Category Archives: Activities

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Bourbon

After our detour to Tennessee to catch Jason Isbell we headed north, over the border to Kentucky for a few days, split between our first stop Lexington and our second in Louisville.

Kentucky is very famous for a few things, primarily bourbon and horse racing – and KFC. Lexington was our first stop and where a lot of the bourbon and horse-racing originates. It was like one large manicured race-track. The grass and picket fences broke up the mundane freeways and buildings. We just missed one of the largest horse racing events and I could believe how busy Lexington would be. As it was, we didn’t venture greatly downtown as this trip was about the bourbon trail.

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Something more than free

We left Asheville and were originally scheduled to head north/east towards Lexington, Kentucky but due to one of our favourites – Jason Isbell – having a show at Knoxville at the Tennessee Theatre we booked these tickets in Melbourne (it was a sell-out show) and fitted in an overnighter for nothing more than to see this show.

And maybe for one other thing – Dollywood …

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Asheville

Our next destination was one of our longer drives – east to Asheville NC, via Lexington so we could have some BBQ (worth the side track). Asheville was another of those foody choice destinations. We spoke to someone earlier (someone in the Steel String bar in Corrboro – good beer) and they described Asheville as a place known for food, beer and music – and that’s a pretty good trio.

It kind of reminded us of an inner Melbourne suburb with the hipsters and arty folk with the country feel of say a Daylesford or Katoomba in the blue mountains. It was really a surprise and we enjoyed all our time here, even if we we were out of town on a bit of a hotel strip (and it must have been a hotel strip for a while as there were some classic hotels out there). I did some driving downtown but another we caught Uber – we have found this great in America – fast, cheap, friendly, clean and they know where they are going. Big thumbs up Uber.

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Research Triangle

So, after a change into dry clothes, we headed north/east towards Chapel Hill through rain that at times was so heavy all we could see was rain and hopefully the tail lights of the car in front. But it didn’t last forever and after about 2.5 hours we reached our next destination Carrboro, which neighbours Chapel Hill.

We stayed at another almost new hotel in Carrboro which is kind of a bit of a trendy (??) neighbourhood adjoining Chapel Hill, which is the home of University of North Carolina – the Tarheels. UNC is most known for its basketball – Michael Jordan its most famous basket balling student (I’ll get to that later). This was a two night stay so we could have a look around, try some good food (North Carolina BBQ and anything else) and enjoy.

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Cape Fear

Leaving Charleston and South Carolina we had a few days until our next hotel was booked over the border in Asheville, North Carolina. We had several choices of how to get there through NC and what to do in between. I thought I’d get on to the Lonely Planet forum and ask for some advice from those who live here. We were thinking about heading north up the coast to a place called Wilmington – the replies were along the lines of “why bother”, “what do you want to go there for”, “if you want so see the coast you can see that in Charleston.”

Mmmm, Wilmington didn’t sound good but we booked it anyway. After that was through what is known as the research triangle due to three universities in neighbouring cities – Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham. The advice was “these are just strip towns with nothing go direct”, “Durham is dead”, “If anywhere, stay at Chapel Hill”. We booked Chapel Hill.

The expert advisors wanted us to travel north/east from Charleston through the NC capital at Colombia – we didn’t and luckily as the weather through that area had some of the heaviest rains they have had for a while.

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Savannah

Checked out of the lovely Athens for our long drive south to Savannah, South Carolina. This was a lets-be-the-tourists-that-we-are stop and also a place where Caroline had checked out the local cuisine with one place already booked and another on the agenda. Can’t remember the drive as I write this, except we stopped for a stop and snacks at a place where the local sheriff was at, so it was either good, or cheap, or they have a lot of trouble – I think it was good.

Savannah is a grid town, Savannah has a lot of one-way streets, Savannah has a cobble-stoned waterfront, and break your ankle if not careful kind of paving – where Ms TomTom sent us as for some reason she prefers the back-entry to any location we are headed rather than the front door. But it was kind of interesting seeing the waterfront walk by car rather than foot as it was one hell of a steep climb to get down there – and break your ankle if not careful kind of paving.

View from the rooftop bar at CottonSail Hotel where we stayed

View from the rooftop bar at CottonSail Hotel where we stayed

We checked into our very nice Cottonsail hotel right on the river with a great river view. Only problem, at this time (or maybe at this time when we were there) we said goodbye to the great weather we have been having to some warm but wet, and I mean wet, weather.

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Things go better with …

After another complimentary bowl of fruit loops at our hotel in Birmingham, it was time to hit the roads, travelling East to another State – Georgia. Destination – Atlanta, the home of coca-cola. Nothing of note for this drive, apart from the quite heavy traffic and close your eyes and hope you’re in the correct lane driving.

Atlanta is big, Atlanta has roads like a bowl of spilt spag-bog, Atlanta has traffic like Melbourne (doesn’t go anywhere) and it amazes me how they managed to get people to and from their Olympic Games. Luckily our hotel was not far from where we entered and in a pretty good street for restaurants, etc. Right across the road from the famous Fox theatre where a lot of top musicians play or have played. We never got to have a look inside but it was very nice looking and booked out for a wedding the weekend we there. Would no doubt be a good spot for a wedding, pity some of the guests were staying at out hotel – The Hotel Indigo, because they were a pain.

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Birmingham, Alabama

Leaving Nashville in the mid-morning for a casual drive south down the highway (one of the very many) to Birmingham, “Sweet Home” Alabama (which is on the big sign when you cross the border so not just something from me). Good fun getting used to opening the correct door but maybe not as much fun as remembering to drive on the right side of the road. This is actually not as hard as one may consider and it only becomes tricky when turning but doesn’t take long to pick up (also the fourth time I’ve driven over here).

BBBBQBBBBQ ribsBirmingham was only two and a bit hours away so we decided to call in for some BBQ on the way – as you do. We made a detour to Decatur and called in for some lunch at Big Bob Gibson’s. Not bad either, although most BBQ is pretty good (except I kind of got a bit crook that day, must have been the coleslaw or potato salad – not the ribs).

The Chief helping out

The Chief helping out

Made Birmingham easily and our room was ready for check-in. Birmingham was a rich source of iron ore and important during the early years of industrialisation and railroads. It later became a bit of a boom city and was coined the ‘Magic City’. More importantly, Birmingham was an important city in gaining attention for civil rights in America and worldwide attention. If you have any interest at all in civil rights, then you should visit Birmingham.

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Nashville in October

An early morning trip from our downtown Dallas Hotel to the airport. Dallas airport is big – you gotta know which terminal to get dropped at. We wanted terminal E, unfortunately an Australian E sounds too much like an American A – or an American A means a few more dollars when all along it was American E. Learning experience, taxis and airports = money. This extra few minutes also added to what we thought would be ample time at the airport to “why don’t you have more people checking bags”. Our we would have time to grab some breakfast at the airport ended up being no time for nothing. The flight out of Dallas was fine with AA, except as we are not their frequent flyers we get whatever seat allocation is left which means I was close to the front and Caroline was in the last row. Not too much of a problem except we again had no time for nothing at our interchange at Charlotte and our terminal being nowhere near the one we landed at. Again a very nice flight this time on American Eagle.

Landed at the very peaceful, laid back, relaxed Nashville and yes, went for the taxi + airport, which was actually very good. We were staying in the Vanderbilt area, which is about half an hour walk from what Nashville is renown for – honky tonk bars and country music. We’d done Nashville before so didn’t need to hit the bars – we could stay up our end of town, which is the university end of town so plenty of bars of its own. Our hotel was the Aloft which is a hipster kind of place and very nice – that nice the maid did not even take our tip. But the barmaid did add a couple of beers to our tab which I’d already paid cash for – she was very apologetic and the jack daniels pour made up for it.

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Dallas

Left Austin and headed back north to Dallas (Tuesday 13 October). We’ve been to Dallas before so didn’t need to do the touristy things, and anyways, I was at the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (USA) conference for the Wednesday through to Saturday so no time. Dropped the rental off at Avis and unfortunately it was one notch from being full so we had to drive round the block to 7-11 for a fill-up (or pay over $20 for a tank – yes folks, $20 for a full tank). This was easily achieved, only cost a couple of bucks and an experience. This 7-11 was like the one you’d see in the movies in some seedy part of town – a cop car parked out the front (for looks maybe because it was still there the next day), homies fillin’ up next to red-necks, hooker ’round the corner struggling to stand up – ah, America it is just like the movies. (The picture is not the 7-11 but some other station we filled up at along the way – don’t where it was and sure don’t need to go back unless I need me some o’ them fireworks and deer.)

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