It had been a loooooong time since I had ventured north to Nashville, TN. The last time was to visit my grandparents, so it was...the mid-80's. Man! It HAS been a long time. I wish the circumstances that took me there had been different. I addressed that in the previous entry. Better get to my trip observations before I get back into 'can't write mode'...
The point 'B' to our journey was my uncle Butch and aunt Dollie's house in Hendersonville. Just a hop and a skip from Nashville. Glenn and I were looking at eight or nine hours of road time. I didn't really find it daunting. It had been so long since I had been on a lengthy road trip that I was kind of looking forward to it. I find that kind of travel meditative at times, so I was looking forward to some mental diversion therapy. I ended up driving for a considerable chunk. It helped my mental state quite a bit.
As we headed to Macon (after that it would be Atlanta), we passed the exit(s) for Georgia Southern Col...University. I know it's a University and has been for awhile now, but it was a "college" when I went there. Anyway, I made a mental note about paying a visit there to have a look around. See how it's changed. I'm sure I'll have to brace myself before I tune into the radio station. When Glenn and I were DJ's in the early to mid-80's, WVGS's station ID's said, "You're listening to your Progressive alternative...WVGS, Statesboro". 'Progressive and Alternative' we were. You could hear anything and everything on there. Everything from hard core punk to jazz to rockabilly to new wave to classical to urban contemporary to...well, you get my point. We were one of the top rated college stations in those days. I feel a huge 'wax on' moment settling in, so I'll contain myself and shelve it for another entry. Moving right along...
One of the first things I noticed when we entered Highway 16 was the speed limit. The last lengthy road trip I had taken was in the days of the 60 mph limit. Wasn't surprised that it was now 70. Was quite happy about it actually. The speed limit is now 70, so of course I went 80.
The trip as a whole was smooth sailing. We ran into a couple of minor hold-ups. Back-up of some trucks at a weigh station, and a short stretch of shoulder construction. Traffic was moderate to light the whole way. I did have some flashbacks here and there. Landmarks that I recognized from years past...both nature created and man made. Chattanooga looked pretty much identical to how I remember it. No new stretches of highway. The same old billboards urging you to visit Lookout Mountain and See Rock City. Signs letting you know that the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel was off the next exit. We had a family meet-up there once years ago. Ate in their restaurant and had a look around. Don't know what it's like now, but back then it was really cool. They had some hotel rooms that were in actual train cars. Nifty. The next flash from memory lane was when we went through MontEagle. It's at the top of a small mountain. When I was young and we would make the trip to visit my grandparents, we would usually stop to grab a bite o' lunch at the MontEagle diner. The old antique/swap meet was still there, too. We were traveling on Tuesday, so the tumbleweeds were blowing through. It would be jumping over the weekend. After MontEagle, the fireworks stores started to make themselves known. Fireworks are legal in Tennessee. You can buy just about anything...M-80's, bottle rockets, etc. No. They dangled the carrot, but we didn't bite. Talked about it for a minute or two, but decided that there wasn't anything we needed to be buying. Maybe next trip...hehe...
We saw a lot of trees, fields, and passed by the Tennessee river. It's really beautiful up there. We passed the exit for the Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg. You would've thought that at some point I would have made it there to the tour, but as of yet I haven't. It was discussed after we had arrived at my aunt and uncle's, but it didn't pan out. The thing I find funny about the JD Distillery is that it's in a dry county. One of the (if not THE) most famous whiskey makers is in a county you can't buy their product in. Hah!
Not long after that we entered Nashville and made our way to Hendersonville. Observed areas hit by the flooding as we went. I was very bummed to learn that Opryland is no longer around. The hotel is, but the theme park is historical. There's a big shopping mall there now. I had visited Opryland a number of times when I was young. Was a fun place. The new Opry house was adjoining the park (believe it's still there), so you could see well known country singers perform there as part of your admission to the park. I remember seeing a performance by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton.
Once at my aunt and uncle's, things kind of felt surreal. The elements of the trip regarding the reason for the trip. Those aside, it was good to see Butch and Dollie, and it was really good to see my brother. Hadn't seen him in quite awhile. The last time I saw him was a number of years ago when I visited him and his family for Christmas. I can't recall just how long, but I'm thinking around seven years (?). My nephew Karl made the trip with him. Karl is about twice as tall as the last time I saw him. I'm pretty sure that over the course of our time at Butch and Dollie's, I re-earned my title as 'Crazy Aunt Lisa'. Well earned it is.
A couple of days were spent at my mother's condo with my brother, Mike, divvying up items from her estate. I used the word "surreal" previously, but this just felt plain weird. One of those moments that you know is happening, but you can't believe it is. Anyway, this past Friday boxes were filled and loaded into the back of Glenn's truck for the journey home. We do have another trip to make in a few weeks...most likely when my brother makes his trip down for the things he's taking. (Mike and Karl flew, so they obviously couldn't have taken anything with them this time around.) Saturday morning, Glenn and I tied everything down with a tarp Butch gave us. There was rain in the forecast, so I wanted to put something over the end of a rug we had sticking out of the back. The only plastic bag we could find (we had forgotten the box of garbage bags at the condo the day before) was the big plastic packaging you get bulk toilet paper in. So that's what I taped to the protruding end. It was noticed, quite unanimously, that we had definitely achieved 'Redneck' with that.
(Glenn e-mailed the above photo to his brother who was quick to point out that it wasn't truly 'redneck' because the toilet paper bag said 'Northern' on it. Nit picker!)
Rain started to fall before we were out of Nashville. Nothing heavy. At least, not until we neared the exit for the first of the two distilleries (there is a Dickson (?) distillery in addition to the JD one - think they produce whiskey, too). It got a bit heavier and about the time we reached the exit to JD the bottom fell out. To say it was coming down hard...it was the variety of hard driving rain when you can hardly make out the lines in the road, and don't realize there's another car nearby until you're practically grazing their bumper. It had been years since I had driven in rain like that, but I do know how to handle a vehicle in the rain. We're in desperate need of new wipers on the truck (keep forgetting to replace them...), but they did the job. Thankfully, since we kept moving forward, the rain never made it into the truck bed. Everything was bone dry when we got home. Eventually, we made it ahead of the rain. There was a discussion about another motorist we had passed during the thick of the storm. Someone had pulled over to the side of the road to wait things out. I can understand them doing that if they felt uncomfortable driving in that downpour, but once the rain slacked off and they got back on the road they were just going to hit it again. Oh well. We got far enough ahead for the rain to stop and had gotten to MontEagle where we stopped for a pit stop. There was talk of getting something to eat, but the clouds over the mountain were darkening fast and the wind was whipping furiously around, kicking flotsam into the air. We decided to put more distance behind us, so back on the road we went. Waited until we were south of Chattanooga, and the storm had made it's way off in another direction.
As we exited Tennessee and entered back into Georgia, a major feature of the highway shoulders became more prevalent. The evil vine known as Kudzu.
Anybody who has visited the south has seen it. Enveloping roadside hills, and enshrouding trees and bushes. It has an evil rep in these here parts. (I plan to make a separate entry that talks about this insidious viney plant...for any interested parties.) Through this stretch Glenn was behind the wheel, so I spent some time trying to snap some photos of the massive vine growths. A chunk of that time was also spent cursing the drivers of vehicles big enough to block a number of my Kudzu photographing opportunities. Once we got to Atlanta, I spent quite a bit of the time reading the various exit signs and having retro moments of remembering the various street names, areas mentioned that I had either been through-visited-lived in (I grew up in Atlanta). It wasn't riveting, but it was a form of entertainment.
We skirted Atlanta via the 285 a.k.a. 'The Perimeter'. Headed through Macon. Passed Dublin, Vidalia, Statesboro, etc., blah blah, woof woof. It was getting late by the time we neared Savannah. A distant storm was brewing. Shafts of lightning angled down here and there. At first I was hoping that we'd hit some more rain, but then Glenn pointed out the fact that we needed to unload the truck when we got home...if it was raining, that would really suck. The clouds persisted out there in the dark of night, and the shards of burning light still continued to knife down here and there, but the rain stayed away and we were able to get the contents of the truck bed inside without getting drenched. Safe and dry. The rain wouldn't come until Sunday. It rained most of the day, and I engaged in my usual pseudo-sleep...caught an ineffective nap in the afternoon. It paired nicely with the previous nights few hours of ineffective "sleep". It's good to be home, but...well...still processing...
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