Tennessee

It's still cold as we leave Hagerstown, MD, for Knoxville, just about 14 degrees, and it snowed about 3/4" last night.  The road looks clear, and I have seen a couple of plows/sanders, but we haven't gone more than 5 miles before we see the first accident . Others are announced on the radio. Lets hope conditions improve.

We will be following I-81 for a couple hundred miles in Tennessee. Right now we are about 20 miles west of the blue ridge mountains, which are bathed in the early morning sunlight, with puffy clouds as a backdrop. Well be driving alongside them for a long time. Very pretty.

______________________________________

Friday was a "teid" day (diet spelled backwards). There should be fewer of these once we are in our own place and we can at least control what we eat part of the time.  I'm not so naive as to think we won't eat out or drink too much. As I'm reminded by my Facebook friends, a lot of our trips and activities seem to revolve around food, and today is no exception!

We started the day with the usual, complimentary breakfast at the Hampton Inn, where they had surprisingly good biscuits and gravy. Gail gobbled these up.

Lunch was in Nashville at a Mexican restaurant with the odd name of "Chuys", oddly in the shadow of The Grand Ole Opry. This was our second time here - the first being last year on our way back. I had chicken enchiladas with green chiles from Hatch, NM, the chile pepper capital of the southwest. Bob had the southwestern enchilada, made with blue corn tortillas. Did I mention that they make their own delicious tortillas? And that the decor includes faux Diego Rivera murals, beautiful Mexican tile work  and artificial palm trees? Odd name and place, but nothing odd about the food.

We reached Memphis, and had a little time before dinner, so we made a very brief tour of the STAX Museum of American Soul Music. Isaac Hayes, Booker T. Jones (and the MGs), James Brown, Otis Redding, Bobbie Bland, Ike and Tina Turner, and many others all had their start there.

After a suitable interval so we'd be hungry again, we met Dan Lewis, old friend of Gail's from HP, at Neely's Interstate Barbecue, also in Memphis. It is owned by the uncle of Patrick and Gina Neely, of Food Network fame. This humble restaurant has been named as the best barbecue in Memphis. We agree. After a lot of catching up, we drove over the border into Arkansas for the night.