tennessee and virginia: bristol

My friend Nancye used to live in Utah, but during the past year she had moved to Bristol, Tennessee. I had never heard of the town, but if you are into car racing, you probably know the name. I drove from the north side of Chicago to Bristol in one day. Not a fun drive, but not awful either. The worst traffic was when I crossed the river from Indiana to Kentucky, as they are building a new bridge. All the rerouting is really confusing. Note to google maps: fix your directions to nancye's house, you had me turn the wrong way onto her street!
The first night we stayed up chatting and catching up. She was a year ahead of me in high school, but we have a lot of friends in common and still keep in touch with many of the same people. She also suggested a place to meet for lunch the next day, and told me some places I could visit in town.

I had good intentions. I intended to get up a few hours earlier than lunch, explore a little, then meet Nancye for lunch. Instead, I slept a lot later than I expected, and barely made it to lunch. 7 minutes late. Argh. A lovely sandwich place. We sat outside, it was nice. Her office wouldn't mind working with this restaurant for some events, so she chatted briefly with the manager.
Then she went back to work and I walked around for a bit. Bristol is not a big town. I'm not sure how it works, because the town is located in two states, Tennessee and Virginia. State street, basically in the middle of town, is the border between the two states. There are boundary markers all the way down the street. Pretty nifty. Apparently there are two high schools, both named Bristol. Sales tax is higher in one state, income tax is higher in the other. At one end of the street there is a big sign over the whole street: Bristol TN VA, a good place to live. The sign has been there since the 1920s if I remember correctly.

While walking around I found the chamber of commerce, which has postcards. 50 cents for each. That's crazy! But seeing the photos showed me the existence of the boundary markers on the street, which of course made me want to take my own photo. In addition to these markers up and down the street, there are state flags down each side of the street. Tennessee on one side, Virginia on the other. During this short visit I wasn't able to figure out if people from each side have a strong sense of state pride. Hmmm, things to wonder.
I also found a fudgery. I don't know if that's a real word, but they had a lot of fudge, so I was happy. There should be more fudgeries around the world.
I saw the old train station, it's still quite pretty. I don't know if trains till come through the area?
In Cumberland square park I saw a couple memorials. I think one was WW2, the other was a big plane.

This park was across the street from the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. Apparently, back in 1927, a guy working for a record company came through the area and recorded a number of groups. These recordings are considered the birth of country music, as the style of music was different from what was heard around the rest of the country. There is an entire museum built around these recordings. You can listen to several of the recordings, watch a video explaining what happened, see some of the equipment used back then, etc... It's a small museum that can take quite a lot of time if you want. I didn't rush through, but I  didn't dawdle either.
Twice during my walk I ended up talking to people on the street because they started the conversation. You've probably heard something about friendly southern folks. One guy was rather impressed with himself, I found out (without asking) that he did high level security clearances for the government. 

Two ladies in an olive oil shop were quite passionate about olive oil.
Nancye arrived home not long after I did. We picked up subs from a place called Zero's and went back downtown for some live music. Bristol is the birthplace of country music, but is no longer the center of the industry, which is Nashville, TN. Howeva, people in Bristol still love live music, and there are plenty of ways to hear it. We took our subs, and a blanket, and went to a small park in town to listen to a band. Apparently this happens several nights a week, and plenty of townfolk show up to listen.
The next morning Nancye went to work again, and I did a much better job of getting out of bed at a reasonable hour. Why is this so hard to do when I go to sleep at a normal hour? 

My first stop was Bristol motor speedway. If you're into car racing, this is a well known place. (I'm not, so I'd never heard of it, but I figured I should visit a place so well known in the life of some people.) Twice a year a whole lot of people come to Bristol to watch cars race in circles around a half mile track. I don't get it. The ends of the track are very steeply banked. You can see how steep it is when workers are on the track, they can't stand up straight. I think I read that a car has to be going at least 80miles per hour in order to make the turns! I think you can take yours which involved going around the track in a car, I had no desire.
As the track is only half a mile, it's not big. So the stands around it go up more than out. I imagine it gets very loud during the races. I was excited when I saw one of the grandstands is named after me: Johnson grandstand (and terrace too!)

I hopped in my car (the same fabulous Prius) and drove to another area of town: to Steele creek park. Along the way I stopped at a hole in the wall for lunch, grilled cheese. Yum. Also on the menu was a bologna sandwich. I had no idea anyone would order that, let alone eat it!
Steele creek park isn't huge, but I liked it. The entry fee was $2, not bad. I'd looked online, and it seemed that I could find trails going around a small lake. It took me a minute, but I found what I wanted. The trails on one side of the lake were steeper than I expected, but well done. They were mulched, and easy to follow, but I still felt I was getting a physical challenge of sorts. Very pretty, except for the bugs. I hate bugs.
The other side of the lake trail was very flat, made of cement in some places. Due to the time of day I was there, this side was also very sunny. I didn't have much water with me, I wasn't feeling so great when I finished. 

Thank goodness for the water and Gatorade in the car :)
After I got home, Nancye picked me up and we went to a short yoga class at her gym. Nice way to stretch into the weekend.
The weekend we filled up with two day trips. (Read the other posts.)
The following Monday Nancye went to work and I went into town again. I mostly walked the streets just to see what I could see. I made another visit to a bakery I already loved. There is no such thing as too many brownies.
I had lunch at a place called Manna, a bagel sandwich and soup. In hot and humid weather I never want heavy food. They had plenty of yummy sounding items on the menu. Nancye tells me it's a great place to go on sunday mornings, when everything else in town is closed.

In the afternoon I met Nancye on her campus, she gave me a tour. King university is a Presbyterian school. There are approximately 1000 students on campus, half of which are athletes. There are another 2000 students online. Tuition is not cheap, but the campus is beautiful. Some of the athletic teams are national champions! She introduced me to one of the coaches, who happens to be Ukrainian. Awesome. At the bookstore I loaded up on postcards, much more affordable there.
After the tour we left campus and drove to yet another area of town. We visited the south holston dam. It's very different from any dam I've seen before, I liked it. I don't know how much water the area holds, or what happens when the rain is strong. There are flat trails around the area, we went for a stroll. There weren't too many people out there, it would be a great place to go running.

The next morning I packed up, and met Nancye on campus one more time. She gave me a King University swimming t-shirt, and we said our goodbyes.
Then I got 'on the road again.'