Seeing more of the country (music)

I finished up my stay in Asheville with a fine healthy North Carolina breakfast of ribs and pulled pork at 12 bones in Asheville - some of the best ribs I've had in the states. Nothing better to set me up for the quick five hour drive to Nashville in the neighboring state of Tennessee.

When a BBQ place sells meat by the pound, you know it's good!

To break up the drive (and because I'm a caffeine addict) I stopped off at Knoxville, Tennessee along the way. I did get a really good cup of coffee, but to be honest that's probably all I have to say about the place. Maybe it's because it was a Satucay afternoon, but the city was pretty lifeless. There were a few nice buildings

Knoxville City Hall

and a random globe thingy

The 'Sunsphere' apparently, still not quite sure of the point of it!

The coffee shop I went to actually sold Kopi Luwak, the stuff we brought back from Indonesia.

This stuff sure wasn't 60 bucks a carton in Indonesia!

The story behind Luwak Coffee

I arrived in Nashville that evening and strolled around for a while. This place was quite the opposite of Knoxville, the place was thronged with people. I soon found out that one of the reasons it was so busy is that there was a Taylor Swift concert in the Bridgestone Arena which is right in the middle of downtown. Obviously I was gutted I didn't have a ticket.

Every bar you passed was packed and nearly every place had some dodgy country singer wailing about his dog that died or girlfriend that left him, or maybe he married his dog because his girlfriend left him, anyway, you get the picture. I eventually escaped to a not-so-country pub called The Beer Seller where the extensive selection of micro-brews provided a welcome refuge from all the country music and tourists (yes, I know I'm a tourist aswell).

Downtown Nashville. Lots of neon lights and country music.

That night I crashed with Robbie, a friend of a friend who's going to university in Belmont a college in Nashville. A bunch of his college mates called over for the evening and it felt like being back in college again!

Knowing that the drive to New Orleans was a long one I was up early the next morning. I had hoped to check out Nashville during the day, but when I got into to town, the place was again, bedlam. This time there was a game in the Tennessee Titans stadium which is also right in the middle of the city. Seriously, who's bright idea is it to build these things in the middle of downtown Nashville?

The 70,000 seater stadium of the Tennessee Titans

Anyway, after abandoning those plans, I finished up a brief stay in Nashville and hit the road for New Orleans. 

More pics here: https://picasaweb.google.com/105659496923832797916/Tennessee#