Southbound Road Trip: Day Two

This morning we got caught in some rush hour traffic while heading into Nashville, but we got to the Johnny Cash Museum in the really cute part of downtown with all the music-related places. The Patsy Cline Museum was just upstairs but we had to forego it to save time and money. I will say the latte they made at their cafe was about the best one I've ever tasted, and the museum itself was very interesting. We got to see two actual Grammies! Then we hit the road and headed to Stones River National Battlefield because Travalon loves Civil War history. We walked around a bit there, then we had lunch at one of the thousands of Waffle Houses that dot the Southern landscape. (Seriously, we have seen two within a mile of each other several times on this trip!) Outside of Chattanooga we drove up a somewhat scary mountain road to Rock City. This tourist attraction is heavily advertised on barn roofs and billboards the whole way there, but it is totally worth seeing. It is beautiful rock formations planted with gardens, an overlook from which you can see seven states on a clear day (like we had today), and cute statues of fairy tale characters lit with black lights. I will warn my readers that the fear factor and strenuous factor are both moderate, if you are afraid of heights like I am. We had dinner at a Zaxby's, a fried chicken place where almost everything on the menu is over 1000 calories. (The Huddle House was like that too, and of course they were out of the three things that were a reasonable number of calories.) Southern chains are not really into offering healthier options, it seems. We drove past downtown Atlanta on the freeway, and the city lights are so beautiful there. Now we are in Cordele, Georgia - we had hoped to make it to Florida tonight, but we got stuck in rush hour traffic in Chattanooga and road construction in Macon, so that set us back. More soon!

Here are some pictures from today. First, when we woke up, it had snowed a little bit but the flowers are two months ahead of the ones back home, so I took this picture of a white blooming tree with the white snow on the ground under it.

This wall of single records was in the Johnny Cash Museum.

The Waffle House we had lunch at had its own jukebox.

Next are some pictures from Rock City: lights in a cave, Hansel and Gretel, a waterfall dyed green for "Sham-Rock City" celebrations, one of the many stone bridges we crossed over, and Travalon at the outlook from which you can see seven states (Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Alabama).

Famous Hat