Kingsport to Jackson, TN | 406 miles
35.662 N | 88.86 W
I can tell you, Tennessee is a very long state. We drove 406 miles of it today, racing to get past the winter storm that's marching toward the east coast. The temperature hovered high enough to give us rain instead of snow through the mountainous stretches.
A blanket of clouds hung above us all day, sometimes snagging in the bare trees, sometimes descending onto mountaintops ahead of us.
We rumbled along in our glass bubble, admiring the beauty of Tennessee, its hills, its horses, its bucolic scenes. For one moment, the clouds parted, and the sun shined on a hill in the distance.
We approached Nashville midday and stopped to see if we wanted to stick around for the night. The clouds were thick and drippy, but there was no rain. I'll give it to Nashville: they've got a personality going. It did not look like every other town in America. They've preserved their historic buildings and blinged them up with neon signs, a pleasant jumble of old and not as old. Nashville has some guts, some grit, although I had a hinky feeling I was walking around in a movie set.
I stopped to hear what Elvis had to say.
He said Nashville deserved more than a one-night stand. We thought Elvis was right, and so we left.
Tennessee got colder as we headed into the storm. Ice collected in the treetops, thankfully not on the road.
At the end of another long day, we stopped in Jackson, which does look like every other town in America, and delivered our life raft to brand-new cruisers who bought it from our blog.
May they never, ever use it.
