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| I-40 West around rockslide stabilization at the NC-TN border |
On Friday July 16 I left at 7:40 AM starting the drive to California. The previous day I filled the gas tank at Krogers, now I reset the odometer trip gauge and began the big journey. The first hurdle was the Great Smokies. Electronic road signs warned of significant delays and to consider alternate routes. Six months ago a massive rock slide covered all 4 lanes of the Interstate through the Smokies. The Smokey Mountain I-40 pass was partially open 6 months after the rock slide. A single lane was open West bound as we crept around the mountain stabilization effort at 25 MPH. The merge to one lane was not bad at all and after a few miles of single lane travel through the slide area, traffic resumed a more normal pace. The first gas stop was Knoxville where I found gas at 2.39. Yesterday I had paid 2.49 in Krogers in Apex so this was a surprise. I also got my sliced up watermelon chunks out of the cooler and munched on them for lunch as I resumed the journey. My first night stop was going to be a Comfort Inn on the other side of Nashville near Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, about 70 miles ahead.
Cheekwood is featuring Chilhuly Nights in July and August. Who goes to a botanical garden at night? I was wondering that myself, so I planned my travels to arrive at Cheekwood in late afternoon, enjoy the gardens, then enjoy the Chilhuly glass at night. The quality of the gardens and the amount of Chilhuly artwork blew me away. Never in my wildest imagination did I expect a garden so magnificent and glass so beautiful in Nashville in the middle of July. Southern summers tend to do cruel things to plantings and i never expected quality art in a place like Nashville. Dollywood and Country Music yes, but Art of this caliber? No way. I looked into having dinner at Cheekwood but the garden cafe looked a little more fancy than I wanted so I decided to eat near the hotel after visiting Cheekwood. Bart's BBQ was perfect with checkered plastic tablecloths, a roll of papertowels as napkins on the table and a poster of Elvis hanging over my table for upscale wall art.! I had a plate of pulled pork, Cole Slaw and BBQ Beans with Sweet Tea and Corn Bread. All this was $5.95. The corn bread was served as a weird flat pancake. I didn't care for it or maybe nobody can make cornbread as good as Libbie.
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| Down the road from my hotel was this BBQ joint | |
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