Day 1

Knock knock. Nancy woke me up at 7 before she left for work. Good thing since I needed to load the car and head out by 8. Turned out that I didn’t leave town til 8:30 b/c of the requisite gas fill up and a necessary cup of coffee and a bagel to go from Open Eye for the last time til August.

The first part of the drive was pretty lame simply because I’ve driven from Chapel Hill to Hickory a million times. I’ve only been to Asheville a few times, but given my itinerary lunch in Asheville was not a particularly interesting stop. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed walking around down town and eating sushi and taking a break after 4 hours of driving. I read this local weekly newspaper about herbal living just to get a hint of what I might be facing in Berkeley. I’m lost. Maybe someone in Cali can explain it to me.

Headed out of Asheville after an hour and through the Appalachian mountains. Gorgeous drive. Absolutely amazing. They aren’t huge mountains, especially in comparison with what I’m up against in a few days, but they are certainly pretty. Anyone who’s driven the Blue Ridge Parkway must agree or they are not a real person. The drive from Asheville to Knoxville was pretty until I actually got to Knoxville. It may have still been pretty, but the terrible drivers detracted from all that. From Knoxville to Nashville, it seemed like no one could go the speed limit. I’m not an excessively fast driver, but I would appreciate at least doing the speed limit. So, obviously, my road rage reared its head.

I arrived at Greg and Mark’s house around 4:30, though only Greg was home. We promptly went to a bar called the Red Door. Whole pirate theme with a lot going on. I liked it a lot. I especially liked just sitting on the patio, drinking a beer after 8 hours of driving. Afterwards, we went to Broadway Street which is where all the crazy Nashville bars are. We ate at a brewery there which was great (Big River, I think, was the name) and Mark and his girlfriend, Amanda, met udinner, we went to a couple of bars. One was a bluegrass bar, with a live band of course, and the other was The Stage, which is apparently pretty famous. Being a Monday, they were fairly empty, but not dead. All in all it was a wonderful night and we ended the day around 10:30.