Day Two
My first stay at a Motel 6, how bad could it be? The best I can say is that it was fairly clean. On the other hand there was no blanket so I had fold the top sheet and bedspread in half to spend a cold night’s sleep. I unplugged the mini fridge because it was loud, this is my normal procedure in cheap hotels. The dead bolt was missing the latch piece on the door and large trucks rolled by all night. I tried to get a little sleep but was happy to leave early the next morning.
Because it would take an hour to go Roanoke and back for breakfast and coffee I found a coffee house in Salem, Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea. They only have paper cups but the girl agreed to pull a shot into my cup, once again I had a decent shot. I had and egg and cheese sandwich and another shot.
Bristol, TN
Back on I81 south heading for the next stop Pinnacle Park in Bristol, TN, I stopped at a rest top after about an hour to make sure Waze was still working and I spotted a sign I was in the south, a real monster truck. After another two hours travel I arrived at the “park”, once again I could not find a park. It turns out that Pinnacle Park is a large shopping complex. No problem, I need a set of head phones for the plane trip back and was looking for Best Buy anyway. I picked up a cheap set of JVC Bluetooth earbuds, wired headphone are no longer a thing.
I was on the phone talking to Maureen and made a wrong turn out the parking lot and Waze had crashed again so I wasted 30 to 40 minutes getting back on track. When I finally got back on I40 3 hours from Roanoke the mile marker indicated over 400 more miles to the state line. Tennessee is one long freaking state. I arrived at my next stop at the World’s Fair Park in Knoxville, TN around 1:00PM. I ate most of my lunch in a municipal parking lot and took a 20 minute walk in the fair grounds. The weather was pleasant and the grounds are clean. There was a $5.00 charge to go up in the sun tower so I skipped it.
It took forever to get to Nashville, so I skipped the Honky Tonk Highway and went straight to Centennial Park. I have always wanted to see the Parthenon there and I was not disappointed. I stopped a couple walking towards me on the way to the Parthenon and asked, “Can I ask a stupid question?” The husband responded, “There are no stupid questions.” So asked, “What time zone am I in?” He responded, “The central time zone, we had the same problem yesterday.” This was good news because it gave me another hour to reach Memphis.
I drove on I40 west forever and watched a huge sun setting into the horizon. Waze took me through the projects to get to the Otherlands Coffee Bar. I got there as it was closing and got a double shot before heading to Chukis Tacos. I got the fish tacos with rice and beans. It was excellent as was the self-serve salsa bar with 15 choices. I met the owner Rafael and we hit it off well and I got his email to send him a link to this website.
Once again I made a mistake in planning, the Motel 6 is a 45 minute drive out of my way to Covington and back in the morning. I will be skipping the King’s grave to make up time and find breakfast in Covington.
Salem, VA
Nashville, TN
Memphis, TN
Knoxville, TN
