Walmart is not the only saving place.

Title is from the readerboard out front of a Baptist Church in Antioch, TN. We've seen an awful lot of of Baptist churches in Tennessee, especially in the eastern corner. At first I wanted to take a picture of every one of them, until I realized the impossibility of such a task. Sometimes though, we like what's on the board and we write it down (even though we were whizzing by at the time, and didn't attempt to stop for a picture).
As for the picture at the right, I'm sure you are wondering...what were we doing in a Harley Motorcycle dealership? Why is such a little tomato acting like it's a big fat beefsteak? Did our little guy lose some of his, uh, juicy gelatinous essence? Locularity, locularity.
I'm thinking that this was taken at the sixth or seventh dealership we've visited. We visit for this reason: My dear friend is caring for my daughter while I'm out alarming the southern population. She and her husband ride Harley's, and her one small request for me while I'm gone is that I feed her dealer pin habit.
All of her friends know....going on a trip? Check out the local Harley dealerships. I was so excited about my visit to the Rogersville area that I completely spaced looking for them there...so I missed Kingsport and Knoxville. Here in Nashville I'm back on track, we've found four in Nashville alone. We have found the nicest people in (most of) the dealerships, and the ones that were not so outgoing, well we WERE in there at quitting time.
Even tomatoes are worried when they see out of work gas tanks all over the place. See the downcast little guy? When we visited the gas station we were not happy to see that the gas shortage that plagued us in North Carolina has now reached the big cities of Tennessee. We had no problem finding gas in eastern TN. Unfortunately there are a lot of plastic bags tucked over the gas nozzles of Nashville. We were, in fact, able to fill up eventually, but this isn't funny. I've wondered, what is this all about, anyway? I know, we had a hurricane that ravaged Galveston, but only a very small amount of our gasoline is supplied by the area. The west coast supply seems ok, from what I hear. NC had it bad, TN is getting worse, no idea what Kentucky brings. It is clearly a conspiracy! We rented a Dodge Caliber, and we appreciate it more every time we put 3 or 4 gallons in and know that much is going to get us another 150 miles or so. The car has been getting approximately 36 mpg, not bad, not bad at all. For the most part, we've had the universe taking care of us. We just have to mention that perhaps we should top off the tank when a virtually empty gas station (with gas) appears. And as we pump our gas, we've watched the same stations develop block long lines.
Why the TV remotes in motels all have nearly dead batteries? At our current spot we have good batteries, and, praise the big tomato, wifi! I almost don't want to leave. I'd hate to see 2 grandma confined to an airless, muggy room with only a cigarette cursor to keep her company.
And I know this may be a repeat of 2G's blog, but why do televangelists have such astonishing mullet hairdo's? Is it the higher the hair, the closer to God?
Why did the cable in the Bulls Gap Best Western have FIVE channels carrying ABC programming, three carrying NBC, while the one that should have shown CBS was nothing but snow? Being that we are addicted to our dose of Craig Ferguson, we found this to be almost as aggravating as the fact that they advertise the fact that they have WiFi, and then supply you with only one bar (if you are lucky). I'm not bitter. Really.
Why am I starting to sound like Andy Rooney?
2G has hinted that she may sneak up and apply her bedazzler to my cowboy had whilst I sleep. I don't know what this means, nor do I have a cowboy hat.
Finally, here are a few shots from Nashville today. I must be swift, so that I can outpost 2G who is over there typing up a storm.
They've clearly tried to upgrade the music area, with a beautiful promenade. Better to walk there in broad early daylight, not edging into the evening as we were.









Lucky shot of the Cumberland River, with sun shining on the pedestrian bridge over it.












Somewhere in this seething mass of people is the immortal Ryman Auditorium. The whole Nashville visit was kinda depressing...the air reeked like a 3 day drunk. Sigh.





G2 has already referenced the dead skunk in the middle of the road, but our other songs of the day are:
Rhinestone Cowboy (by Glen Campbell)--brought on by bedazzler threats.
Take the Last Train to Clarkesville (by the Monkees)--Who knew the Monkees had deep roots in Tennessee?
Thank You Miss Rosa (by the Neville Brothers)--driving down Rosa Park Blvd.
Cumberland Blues (Grateful Dead)--The Cumberland River

ST and Tala, call me one way or t'other.