Day XV and Day XVI

I wanted to get on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville and take that at least a little ways north. After a little difficulty in getting on it (rather, getting on it at a place where the road wasn't closed ten miles ahead), I had a blast. Some of the most fun driving I've ever done. It's just a little two lane road that winds through the Blue Ridge mountain chain for 400-some miles. All the land on either side of it is owned by National Park Service, so for the most part, it's really pristine, windy and hilly. Er, mountainy. The speed limit is 45 m.p.h., so you can't make very good time on it, but you don't really want to. The road's windy enough that a lot of the time it's tough to even go 45. They also have scenic overlooks ever 5 miles or so, I'd guess. A lot of the overlooks have trails running from them, but as I'm a lazy bastard, I only went on one short hike. The Appalachian Trail runs along it for a little while too, so I got out of the car and walked a bit of that just so I can technically say, "Yeah, I've walked the Appalachian Trail." Real hikers are probably going to lynch me.

I ended up driving on it until it ended 380 miles or so later. Took all of Day XV and Day XVI to do it.

I took a ton of pictures along the way (and a video, but it makes me look like I drive like a grandma) (Hi, mom!), but it was always pretty hazy, so most of them didn't turn out too well.

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These two pictures are from the hike I took on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Yay, nature.

This is my proof that I walked the Appalachian Trail. You don't want to know how long it took me to figure out that the logo thing on the sign was an A and a T combined. AT=Appalachian Trail. Clever little fucks.

I was driving along and saw some mountains, so I took a picture. These are those pictures.

I drove a little bit further and then I had lunch. After lunch, I drove some more. I saw some more mountains. So I took another picture. Then I drove some more.

After that, God stopped by for a chat.

Day XIV

First thing, I found a mechanic and got the wheels balanced and the tires rotated. That took care of the vibration and I headed to Asheville, which was only 30 miles away or so. Got lost a few times in Asheville and well outside of it, then back in it, then back outside of it. Eventually found a cheap place to stay and did a little research on what to do in Asheville that night. Almost every Saturday during the summer they have "Shindig on the Green" which starts "along about sundown". It's a bunch of bluegrass bands, cloggers, jug bands and such playing in this park downtown. As each band only gets to play a few songs, little impromptu groups form on the outskirts of the crowd and play out on the outskirts too. It was pretty cool. After that, I walked downtown and checked out the Saturday night scene. Too many college kids for me, but I eventually found a place that only serves fancy beer. It was a huge place and had two floors. Upstairs, you could only get domestic fancy beers and downstairs had imported fancy beers. There were about 25 taps on each floor and hundreds of bottled beers available. After a couple hours there, I stopped being able to taste the beer so I headed back to the motel, but not before stopping at the place across the street from it and seeing yet another bluegrass band for a few songs.

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This is one of the official tents for jamming--sorry, jammin'-- at Shindig on the Green in Asheville. There were also a lot of people jamming in areas outside of the tents because fuckall if Bluegrass musicians are gonna let The Man tell them what to do.

The band at the bar across the street from my motel in Asheville. Well, some of them. And part of the wall. I didn't notice that the picture was blurry at first because this is how I was actually seeing them.

Day XIII

After I checked out, I went to Centennial Park in Nashville and saw the Parthenon. They have a replica of the Parthenon built to scale. Headed to Asheville, NC after that. I almost made it. Stopped for the night in Lake Junaluska, NC. My car had started to act up. It had actually been acting up for a long time, I just hadn't been on a freeway in awhile to notice the problem (steering wheel was vibrating a lot at high speeds). On the way there, I took a detour through Great Smoky Mountains National Park. That was a really beautiful drive that emptied out onto Gatlinburg, TN. Downtown Nashville had nothing on this place. The sidewalks and streets were just packed with people going to haunted houses and wax museums and crap like that. In my haste to get out of there, I missed out on Dollywood.

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The Parthenon in Nashville. There's also a huge statue of Athena inside, but my picture didn't turn out.

I drove along this stream during my short dip into Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Day XII

I liked Nashville a lot. I'd found a deal on a nice hotel room the night before that was close to Music Row, which I thought was a good thing. Music Row is just a bunch of office buildings though. Office buildings with history, but office buildings nonetheless. Saw the studios where Elvis, Johnny Cash and some other guy recorded hits. I know I did, because they had big gaudy guitars in front of the buildings that told me so. Before I walked that, though, I checked out downtown. Parked by the symphony place and saw that Ben Folds was playing with the Nashville Symphony (I was really into Ben Folds for awhile there). The rest of it (that I walked, anyway) was too touristy. I'm a tourist and I like a lot of that stuff, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. So I went back to the hotel, had dinner and then did the Music Row walk. When I got back to the hotel, they were setting up for some kind of music in the hotel bar, so I had a couple beers and checked that out. Turned out the lady playing was the daughter of the woman who wrote Brand New Key (can't remember the name at the moment). Don't ask me why, but I love that song.

After that, I headed down to the Station Inn to see a bluegrass band. It was really dead when I got there, but picked up enough by the time the band started. I like bluegrass a lot, but I don't know anything about it. They seemed really good to me though. I'd had a few more beers in me by that time though.

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This is a shot from the North Carolina Welcome Center on the border. I was playing around with the panorama thing on my camera. The colors are dim, but it stitched things together pretty well.

My sister might get a kick out of this picture. My apologies to the rest of you bastards.

My room in Nashville. It's probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. That I've paid for myself, anyway. This site can sometimes get you really cheap rooms, but there's no guarantee you'll get the hotel you want. I was actually trying to stay at a Sheraton, I think.

That's the Heartbreak Hotel guitar. What an awesome-looking office building!

Day XI

The drive from Greenville to Henderson, TN was really nice. I didn't do anything this night other than do a fantasy football draft from the motel room. I'd driven all through town looking for a motel and there didn't seem to be a whole to do anyway. Saw a lot of kudzu.

Day X

Spent the night in Greenville, MS. I did end up splurging on a decent hotel room. It was a hotel and not a motel. That's me "splurging". Had to buy a new wireless card for my computer. I'd had the laptop loose in my bag and it got all bent to crap. Relaxed in the hotel for a bit and then walked down to the riverboat casino across the street for a little while. I lost.

Days IX to XV

The drive since Texarkana. Google Maps wouldn't let me customize the map anymore, so it's the drive until about Roanoke. It's messed up after that. More to come.