now feeling rather foolish but having watched many folk walk in/waddle in, I just knew there had to be more than a store there. Plus it smelled good outside. This time I headed to the rear of the store and of course there was the restaurant. Food was decent, steak potato and salad, and it was all fine. Came too fast, only half way done my salad, but that's how they operate, turn that table and keep it spinning. I left fully satisfied. Besides, I had a gift certificate and it was sure appreciated.

This area sure missed out on sign ordinances. The next town over has this horrible looking merchant strip with ginormous signs, competing huge American flags, and it just looks awful, plus the traffic was bad. I cut my exploration short, but I was there picking up my prescriptions at CVS. That was clearly not the nice road out of town. Need to try a different direction. It was as if every store knew huge volumes of tourists would arrive so they all compete for visual dominance over the next gaudy sign. We've all seen it, but apparently "good taste" is not in the dictionary here when it comes to architecture and community planning. At least down here in tourist trap city near Opryland. I'm sure I will find the nice area tomorrow. And I have that car museum to go find.

I was going to run the breadmaker tonight but after that big meal I'm just a slug, albeit a contented one. Think I'll watch a movie. I'm way back in a quiet part of this huge rv park so thankfully no car noise, no trains, and even better, no little yapping dogs barking away because they've been left in the trailer all day while mom and pop go sightsee.
While I was washing the rv yesterday, for over an hour two dogs in the trailer next to me yapped and carried on like they were being tortured, just because they could see me through the windows. Boy I wanted to turn the hose on them, or at least at their window, but I was good. What a racket they made. But not here.

Excuse me, I just saw Elvis and I have to run and get his autograph.:dance1:

 

[Pixguy]

Drew, I went to the Opry during my Sr class trip back in the spring of 1979. Can't remember who I saw, but I did enjoy the show. The one thing I remember was the AC was turned down to about 55 degrees. I was in shorts and a T-shirt and just about froze.

Larro

Class of '79... A lot of good guys graduated that year.

Drew, we like Cracker Barrel when we travel in the MH as most have good parking for rigs and toads and he Mrs. likes to pick up things for the g'kids when there. They do serve quickly but that's good for me cuz me likes to make good time. :hyper:
We always love the Rt's 77, 81 and 78 through VA and PA when heading north.

Safe travels, keep em coming!

 

[daugen]

two other observations.

This is Dodge Ram country. NC and TN so far. On the road with Hemi's, in the trailer parks all with Cummins, it really caught my eye because normally the big three mix is pretty equal. Lot of serious tow gear in the campgrounds, and Powerstrokes and Duramax's were here and there. About evenly split between duallies and srw. And almost all someone's pride and joy and it shows.

Lastly, eleven is a pretty large number when one is counting how many Tennessee state troopers swept past me between the state line and Nashville. Mostly old Crown Vics or newer Ford Explorers, all looking for the speeders coming down the Governor's pet tech corridor after dawdling through the mountains. Yup, serious presence maintained. But once the land leveled out a bit the fast movers started in the left lane. And Officer Bob and his ten brothers were on the job.

 

[batwing]

Great Job Drew, I also am enjoying your narrative.
Ron

 

[daugen]

84 pictures yesterday, hard to pick what to post. Particularly after going to the Lane car museum and seeing some of the coolest things on wheels What a neat car museum, very eclectic, Lane clearly buys what he thinks is fun and unusual.
First time I have seen a Navy landing vehicle up close and personal, pretty cool. The Euro cars we never see were here in spades, including some nice Tatras and lots of Citroens The latter all look like their tires are flat because the air/hydraulic suspension drops to the low setting when parked. I have owned two French cars, an early 60's Peugeot 403 which was a marvelous car, and had reclining front seats and an opening sun roof, so it was pretty cool for the day. Then I bit on a new Renault R5 when they imported them for awhile. My first fwd car, funny boxy thing, but the R5 racer model was there in all its glory. And if anyone here has seen a VW bug with a swamp cooler attached before, well my hat is off to you.

The Grand Old Opry was great fun. Even taking a jacket I didn't make it past intermission because the cold air was sending my neck into knots, and I had to go. But I sure got to see what it was like, though I missed two of the bigger stars who they keep for the second half. Lot of old timers. One guy they brought out was 94 years old, little Jimmy something. Very glad I went. The Wills family was marvelous, eleven siblings though only the oldest sang, and sang very well. Lot of rhinestones and jokes about being in a rhinestone mine when it blew up...

ok, let's see if all these pics will load...