Day 1 - NC and TN

So we all left the house in Chapel Hill around 5:30 AM in time to catch some breakfast in Asheville, leaving me with a whopping 4 hours of sleep before heading out on the road. A lot of the day was understandably dominated by this -

nope.

We met up with an online friend of eight years (and her boyfriend) that I had never met in person and shared coffee in a cute little pastry shop.

First mirror picture since 10th grade, promise.

that. beard.

The coffee shop was a bit of a walk from where we parked but we got to see some cool art/stores along the way as well as have some conversation. Asheville is much prettier than I remembered.

Art in downtown Asheville, NC.

Headed back to the car.

Gavin's knitted thumb thimble.

We purchased two miniature Buddha statues at the store that we named Bud and Gouda. We kept them in the car for safe travels but they mostly just fell off of the dash.

The drive from Asheville to Nashville (heheh) was probably the curviest stretch of road the whole trip. I found myself nervously clenching the steering wheel often around sharp, blind turns. We stopped about 50 miles into TN for a bathroom break and found that the gas station was full of anti-Islamic propaganda as well as the most disgusting bathroom ever - complete with two stalls yet only one toilet, a hole in the ceiling and one of those "paper towel" dispensers that was actually one long stained roll of fabric.

You cannot convince me that this gets washed.

The Nashville destination that I had planned out was the Parthenon Pavillion - a replica of the Parthenon in Greece. Who knew?

Becoming a panoramic photo enthusiast.

Apparently it has real events held inside, but that part was closed to the public. We instead enjoyed taking hold of a few photo opportunities outside.

We'll admit that Tennessee's pretty interesting.

Anything that isn't the inside of a car is nice at this point.

Being cute siblings.

It wasn't the most pleasant thing to touch.

After leaving Nashville, we were headed to Memphis to catch the sunset over the Mississippi. I think this is where we learned the most about Tennessee -

1. There is a Shoney's and a Cracker Barrel at every rest stop. Honestly, every single one. Whenever Jodie would point out something cool, there would be a Shoney's next to it. That little bear must be the mascot of the state.

2. People do not use their turn signals. This probably is a major contribution to number 3.

3. The accident fatality rate is OUTRAGEOUS. There are lit up signs along 40 that keep an up-to-date count on road fatalities. We joked about how the number would probably go up before we left the state. We spoke too soon.

Those are bodies.

The traffic from the most grizzly accident we had ever seen only delayed us a bit on our way to Memphis. We scored some free parking right next to the river and walked to a downtown, outdoor mall area that only consisted of runners, horse carriages, trolleys and empty stores. All the restaurants had closed early on Mondays, but we learned to improvise.

Alleyway in Memphis, TN.

Bridge near train tracks.

Gated building in Memphis.

Comic strip tiger in the outdoor mall.

One of the many trolleys.

Windowless wall facing the Mississippi.

We ended up stumbling upon a restaurant called McEwans, which turned out to be super famous and also crazy expensive. We were all pretty sweaty and underdressed for the place but were too hungry to mind.

Accurate.

Gavin's $12 steak, untouched. 

"It was a nice restaurant".

We still got to see a bit of some sunset, which is what we came for. Something nice to look at before we pull an all-nighter of driving. Success.

The Mississippi from the city.

-Marie