On The Road To Nashville

It was still dark when we woke up this morning but that was ok as we needed to make an early start. We had been told about a place in Great Smoky Mountain Park called Cade's Cove. It was in a valley where some of the earliest settlers in the region had started out. The cove is full of fields, forests, streams and wildlife. There's an 11 mile loop that you drive and it has numerous places to stop and observe. There are also around 80 old buildings to explore along with an interpretive centre. To get there, you need to drive about twenty miles on a really curvy, narrow road. We did it just as the sun was rising over the trees and mist. The scenery was impressive even before we got to our destination.

This is our first stop where we thought we'd be looking at some misty mountains but it turned out to be sunrise through some trees and mist.

Then we continued on and stopped at a small bridge. No sun this time.

The next few are scenes as we drove along. I'd slow or stop and Marilyn would take the shot through the windshield.

When we finally started on the Cade's Cove loop, we saw another car stopped and someone was out with a camera so we pulled over as well. Turned out to be a field of horses in the mist.

We stopped at a few old homestead buildings and churches along the way. I was a bit disconcerted at the Do Not Feed The Bears signs. 

As we walked away from one of the buildings through a field, we noticed spider webs that had gotten wet in the mist. There wasn't sun to light them up but the water still looked like little jewels on the strands of silk.

Finally, we ended up at a farm house area and saw a working grist mill. This was really interesting because there was an old gentleman in the mill grinding corn on an original mill. He took the time to explain the process and show us how the mill worked. We bought a bag of the corn meal that he had made and will make some cornbread with it when we get home. 

This is the mill. The pyramid is the corn hopper. 

Here's the bag of corn meal that we bought. Five pounds should make quite a bit of corn bread!

The road to Nashville was largely 70 mph freeway driving which can get a bit monotonous and we didn't have any snacks left. We really intended to save the bourbon cream truffles until we got home, but I needed an energy boost so we had no choice but to eat them. 

Getting into Nashville was easier than I expected. You never know where the construction will be or if rush hour starts early. Entering our hotel was a bit tricky because there was massive construction all around it and the sidewalk out front had been ripped up! Once we were settled we discovered that the hotel was not quite as close to downtown as was stated in the advertising. That will be part of my Trip Advisor review I think. In any case, we walked about 20 minutes to get to what is called the strip. It consists of a lot of bars, restaurants, souvenir shops and stores that sell western clothing and gear. We had no idea that Nashville had such a cowboy theme going on. We looked at cowboy boots but didn't buy any.

The first thing we did on the strip was to enter one of the numerous bars with live music and have a beer. It turned out to be a place called Honky Tonk Central and the music was, I believe, new country. There was a couple doing the Texas Two Step to provide more entertainment and the beer was cold so we were happy! Also, we didn't dance.

We are discovering that the parts of cities where all the action is tend to be smaller than you expect. Nashville's strip area had 3 or 4 streets that were built up with attractions. And, since so many of the stores, restaurants and bars are similar, it doesn't take that long to see most of it. This is unlike places like New York or Boston or Toronto where there are many distinct areas to explore. 

There were a few Elvis sightings today.

I think I mentioned the other day that we're finding some restaurants that were on the show BBQ Crawl. There are a few in Nashville and Jack's BBQ was our first stop. It's a small place on the strip that has won numerous awards for best bbq in the city. And, they didn't disappoint! 

We shared a large combo platter with Texas style brisket, Texas smoked sausage and ribs. Everything was excellent and then we found a free shuttle bus that dropped us off at our hotel! You won't find that in Toronto!