I'm gwhn'na Nashville

I spent this past week visiting Brother John in Nashville, TN, self-proclaimed home of country music and sundry weirdness. Over the past 5 days I've purchased roughly $50 worth of fireworks, spat out fireballs of whiskey as big as my torso, almost been run over by a train, and gotten accosted by a 13-year-old whore wearing braces trailed by her wheelchair-bound pimp. No pictures on the last one, it just didn't seem proper. But here are some others.


First night there, and a wonderful introduction to the Nashville bar scene. This is in fact the orginial Coyote Ugly, there are in fact brassieres hanging from the ceiling above the bar, and those are in fact swarthy rednecks and the occasional confused Asian businessman.


John relaxes after an invigorating day gluing together guitars.


The Nashville skyline as seen from street-level.


My cairn by the lake. It took 15 minutes to build and .125 seconds to collapse about 3 seconds after this picture was taken.


Hallelujiah, Globalization arrives at the Nashville railyard!


Hallelujiah, it's the [quite expensive] Country Music Hall of Fame!


Hallelujiah, we're at the top of the Draper Valley where Mary Draper was kidnapped by native Americans in the 1700s and taken to Ohio to live with them, only to be found 15 years later by her husband and dragged back to Virginia against her wishes!


And there it stood, gleaming like a giant white church on the side of the interstate, flashing her neon into the night like a beacon for all true believers. Oh God it was beautiful.


The Crown Motel, or "Tom Waits Motor Lodge", in lovely White Pine, TN. Rooms come with a free Bible and a bar of that "Sweet Bouquet" soap.


The drive back was entirely on state routes, allowing a visit to Appomattox Court House, site of General Lee's surrender to the Union Army in 1864. Closes at 5pm.

No, we didn't see Rocky Top.