USA Road Trip 6 : Nashville, Kentucky...

Nashville : Home of country music and the Grand Ole Opry. We did manage to find plenty of different genres of live music amongst the country bands playing in the bars on Broadway and beyond. And in any case I quite like a bit of country rock myself. We loved the Country Music Hall of Fame too. We ate at Arnold's ( BBQ 13 ) In Nashville it's canteen style and they call lunch "A Meat and Three" referring to the choice of one meat serving and a choice of sides.

Broadway

After a couple of days in Nashville we headed north into Kentucky; first stop Bowling Green for a visit to the Corvette Museum. Since 1981 every Corvette ever made has rolled off the assembly line in Bowling Green. We spent the night in Bardstown, the Bourbon capital of the world. The whole area has a carmelly air about it. It's not possible to visit more than a couple of distilleries, so we toured Willett and Heaven Hills. We especially drove to Frankfort, the State Capitol; because it's the namesake (same spelling) of the town near our farm in South Africa. We ate lunch at Staxx ( BBQ 14 ) and toured another distillery; Buffalo Trace. Then it was on to Lexington; the horsey part of the US. Once again we were a bit disappointed to find yet another small, generic city just like so many others all over America. I am sure it's just fine to grow up here, all neat and pretty, with a slightly trendy downtown and just enough of a selection of bars and fine dining restaurants as not to get too bored. And good amenities and services and plenty of strip malls but no real soul. And sometimes you should be careful what you wish for..

Rickhouses ( bonded warehouses full of whiskey barrels)

Our next stop, back in Tenessee, was Gatlinburg/ Pigeon Forge, "Gateway to the Smokey Mountains" and home to Dollywood and hundreds more tacky attractions, themed dinner shows and overpriced attractions. There are miles and miles of motels and chain restaurnats and very slow traffic. Driving into the Smoky Mountans National Park was busy but it is not too hard to find a road less travelled. En route to Pigeon Forge we did stop for lunch in Corbin, KY at the original KFC. It's an inspiring story for the oldies because Colonel Sanders was 65 years old when he set out in his car with only the money from his social secuity cheque and his secret recipe to franchise his fried chicken.

First KFC

Smoky Mountains

Asheville, NC is altogether a better city, rather hippy and alternate with lots of pubs and live music. We even attended amateur burlesque night at a local co-operative theatre. For lunch we had wonderful pulled pork and ribs at Little Pigs ( BBQ 15 ). The chatty, old owner then gave us complimentary fried chicken and lemon meringue pie, which we felt obligated to eat on top of all the rest. Then it was on to Charlotte and Lake Norman to stay with Joan and Raymund and Chapel Hill to stay with Adrian and Margaret and little Oliver.