A lovely drive from Huntsville to Kingsport, Tennessee.
Not an inch on interstates all day, to my surprise, as I was expecting be on interstates for the entire journey from Huntsville, where I stayed last night, to Kingsport, Tennessee, where I am now. But when I realized that would just be a four hour drive, I decided it would take local and back roads all the way, stopping in Chattanooga and Knoxville along the way. So a four hour drive turned into an almost eight hour drive of about 350 miles (but that included stops in Chattanooga and Knoxville), and was simply lovely and very picturesque most of the way.
Very soon after I left my hotel heading north east, as I headed toward Tennessee, briefly passing through Georgia, the views of rolling hills and mountains, some misty in the distance, started to appear. Ah, I thought – I was so intent of making time now as I head home, I’d forgotten how lovely Tennessee is, and the views ahead of and around me were just what you’d expect in this part of the world
I stopped many times along the way, admiring and enjoying my surroundings. I did get a chuckle at one point when I saw three members of the Outcasts motorcycle club riding their $25,000-plus Harleys. Not many outcasts can afford that.
I took some winding back roads along the way, just following my GPS and sometimes making adjustments, and saw sone beautiful views of Tennessee backroads, although for some reason a number of those shots came out a little too blurry. Ah well. I did veer off these country roads to head into Chattanooga though, which I found delightful. Up here , the towns, cities, and architecture is nothing like that of the south, and where I’ve been for the past few days, and the cities are surrounded by rolling hill, mountains, and lakes, even though we’re not close the Great Smokies, where I visited on my trip last year. Another thing, which I’ve been noticing as I’ve been heading north – the fall is back, with autumn foliage and gold and red leaves a’plenty on the ground.
As I was driving through town, at a intersection I was passing through, a car coming from the other direction raced through a red light, and not only that, from the wrong lane, cutting off the car next to him, and passed right in front of me, which I easily avoided, but not so for the car two lanes to my right. CRASH!!! I stopped as I was witness, and gave my contact information. The negligent driver was contrite, and even worse for him, was in a rented car. But even worse than that was the damage done to the woman’s car he hit, and I mean hit. Both cars were very damaged.
Then, after maybe an hour in town, I headed back on the highway, heading north east on route 58, again taking the local roads and avoiding I-75. And the after a while, appearing ahead was Knoxville, where I again spent close to an hour, driving and walking around.
Both Chattanooga and Knoxville are decent sized cities, with populations of about 183,00 for the former and 193,000 for Knoxville. Both are lovely towns, with an open feel.
Knoxville is home to the University of Tennessee, which it just happens had a big game today. The Tennessee Volunteers, the university football team, was playing New Mexico State, and down near and around the university there was, I’d guess, thousands of people of all ages (but mostly students it seems), thronging the streets, heading to the game at Neyland stadium, many dressed in orange, the colors of the Tennessee Volunteers. At one point, accompanied by a crashingly and intensely loud (no exaggeration) sound, two F-35 fighter jets flew close overhead in celebration of the game, so I guess it was really big deal. I wish I could have gotten a photo.
And then it was time to go. It was about 4:30 by the time I left Knoxville, heading for my final destination of the day, Kingsport, with about 100 miles to go, a two hour journey on the local roads, and it’s getting dark by 5:30 (I’m back on east coast time; in central time, where I was, it’s really quite dark by 5:30).
By the time I reached my hotel, another low grade kinda place where the rooms were still not ready, even by 6:30 when I arrived, and I happily spent the evening winding down after a long day. After a phone conversation with Josh, I took his advice and planned a different route for tomorrow, taking country and back roads north, heading into Virginia and West Virginia, which promises to be a lovely drive. Finding somewhere to stay tomorrow night in that area was tricky, though, as it is off the more typical path, but I prevailed and will staying in Marlinton, West Virginia. Looking forward to tomorrow’s drive.