Our “final destination”

Current location: Gatlinburg, TN
Distance traveled today: 220 miles/~3.5 hours

Well it’s official: we made it to the Smoky Mountains! This was considered our “final” destination, even though we’ve seen plenty more along the way that I’m just as happy with. We’ve been here for a few hours (and lost an hour due to that darn Eastern time zone line running right through the middle of the state) and already did a little hiking. Everything here is just as green as the rest of Tennessee and Kentucky, and even more beautiful thanks to the mountains and streams. Today started out being a beautiful day, and we stopped at a visitor’s center in the park before making our way up to see Laurel Falls. It’s crazy how fast beautiful weather can turn into thunderstorms, and it did just that as we made our way up the hike. Just figures! I still enjoyed it though, being the weather nerd I am :) I felt at one with nature to say the least! I’ll make a comprehensive post about everything we see and do here tomorrow but I just wanted to let you all know that we made it! Take care!

Adventures in Music City!

Current location: Nashville, TN
Distance traveled today: 200 miles/~4 hours

Well this is our second night in Nashville, and so far it’s been a good stay! We arrived yesterday afternoon, and even though we haven’t had time to see any of the sights we’ve had plenty more good food and fun.

The city of Nashville, as seen from our car on the freeway!

Last night we ate at a place called Puckett’s, where we had large portions of tasty ribs, pulled pork and AMAZING sweet potato fries! I forgot to take a picture but believe me, those fries definitely hit the spot. And, as we were leaving, we caught a few songs of a live band that was playing that evening. We wanted to head downtown more otherwise we would have stayed, but the classic rock cover band sounded really good!

The Bicho Brothers at Puckett's

Walking down Broadway street in downtown Nashville

After dinner my parents and I went to one bar further downtown because we had gotten a buy one, get one free coupon from a concierge guy at our hotel. We sat and listened to another cover band do Elvis and random assortment of twangy country… not really our style but… when in Rome, right? Later on I was able to meet up with one of my roommates when I interned in DC last summer! I haven’t seen her since last year and it was great to catch up with her and meet her friends. We stayed at the same place the whole night, again listening to a country cover band. I only knew a small handful of songs all night but I still had fun dancing and talking with them!

From left to right: Kayla, Jordan and I. Jordan was my DC roomie and Kayla is her good friend!

One of the singers of the band we listened and danced to. They weren't bad... for being country ;)

Today was all about whiskey distillery tours!