Sunday, leaving Tuscumbia, we drove through the local towns of Florence, Sheffield and Muscle Shoals, a relatively small metropolitan area which we have learned is known for "Muscle Shoal Sound", as local recording studios have played a major role in shaping the history of popular music. We also found out that Tuscumbia is home to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Unfortunately it closed early on Saturday and is not open Sundays so we missed that opportunity.
It was a nice leisurely drive north towards Nashville, well except for the last 30 miles or so when we hit I-65 and it was like heavy rush hour. Must have been many folks returning home after the weekend outing or something. We stayed at the Nashville KOA on Music Valley Drive not far from the Grand Ole Opry. Unfortunately our timing did not jive with the Grand Ole Opry schedule but that's ok as we did see it when we were in Nashville a few years ago. After getting set up at the KOA we decided to try some "Nashville BBQ". We found a place named Drifter's which claimed to do great ribs and other BBQ. It is located in the rather funky Five Points neighborhood of East Nashville. A number of cool clothing stores and other bar hang outs around the area packed with mostly young people enjoying the beautiful Sunday afternoon. We found a patio table in the shade, ordered up some BBQ and sat back to enjoy the ambiance and the live music...
The BBQ was a bit on the mediocre side; ribs ok, sausage was just a heated up brat, chicken was waaay to dry, pulled pork not too bad. If it is the best that Nashville can do then bless their hearts for trying :-) The music was generally quite good although a couple of female singers might want to seriously think about alternative careers. You do have to admire the tenacity and optimism of people who will sing in public despite their inability to carry a tune in a bucket. All in all a nice afternoon. Leaving Drifter's and after finding a Starbuck's for a couple of iced lattes, we took a drive into the downtown area around Broadway (Nashville's equivalent to Beale Street in Memphis) but didn't stop in; that's for tomorrow.
Monday morning we took the car into a local Nissan dealer and had the oil changed and the usual safety check done. Once again we were told that our car is in great shape. After the car was done we decided to find The Fresh Market, an upscale grocery store we had found in Memphis. The only one we could locate in Nashville is in Brentwood, an affluent suburb city about a half hour drive south of Nashville. We found the market and bought some deli and salad fixings for lunch along with a generous sized container of pimento cheese. Now that is good stuff. Back at the KOA we ate some of the chicken salad and kale salad for lunch and still had a whack left over for tomorrow. Late in the afternoon we took the downtown shuttle to Broadway. This is a good deal.... they pick you up at the KOA, drop you off in the center of the Broadway strip (right out side Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville) and pick you up later and take you back. $10 return... a bargain (we were told it is about a $40 taxi ride if we missed the last shuttle).
First thing was to walk down to the Country Music Hall of Fame to look through the excellent music part of the attached store. We bought about a half dozen new CDs to give us a bunch more new music to listen to in the car. After that we wandered along Broadway for a bit before deciding to try BB Kings Blues Club since they had had good wine and great music back in Memphis. Same thing here! We sat at the bar for about an hour and a half while listening to J Curly Speegle and a friend (not his band, just a friend)...
Leaving there about 6:30 PM we stopped in at a few more clubs where you just walk in, stand around and listen and leave (no hassles about having to order drinks etc), here's the band playing at Layla's...
...before stopping at Jack's BBQ for some dinner where we split a 3 meat meal of ribs, turkey and sausage (not bad but not great... better than Drifter's yesterday). After dinner we walked up to the top of the Broadway strip to Legend's Corner and went in there. It didn't take long for us to decide to grab a seat and stay awhile. The music was fantastic. We learned that the main musician was a guy named Chris Shrader but didn't get the name of the band he was playing with...
... Chris is a great stage performer and puts on a great show. The woman playing the fiddle was outstanding. She clearly enjoyed what she was doing and the crowd loved her. We ended up watching until we had to leave to catch the 9:30 shuttle back to the KOA. The last song we saw was their version of Charlie Daniel's The Devil went down to Georgia. The fiddler jumped off the stage and climbed up onto the bar counter and put on one heck of a show...
A fun two nights in Nashville. Thank you!
Tuesday it was time to head on eastward. Nice easy drive along I-40 to just before Knoxville when we turned south towards Sweetwater, our planned stop, at the KOA there, for the night. Just outside of Nashville we stopped in at the Appalachian Center for Craft, a place we visited a few years ago..
... a beautiful location but unfortunately their cafe was closed so no lunch there this time. We wandered a bit through their wonderful craft galleries and gift store before heading on our way.
Later, in the town of Kingston we stopped to visit the historic Fort Southwest Point, a fort that was used from 1797 to 1811 and is now in the process of being fully reconstructed. While chatting with a fellow in the visitor building we learned that this whole area, specifically Oak Ridge, was once a top secret area, as it was established in 1942 as the production site for the Manhattan Project - development of the Atomic Bomb. Kris told the fellow that she has a friend whose father worked on the Manhattan Project at Cominco in Trail BC. Leaving the area, we drove a narrow back road over to Sweetwater. We had thought about taking that same back road most of the way from Nashville. Sort of glad we passed on that as it was very narrow. After getting set up at the KOA we took a drive around the area ending up in Athens, about 15 miles down the road, trying to find a grocery store. Our GPS indicated it knew of a Food Lion so we headed that way only to discover that it had been bought out by IGA a few years ago. Oh well, nice boneless pork ribs to be grilled for dinner. Very nice KOA and the pool, once opened, looked to be good with lots of shade. So many places have the pool out in the open hot sun.
Wednesday we continued through south east Tennessee into North Carolina. We have to say that whether you travel Tennessee by freeways, secondary highways or itty-bitty little country back roads, it is a beautiful state to drive through. Well, western North Carolina is not too shabby either. It was another easy short drive to Marble North Carolina for this day. We stopped in Murphy for lunch where on the main drag we had a few restaurants to choose from. We chose "The Finish Line" (clearly a reference to a nearby drag car track in Brasstown). BAD CHOICE. Service was incredibly slow and the whole place was like something out of Fawlty Towers.
While shopping for dinner in the local Ingles grocery store we came across another southern goodie that we will likely never taste...
... yes, the primary ingredient is "pig snout"! We opted for some more boneless pork ribs which for all of $3 made an excellent grilled dinner back at the KOA. Another very nice KOA by the way. Still too early for their pool to be open though :-(
Thursday was going to be a quick short drive over to Asheville, North Carolina, so we took our time getting ready to head out. Around noon we stopped in Bryson, North Carolina, for some lunch. Once again a number of restaurants, on the main drag, to choose from. This time we chose The Cork & Bean. This time... EXCELLENT CHOICE! We both had the soup/salad combo which was a shrimp corn chowder soup with a kale salad with strawberries, blueberries, nuts and feta cheese. YUMMMM. At the visitor center in Bryson we learned that the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway was only about 10 miles away and the parkway passes fairly close to Asheville so we thought we should do that since we had done most of the northern part but none of the southern part yet. The parkway does provide some pretty scenery, but it slows you down a lot. Max speed is 45 mph. We stopped at a few overlooks but the scenery is pretty well all the same...
.... a view across the valley to more of the same. The end result of going up the parkway was that it added about 2.5 hours to our trip. The southern part of the parkway is much windier that the north and is somewhat higher. At one place we passed a sign indicating that we were over 6,000 feet. The negative part is where we came off the parkway. That particular exit was a very steep decline with very sharp "S" curves all the way down. Kris had her eyes closed and Brian had his foot heavy on the brake pedal the whole way. Not an exit for anyone with a trailer longer than our wee one that's for sure!
We arrived in Asheville late afternoon and booked in at the Bear Creek Campground, on the west side of the city, for 3 nights. One of our reasons for returning to Asheville was the 12 Bones Smokehouse we enjoyed so much, but on this day they were closed by the time we got everything set up at the campground. For dinner, we decided to try one of the other Asheville BBQ joints and picked Louella's Bar-B-Que on the north side. Decent ribs and sausage with good sauces but, as we are finding east of Texas, the brisket was a bit too dry.
Friday we started with a drive down to the River Arts District, an old warehouse area that has been converted into numerous artist studios and workshops. Kris had read an article, in Watercolor Artist magazine, featuring Melanie Norris who, it turns out has a studio in the Wedge building in the district (a working brewery with studio spaces on the upper floors). So we sought her out and ended up having a very nice chat as she discussed her techniques etc. For lunch, since 12 Bones is in the district... why not? It was a little after noon and the lineup was out the door but worth the wait. Excellent ribs, roast turkey, smoked potato salad (one of our favorites) and a very nice slice of Key Lime pie to finish it off. After lunch we went downtown and wandered around a bit looking in a few stores. Asheville reminds us so much of Portland Oregon. Later we found a Starbucks and were no sooner in the door than the skies opened up and a heavy downpour started. A bit of deja-vue all over again as this is what happened a few years ago when we were here. Lucky, it lasted only about a half hour, essentially the length of time it took to drink a latte and read a chapter or two in a book. For dinner we decided to hit Trader Joe's and just get a couple of their pre-made salads. Back at the campground we thought we might hit the pool but alas, still not open, but there's hope... the health inspector was there doing tests and she thought it might be open tomorrow.
Saturday we thought we'd drive up to Black Mountain, an artists enclave about 15 miles out of town. We'd need to take I-40 East part of the way but when we got to the on ramp it was blocked off and we could see that I-40 was totally at a standstill and backing up real quick. We went past the ramp and took the next left (who knew where it went) and happened to drive right into one of the largest farmer's markets we have ever seen. So we decided to have a look around. Lots of fresh veggies, fruit, baked goods, cheeses, meats, canned goods, pickled goods etc etc etc...
Nice. More pics of the farmer's market are on our Picasa album for this trip - week 6. By the time we got out of there it was past noon and the freeway was still totally blocked. Must have been some serious accident down the way! Since we would have to go around, we decided to head south on I-26 to Arden and hit the other 12 Bones for lunch before heading up to Black Mountain. With the GPS it was easy to find and we had another terrific BBQ lunch, this time ribs, smoked chicken, smoked potato salad, corn pudding and smoked mashed sweet potato....
.... that will do us, food wise, for the day for sure. Off we went to Black Mountain. We parked at the visitor center and had a brief chat with the guy there who gave us a bit of back ground on the area but they were closing in a few minutes so had to cut that short. He said that since they were closing we could just leave our car in their parking lot rather than trying to find parking along the main drag. That was handy and it was only a 2 block walk to the main part of town. We went into a number of the small shops etc but like most tourists weren't buying much. Kris did pick up a nice knitting pattern and now knows what she will do with some of her yarn inventory when we get home. Stopped in the Dripolater coffee shop for an iced latte then headed back to Asheville where we stopped at Trader Joe's, for a couple more salads, on the way back to the trailer. Late afternoon but still well and truly warm enough to hit the pool. Yes it was open and the water was wonderful. Good end to this week...
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