We've made it. We're hardly wearing dirty clothing. We've yet had to pan-handle. Our car is still running- no thanks to gas at 4.07 a gallon, thank you very much. But we are here in sunny (sweaty) Nashville.
After leaving my Mom's quaint little town of Fuquay, we headed toward Raleigh-Durham to spend the night with Rich's college roommate Adam and his wife. Adam and Steph are wonderful people and we owe them much for revealing to us that all of North Carolina does not consist of tobacco fields and crab shacks. Raleigh is actually quite a fun college town to hang around in- we went for drinks at a cute little bar called the Raleigh-Times and Steph was kind enough to introduce me to her favorite haunt- Locopops. Don't judge, people, it is the most fabulous store dedicated to gourmet popcicles. Cherry Hybiscus, Mexican Chocolate...mmmmmm.
After attending the mega-church (our word and not theirs, they seem to find the fact that they have parking attendants in their church parking lot an every day occurrence), we headed out again to Nashville.
We seemed to have underestimated the distance between North Carolina and TN and after a beautiful 6 hour ride through the Smokey Mountains with at least 3 more to go, we decided that if we were going to make it to my friend Kelsie's house with both of us alive, it would probably be appropriate to stop for something to eat. Thus, Lefty's was discovered.
We came upon a sign for good BBQ, and when in Rome....we had to stop. Truth be told it was the most frightening looking place I've ever encountered. Missing shingles. Firewood strewn all over the parking lot. Pick-up trucks just waiting to kidnap young Yankee girls, I'm sure. Though I was a bit put off by the decor, Rich convinced me that these were the best kinds of places for good BBQ- so, I believed him and we went in.
He was right. After a hefty pulled pork, baked beans and blackberry cobbler consumption we were on the road again and after another 3 hours, pulled into Kelsie's driveway in good old Nashville.
Yesterday, Rich and I proved our tourist title as we drove up and down Music Row, went to see the Grand Ole Opry, had lunch at the Broadway Brewery and met my friend Michael for another quick tour around neighboring towns before meeting his girlfriend, Emmy, for dinner. We have been so blessed with beautiful people to hang out with along this trip, and dinner was lovely. We hung out for a good part of the evening, even played a bit at Emmy's house before heading back to Kelsie's.
Today, we're taking it easy and taking advantage of Panera's WI-FI to update, catch up on some much needed caffeine intake, and plan out the rest of our trip and, er, our lives if we get around to it.
Next stop:
Memphis tomorrow for one night before moving on to New Orleans.
Observations:
1. When someone from TN tells you that something is "just around the corner", expect at least a 45 minute drive..
2. never attempt to shoo a cat away from your shampoo bottle after she hisses at you-just let her eat it
3. Texans have funny sayings that should never be repeated....unless making fun of said Texan;such as hookey dookey....love you, Adam!
4. scary BBQ places have the best food
5. good friends make even the south a fun place to be.
More later.....off we go!
1 comment:
so glad to hear that hookey-dookey was something you weren't saying in seriousness! hahah...leave that one in the south!
sounds like you guys are just having an amazing adventure! although really, ra ra & kar kar took us to the new indigo on sunday and that bbq is pretty amazing...could lefty's be that good (and clean?)?? questionable!
love you guys and miss you tons! we'll check in from across the pond! (man all of our accents are going to be amazing...can't wait to see what we sound like at the end of July!)
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