Tennessee

From: Bowling Green, KY
To: Forrest City, AR (via Nashville and Memphis, TN)
Mileage: About 632kms

Okay, time to update for yesterday.

I woke up yesterday morning, got my stuff ready, and then left Bowling Green, Kentucky.  I headed toward Nashville, Tennessee on I-65 South.

Before stopping in Nashville, I took a slight detour and visited the Grand Ole Opry.  Here are some photos:

Guess where I entered...

Guess where I parked...

Epic

The hotel

This just came out kinda neat

I couldn't actually go INTO the Grand Ole Opry, since there was some convention/conference going on, and it was closed to the public.  But I got to be in the area at least.

While at the Opry, I asked the lady at the ticket place if it's worth going downtown Nashville.  She said yes, but everything sounded time consuming.  She said Broadway was the street to see, if I did go.  So while I was back on the Interstate, I decided I'd only go downtown if I saw a sign saying either "Downtown" or "Broadway".  Of course there would be, and there was.  So I took the Broadway exit and went downtown Nashville.  Here are some pictures:

I liked Nashville, Tennessee.  It seemed like a nice, clean, interesting city.  It had some cool, historic looking buildings, but a very clean, modern feeling to it, and some newer buildings to prove it.  Everyone there seemed friendly, too.

I left Nashville, and headed toward Memphis.  on the way, I stopped for gas in Waverly TN.  I decided I was hungry and that I wanted to just find a small place.  So I want across the road to this place:

and had a smoked pulled pork sandwich:

After eating dinner, I jumped back on the Interstate and headed into Memphis.  After entering the city, cars needed to merge into the interstate.  So I moved a lane over, clearly signaling my intentions with my blinkers AND hand signals.  Ten seconds later, the car that was behind me was passing me in my lane.  Of course I freaked out, sped the hell up and followed the car as it exited.  I'd hear there are lots of gangs in Memphis, so I had planned on being cautiously aggressive.  I looked closely and I could tell that it was a slightly older person, so I decided it wasn't a gangster.  I made my way up to the car at a red light and started down the person.  Turned out to be an old(ish) lady who was visibly upset that I was following her with my menacing helmet.  When she looked at me, I made a gesture as if to say "what the hell is wrong with you...?" and she just kind of shrugged.  I didn't like the shrug, so I continued to follow and badger her until I'd made her feel sufficiently uncomfortable.  Eventually, she got her phone out and started dialing, so I decided she'd had enough.  I turned around and got back in the Interstate.  More drivers in Memphis were following too closely, and I just didn't get a good vibe from the place.  So I decided not to stop, and I took these parting photos as I crossed the Mississippi River into Arkansas (if you click them and zoom in, you can read the signs).

I stopped at a truck stop for more gas, and picked a campsite for the night.  I headed for Wynne, Arkansas to camp at Village Creek State Park.  By the time I got to Wynne, it was starting to get dark.  I went to Wal-Mart to get a can of dinner (a.k.a. soup) and some snacks.  By the time I got out, it was dark and I still had to get to the park, find a site, set up camp, make dinner, and sleep.  So instead I checked into a motel and crashed for the night in Forrest City, Arkansas.

By now, I'm pretty sure I've left the Appalachian Mountains:

Flat :(

And I'm pretty sure I'm heading in the right direction:

West

Overall, I liked Tennessee (even though I was there for a quarter of a day).  It seemed clean and friendly.  I did not like Memphis, however.  I also noticed more cops in Tennessee (speed trapping, etc.) than I had noticed over the rest of the trip, combined.