Y'All Come Back Again, But I'm Goin' to Nashville, Nashville Here I Come

Day 80 (Sunday) and it’s time to leave the Smokies and Pigeon Forge. Woke up at 7 am, feeling like an 85-year-old, showered, washed my hair, packed up the car, took down the camper. All done by 10 am. I drove to Fast Stop to: (a) take a photo of me in front of Mel’s Diner, and (b) gas up the car and buy ice. Then I went to Lid’l Dolly’s to buy a quilt and a gift for Kelly.

Pigeon Forge told me to come back again. Mighty friendly of them.

Hit the road – I-40 to Nashville. Had to stop at Exit 398 for a short 10-minute namp, and once again at a Love’s gas station, and once again at a Tennessee highway rest stop. I was tired, really tired. I had lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken at Exit 398 also, since Col. Sanders started his empire in Tennessee. They had a brochure for his museum at the counter.

Ran into construction along the way; drove 6 miles going so slow I had to do most of it in 1st gear, since the car would sputter in 2nd. Took forever. I had no internet at Creekside RV Resort the last morning and found no internet along the way, but a Tennessee Welcome Center at Carthage had a map and the attendant said there was a Stewart Ferry Pike Road exit off I-40. This same rest stop had a plaque up memorializing U.S. Senator Al Gore, Sr. for his role in helping Eisenhower create the federal interstate highway system (and from the photo you and Mary Krueger will note that I found a boiled peanut stand in a gas station along the way - right between the front door and the ATM machine in case you just can't wait for a boiled peanut fix on the go).

Stopped for gas and a dreamcycle fudge bar in Mt. Juliet (a suburb of Nashville) and they confirmed that Stewart Ferry Pike does have its own exit off the freeway. The welcome center map got me to the campsite (7 Points Campground run by the U.S. Corps of Engineers) about 7 pm. Still daylight – a first for me. But my back-in campsite went uphill AND curved. Yikes!!! A really nice fellow camper helped me back in. Whew!!!

Mileage on my car this trip so far = 9,140