Travel day

Today we drove from Parker’s Crossroads to Sweetwater. The drive is 316 miles, and took about 5 hours. We have to go a little slower because we are pulling the trailer, but there were 2 big trucks towing trailers piled with fiberglass pools, and they took up part of a 2nd lane, so nobody could pass them! At least the scenery was green and beautiful!

It’s hillier on this side of the state, and while the western part of Tennessee is on central time, this eastern part is on eastern time- so we lost an hour.

We also saw a new Buc-ees travel center that will be opening in a month! These are supposed to be fantastic because of all the food and extras they sell- like high quality food, BBQ sandwiches, wine, etc., and we really wanted to go to one, but they are a Texas chain and most of them are in southern Texas. In fact the one on Braunfels, Texas is the largest convenience store in the world- 68,000 square feet! There is one in Kentucky, so maybe when we go through there- fingers crossed! Here’s a very bad picture of the one we saw- and this is about half the size- there were probably about 20 lanes for fuel!

We drove through Nashville, and saw a great sign put up by the DOT: “Buckle Up, Buttercup”- made me laugh! I tried to get pictures of the skyline, but there was too much traffic and the road was a bit bumpy, so they didn’t turn out 🙁

We are staying at a KOA in Sweetwater, about 30 miles south of Knoxville. We drove through Sweetwater this evening- a pretty small town (population about 6,000), but they do have Walmart! We’ll get a rental car tomorrow and do some real exploring!