Tennessee - Day 9 - Bristol

Warriors Path State Park
Saturday, 9 November 2019

today's route

It took a while for me to get driving directions from Google that went where I wanted to go.  Their algorithms are getting more hysterical (as in freaked out, not as in ha-ha) as time goes on.  When I try to make them go a different route, they throw in all kinds of truly bizarre extra turns and side roads before finally giving up and saying, oh, okay, you can go straight down that street without making a whole bunch of turns off it and back on.  I'm beginning to think that before my 4+ year trip is up, Google isn't going to let me access their driving program at all.

On the road
Actually, we weren't on the road very long because I stopped at the first light to go to a grocery store.  Then I stopped a few blocks farther down the street to get some propane.  It was really chilly all day long yesterday and I used up most of the propane I had just keeping the cabin up to about 60° or so - it's not like I was trying for a sauna or something.  But it was really chilly around the floor (where the dogs and my feet live) because of the cold wind being able to blow underneath the RV.

I took a US highway (Google didn't want to acknowledge it existed), not the interstate, and it turned out to be a great road - divided highway with 2 lanes each side much of the way.

I've been noticing especially since I got to Tennessee that the folks here seem to use the word "hillbilly" almost as a badge of honor, not as a slur.  Of course they use the word in tourist stuff, but I've been seeing that they also use it for their own local names.  Today, for instance, I passed a sign for Hillbilly Auto Repair, and I'm pretty sure they weren't expecting to get many tourists - not along that road anyway.

The closer I got to Bristol the more Virginia license plates I was seeing.  It took me quite a while to realize that I was heading directly for the Virginia state border.  And that Bristol is one of the few towns in the US that straddles state lines.

Bristol, TN
I drove down State Street in Bristol, which runs directly along the border: one side of the street is VA and the other is TN.  As far as I could tell, most people regard the 2 towns as being one - at least as far as they can: Bristol TN and Bristol VA apparently have to have their own separate local government entities.  They call themselves twin cities.  But it sure seems like a waste of resources to have 2 city governments and 2 police forces and so forth.

This sign straddles State Street.  I took my own photo (crossing into VA to find a place to stop to take it), but it's not as good as this one off the internet.

We were stopped at a light on State St. and on the sidewalk next to us was one of those Statue of Liberty lookalikes waving a sign around for a tax service.  Like this photo from the internet.  Except the guy I saw looked a lot more like he needed the money (and some dental work) than this guy.  He was waving a sign and singing and apparently having a good time.

Dext saw him and started barking at him.  I have no idea why, but he wouldn't stop.  Fortunately the guy was really nice about it and started laughing.  And several people walking down the sidewalk started laughing too.  I couldn't get Dext to stop until the light changed and we could drive on.  I don't know what it was that set him off, but he clearly thought we were at risk of something.

Bristol TN was the birthplace of Tennessee Ernie Ford.  He always seemed like a good guy to me, so I drove by the house.

a working class
neighborhood, you see

in case you don't remember him

I can still hear him singing Sixteen Tons.  What a wonderful voice.  And in case you don't remember that either, you can hear him (and Dinah Shore) at this link.  www.bing.com/videos/ernie+ford+16+tons

Bristol has a series of one-way streets, I think because many of them are narrow.  To get to the Ford house I turned down Broad Street, which was so narrow I had trouble squeezing down it.  That seemed funny to me.

Back on the road
Coming back from Bristol I found the First State Road again, that I'd seen in Knoxville.  If I remember right, it runs all the way to Asheville, NC, and we're a lot closer to it here in Bristol than we are to Memphis, the other end of it.

Also on the way back, the local NPR station gave me an hour of music from the Tri-Cities Jazz Orchestra and it was great.  They're a 17-person orchestra doing Big Band style music and they're really good at it.  Much of what I heard was in the Tommy Dorsey/Glenn Miller range, but they also do pieces that are more contemporary.  I heard a nice little version of If I Only Had A Brain from the Wizard of Oz.  I was sorry they weren't going to be on longer because I still had more driving to do.  I'd put a link here, but their homepage is on Facebook, which I can't access.  If you're curious, you can find it easily.

I was so busy listening to the radio that I missed my turn off the interstate and ended up going 10 extra miles before I got turned around and back to where I should have been.  Interstates aren't as convenient for me as for more normal drivers.