The roads were pretty quiet possibly due to all Americans being at shopping centres for the post-Christmas sales. The trip was largely uneventful except for when we passed a whopping 168' (51m) tall / 22' (6m) diameter, full-scale, Saturn 1B rocket by the side of the road...the other side of the road. In fact, it was such a surprise, we could neither, slow down, nor stop, nor take a bunch of proper 'arty' photos (dammit!). There wasn't even a nearby exit for us to cross the road and double-back (double dammit!!). Before that, I was very tempted to take the exit to Huntsville, Alabama, but more on that in a week or so's blog.
We stopped for lunch at Hardee's a little further up the road at Ardmore, Tennessee where I decided to order the standard 'thick burger' as I thought it would be relatively nondescript, certainly unhealthy, but not too big. Well so much for that plan; let's just say, by way of comparison, Kyle ordered the Mile-High Bacon Burger (which was actually a few inches short of a mile tall), mine was about 1.2 miles high. I left that place feeling like a well-prepared Bear heading into hibernation, not an ideal situation for the 'driver'.
Here's some photo's of the trip all of which were taken on Kyle's phone by Kyle.
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| Crossing the Tennessee River |
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| The high-speed Saturn 1B photo |
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| My smooth inside-lane passing manoeuvre underway |
We arrived in Nashville mid/late afternoon but still to early for our 1600h check-in time, so we headed off to a Premium Factory Outlet and the famous Opry Mills Shopping Centre. At the Factory Outlet, I picked up a nice Indianapolis Colts NFL jacket for a measly $12. So why am I telling you this? Because I decided to wear it out and constantly had people, err strangers, either cheering 'GO COLTS' or wanting to have in-depth conversations with me on the state of the NFL, the Indianapolis Colts, or whether Andrew Luck is the best Colts player ever. The problem is, I brought the jacket because it was (a) cheap and (b) looks good...on me; as for the team or the NFL in general...I do not have a clue (remember Day 11's Blog). In the end, when we got into the hotel, I was again accosted by a stranger who asked if I was going to the game this weekend, to which I honestly explained the situation. He was most understanding and went on about wanting to visit Australia.
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| Posing with some shoes that one of the boys were looking at; dig my funky new Colts jacket |
So that was what happened today. We are settled into the Country Inns and Suites North-East of Nashville and ready for a well-earned rest after a long day's drive.
