£25 to fill up the tank - Awesome!

I had to put petrol in the car and it cost £25 to fill the tank up, after UK prices I was quite surprised and you have to pay for your petrol first, so there are no drive aways, We left Nashville, about 10am,  on Saturday morning after a nice breakfast. 

There was no rush as it is a four hour drive to Sevierville at the foot of the Smokey Mountains. Its mid 50’s temperature today and the weather is fine- snow predicted in New York but not here. It was a pleasant drive, the American football team University of Tennessee is playing in Knoxville tonight and there are a lot of cars with flags, scarfs etc – all in bright orange. We stopped at some shops near Lebanon and Linda decided she needed some new tops, so bought a couple –of course there were in the sale.  Halloween is big over here – so there are shops everywhere with costumes and other rubbish.

It was back on the road, and after an hour I saw ‘the sign’ and so we stopped for a Starbucks. After this it was a straight drive to the mountains, well it would have been but my navigators couldn’t decide which way to go at some junctions, so we had a look around some other parts of the area. We are using the IPAD2 as the Sat Nav and so if the blue dot is not following the route – you are going the wrong way, in her defence it does not always update as quickly as we are moving due to the mobile signal. We are now back in Eastern time which means we have moved forward an hour, it get confusing as we are still in the same state. It could be worse if your house is in the middle for the dividing line – every time you go in the garden you lose an hour!

We are stay at the Hidden Mountain resort and it was well hidden, a bit worried when it talked about snow tyres and chains, but no sign of snow (yet). It was several miles up the mountain around a few twisty small lanes, it has two offices, East and West. East was nearer, but unfortunately we weren’t staying there. We found the West Office and booked in – our log cabin  is number 5097A and it was back down the mountain – about ¾ mile and turn left. We found it, it consists of a kitchen, living room, bedroom (with Jacuzzi), bathroom and then outside you have a rocking chair to sit and ponder as you look out over the mountain. There is also a hot tub for use on the other balcony. Inside there is an open fire place and logs provided.

We emptied the car and then went back into town as we needed to get some supplies, it is a  15 minute drive into Pigeon Forge. Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg all sort of merge into one, lots of shops, restaurants, amusements – think Blackpool doing country. Dollywood is here, but is shut this weekend. By now we were hungry and I could eat a horse – no horses were available so I settled for a cow. We went to the Longhorn steak house and had a huge meal, I had the T-bone and Linda chicken – it was lovely.  We also saw the big game on the tv and it was a popular place as the queues for tables was out the door when we left.

After this we needed to do some shopping and went to the local supermarket, which has a Starbucks inside, I could get into doing the weekly shop here – well I could drive and then drink coffee whilst Linda did the shopping. We bought some food – it was difficult to find everything and then back to the log cabin, I did get small Starbucks for the road, but because they were so windy I had to wait till I got home to drink it.  I have found the country music channel on the TV so we can listen and watch country music all day long.  Linda is so pleased!

On Sunday, I was up at 6am as I couldn’t sleep. Having caught up on my sleep I am awake by 6am (4am the other day) and so get up, do some reading or check the internet. Linda on the other hand is having no problems sleeping.  We had to prepare our own breakfast today, so it was cereal followed by a bagel with honey. The Mountain View Missionary Baptist church was not far away, a couple of minutes’ drive, we would have walked but left it too late – and there are bears in the mountain. It was a typical country church and very friendly. They sung the old hymns and the preacher preached a hell fire and brimstone gospel message based on 2 Corinthians 5.  It was enjoyable and the gospel message was certainly made very clear. We were the first international visitors they had ever had!

After church we had a little drive into town and wandered around, it was very busy so we came back to the log cabin to relax and watch country music. I sat on the balcony, in the rocking chair, with my hat on and did some reading watching the squirrels running up the trees, chased by a dog from the adjacent cabin.

The leaves are all in their vibrant autumn colours.  We did try out the hot tub and then watched a film in the evening, The First Grader, The true story of an 84 year-old Kenyan villager and ex Mau Mau freedom fighter who fights for his right to go to school for the first time to get the education he could never afford. It was interesting and we recognised some of the politics and issues involved. I cooked a nice dinner of salmon, fresh veg and sweet potatoes. We had the log fire going, although Linda with all her Guide training couldn’t get it to light, using a whole box of matches, I used one and some leaflets and it lit and was going all evening – I do have some uses (apart from driving).

Tomorrow is a big day for Linda, it is shopping day, where she gets to visit all the craft stores and shopping malls, I just get to do the driving.  So I went to bed early to prepare my  for this ordeal.

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Welcome to Hazzard County

Today’s excitement was a trip to Cooters – and to see the General Lee, of course I first had to explain to Linda who the Duke Boys were, as she has led such a sheltered childhood, never allowed to watch good TV etc.  The Dukes of Hazzard follows Bo and Luke Duke, two cousins living in a rural part of the fictional Hazzard County, Georgia, with their attractive cousin Daisy and their Uncle Jesse, racing around in their customized 1969 Dodge Charger, which they christened The General Lee, evading corrupt county commissioner Jefferson Davis "Boss" Hogg and his inept county sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane. Most of the programme was about car chases and stunts with the strapline ‘someday the mountain will get them but the law never will.’

I could have sat in the car for $5 but I wasn’t that interested! Linda did well to get us there, following the map on the IPAD2 and it was a good museum and more importantly free.  We looked around some of the other shops and didn’t buy anything, there was a Willie Nelson shop which Linda did not like- the music was too loud. I was surprised she did not tell them to turn it down. Most of the shops were empty, but we found a coffee shop ( not a Starbucks – I hasten to add) and I had to have black coffee as they did not do anything like latte or cappuccino. Linda had tea as usual.

I had been up since 6am as I couldn’t sleep (Linda didn’t seem to have any problem) so I was uploading photo’s and writing the blog.  When Linda surfaced we went for breakfast – which was very nice and plenty of it. 

When we got back from Cooters we went for a walk around downtown Nashville. The Broadway road has all the music shops and cafes. They all have live bands, which are loud so you can listen to them outside. The weather has been rain with a wind today, so slightly cold.  We went in all the shops and looked around, I then decided to buy a Stetson, so I could fit in with my surroundings and found one I liked, but decided to check the other shops to see if I could get a better deal. The only problem was I then couldn’t remember where I had seen the first one I liked. So we had to go in all the shops several times to see if I could remember where I had tried it on, in the end I couldn’t so I had to go for option B (which was cheaper anyway) and buy the second one I had seen. Linda had to traipse round after me, which makes a change!

We then walked around the area, I was looking at  cowboy boots and saw some nice ones – the price was £1500, although they were made from real alligators, it would been ok if you got the alligator meat to eat as well.  Suddenly I looked and there in the east above a building was a Starbucks sign, it was 4pm by now and I had the shakes and other withdrawal symptoms – so we went in and had a drink. I do have an app on my IPAD2 which identifies your location and shows you the nearest Starbucks – very useful.

After this we came back to the hotel so I could sort out the pictures, update the blog and Linda could rest.  About 8pm we went out for dinner to a local restaurant, Tazza, we were the only ones in the restaurant. It was good and I had a healthy dinner of beef cubes  on sticks (otherwise known as a beef kebab!) with vegetables and rice. Linda had pasta in a tomato sauce. I did test it for her and it was also nice. After that it was back to the hotel, Linda wanted to check her farm out and I was going to relax and read my book (via my Kindle).


There are some photo's of the General Lee and Nashville here.

Nashville 2011

Nashville, Tennessee the home of country music – we have arrived.  It seems a long time ago that we left the UK, although only a few days in reality. We were flying out Wednesday afternoon but left home on the Tuesday evening at 6.30pm as we were staying overnight at the Thistle hotel near Heathrow (we would have left earlier but somebody was not ready). It was a steady run and no traffic problems and we booked in, it was a bit noisy with all the planes flying over but only to be expected.  

The next morning we watched some television – nothing really interesting, checked my twitter account and then left about 11am to go to the long term parking area. As we were getting the luggage out – the heavens opened and we got wet!  By the time we had reached Terminal 5 it had stopped.

We had upgraded to business class using our frequent flyer miles, but the desks were busy so they sent us to first class to book in, unfortunately they did not upgrade us to fly at this level. We were able to use the fast track route through security and soon were ensconced in the business lounge enjoying some food and coffee, I was hungry as we had not had any breakfast. Linda needed to do her farm, but now I have the IPAD2 its not a problem as she can use the laptop freely. The plane was leaving at 1500 so we wandered towards the gate, but the train had broken down so we had to walk to the gate area under all the runways using the emergency exit route – hope the plane does not have the same problem, it’s a long swim across the Atlantic. Fortunately the plane was ok and we got firmly settled in our seats, Linda likes the window seat so she can see out, so I get the outside one. We were soon off and tucking into some food, I had chicken kiev and Linda had some fish, the food is definitely better than cattle class and you get real plates and cutlery to use.  The flight was a bit bumpy in places, but the stewardess kept me going with coffee, not as good as Starbucks but ok. Linda went to sleep and I read a couple of books and watched some videos (on my IPAD2 before you ask).

We landed at Atlanta  about 1900 – which is about midnight UK time – it’s all a bit confusing as Nashville is in a different time zone to Atlanta so we are even further behind now. Immigration was a bit slow, although they seem a bit more friendly than last time and then we collected our luggage. It’s a strange system at Atlanta – as you collect your luggage and then hand it back after customs and collect it again at the front of the airport. We then had to go through security again to get to the front of the airport, take off shoes, belt, hold trousers up  etc and then catch the shuttle to the airport entrance (fortunately it was working – otherwise it would have been an even longer walk as there are six stops here compared to Heathrow’s two.

We finally reached the entrance, collected the suitcases again and then went to the  courtesy bus rank to wait for us bus to the hotel. We were staying at the La Quinta Hotel and eventually the bus arrived.  The hotel was a few minutes drive and we were soon checked in. The room is so big, it has two double beds in it, a kitchenette and a work space and of course, free internet access – so fire up the IPAD2 and off I go.  It did have a gym but I was too tired to visit there!  We unpacked a few things and then went to sleep as we were tired. 

The next morning we were up at just after six, yes even Linda and were soon tucking into the free breakfast.  We were picking up the car this morning, so go the shuttle to the area and then sorted out the car hire. Its difficult these days as they give you a line of vehicles in your class and you can choose the one you want – this did take me a little while as I had to sit in all of them and test them out, the choice was between a Ford Escape SUV and a Jeep. Whilst the Jeep looked good they were rather large, looked quite uncomfortable for  the long journey and Linda didn’t like them – so I had to have the Ford. We went back to the hotel to collect the luggage and were soon on our way, it is a 250 mile trip and will take most of the day with a few stops. The first stop was after 30 minutes as I saw a Starbucks sign and so we bought a coffee and continued on our journey. The car is an automatic with cruise control – and so you just sit back and relax and drink your coffee (with a hand on the steering wheel of course). The roads are straight and it gets quite boring, so I put some country music on. The speed limits are mainly 55mph which is slow, but once you get out of town they do increase to 70mph on the interstate.

We decided to stop at Chattanooga as there was a shopping centre there for Linda, a big one so she could wander around the shops, disaster was she found a craft store and was gone ages.  I needed a pay as you sim card for IPAD2 so we can use it as a satnav as well.  It was lunchtime so we had a snack (or rather a large snack as nothing is small here) and then were back on our way, via Starbucks of  course.  It was 75 degrees in Atlanta but cooled down as we went north to about 53. 

We arrived in Nashville at 5pm (or 4pm their time) and found our hotel we are staying at the Hilton Homewood Suites . There is not parking at the hotel but in a garage a few blocks away, so we checked in and it is a very big room, but only one king size bed so will have to share with my wife tonight. They do a complimentary dinner in the evening during the week – which was a chicken dish which filled a hole and there was free beer!

We decided to go to the Opry Classic Country Music show at the Ryman auditorium, which was a 10 minute walk away and got some good tickets. It started at 7pm and lasts about 2 hours. I even stayed awake for the whole show – which is good for me – Dolly Parton wasn’t there as she is touring Australia but the music was good and Linda enjoyed it, she is even getting to know some of the singers names now.

After this we walked back to the hotel, there was a slight drizzle and it is not so warm here and after checking email and twitter it was time for some sleep.

There are some photos here