Life in Memphis - Getting to Knoxville

Let me tell you about my first business trip when I moved to Tennessee. My Memphis employer had sent me out on my first off-site assignment. I had spent the day getting to Knoxville with my supervisor.

First of all, we get our rental car company wrong. The corporation had changed vendors for the 1000th time and got us confused, so we started running late. The rental car company tried putting us into a Cobalt, which is about the size of a shoebox. We upgraded to a Nissan Altima for a small fee. That's not a bad car and we made up some great time. Eat my exhaust, State Troopers!

Lunch was a problem, as we discovered a whole lot of nothing but trees between Memphis and Nashville (and subsequently between Nashville and Knoxville), so we ended up eating at Lorretta Lynn's Country Kitchen. Seriously, you can't make that stuff up! Some entourage sitting next to us looked like the redneck version of the Village People in which a hulking Elvis impersonator looked like he would kill us with his sideburns alone! I took a picture of the fake plastic buffalo in front. The food wasn't bad though.

I was quite disappointed passing through Nashville. I didn't see anything of note except some satanic looking office building currently owned by BellSouth. I thought for sure there would be a national monument devoted to Dolly Parton's breasts. Granted, I saw what I saw from the freeway only. I need to spend some actual time there.

There are an awful lot of trees through Tennessee. It's also weird to lose an hour changing time zones in the same state.

We finally arrived in Knoxville. It's an OK city, nice hotel, comfortable, got my own room with wireless internet! We found a great pub with good food and beer just two blocks away. The place seems to shut down by 8:00pm which is kind of strange considering I'm staying down the street from University of Tennessee. Those kids must be well behaved, or the Bible Belt had put the fear of hellfire and damnation into them or something. It was uneventful, though it had some mighty fine restaurants that serve good steaks, seafood with decent beer and wine.

Now if only I could only quit worrying about the corporate per diem on these trips! Even Knoxville was worth more than $40 a day!