Day 2: Redemption

Whooooo! I am beat. Today was my journey to the south. From Blacksburg, VA to Nashville (at least) hopefully to Memphis. That's what I believe I said yesterday. Thank god I did the continental breakfast at the Comfort Inn this morning. It helped me get through a grueling day. It wasn't necessarily hot, but didn't taste unlike McDonalds.

As for music, I decided since I was headed to Music City USA, the "Country" mix on the iPod was very appropriate. CW McCall, Red Sovine, and Johnny Cash took me West on 40 for hours...past Knoxville. For those that don't know, CW McCall is the performer on the song "Convoy." I say performer because that's not his name and it's not a real person...the whole thing is a character he portrayed, started for advertising purposes, like Santa Clause. I hope I didn't ruin it for any C Dub fans out there. CW McCall helps keep you cheery while dealing with stuff like this.

Finding out what to do in Nashville wasn't that hard. As soon as I got in to town, I headed for the gift shop. The whole point of going to Nashville was to replace one of my favorite hats. I entered hopeful and found a bunch of BS hats and redneck hats but then in the back of the store I found it. And although it's black now (my previous was blue), I immediately bought it...another sign.

For those that don't know (since neither Lil' Wayne, Jay-Z, nor Bono made songs about it) Nashville was hit with a pretty bad flood a couple of months ago. The town doesn't show it, though. Everything is open. The streets are under slight construction as city workers are clearly redoing the plumbing.

I tried to go into one bar on the main drag, Broadway, because I saw the Phillies game on but the bartender ignored me long enough that I got sick of waiting. I ended up having lunch at Bailey's which I thought would be more "authentic" but seemed to just be the Nashville Fox & Hound. But they had some house specials and I enjoyed that with a couple beers. Bartender Keith welcomed me in and started talking Phillies with me, but they haven't been playing baseball to brag about lately. Keith informed me I gained an hour as I switched into Central Time Zone (good to know).

After eating and drinking just enough that I didn't want to leave, Bartender Keith talked me into driving past Memphis to Little Rock. I decided that if I was going to do that, I needed to change the music to something that would keep me pumped up and awake. I switched up to my favorite vulgar rap songs and that did the trick.

Arkansas is possibly the worst state I've ever driven in. There is nothing there. At all. Just grass and a little road next to grass.

These are completely different pictures miles apart from each other. How would you ever know where you live?

I must've driven for 6 hours and went past Memphis and Little Rock to TEXARKANA...Seriously. And the lady here at the Best Western doesn't know why it's called that. I am now 8 hours from tomorrow's trip, Austin, TX.  There are things I know I left out (like the Davey Crockett Rest Stop) but if you're smart, you're following random picture posts on Facebook, too. I will leave you with the last picture I took for the day. Bonus points if you can name the player sitting on my dash at the bottom.