Skip to main content

Nashville and Knoxville

 An impromptu long weekend trip to witness America's country music roots and explore what has been one of the nation's fastest growth cities.

We drove out from Charlotte for a six plus hour road trip after what had been some epic rain.  Result - the crowds were thin and the route through the Asheville area and the western flank of the Blue Ridge mountains was bursting with major impromptu waterfalls.

En route we also decided to explore Knoxville - a major urban center on the eastern edge of TN. The city for 1982 world expo (a fair that showcases global industrial might and held once in five years at different locations around the globe) built a 260 foot metal tower with golden glass windows to form a sphere on the top.  This serves as a viewing gallery for customers that take an elevator to the top.


Rooftop dining offers visitors a view


Colorful arches dominate the world's fair complex in downtown

Other than that the city has some nice parks and trails and also offered a wonderful Indian roadside dhaba (food stall) lunch.


Tucked behind a CBD dispensary on an off ramp of the interstate this truck is as non descript as it gets.



Post lunch we arrived in Nashville.  Checked in and went out to see the famous Broadway or Honky Tonk district where bars and restaurants play loud local artists with speakers pointed out to the sidewalk.





This way what you hear walking down the road is competing clashing of drums and strings and singing. The vibe is high energy with all manner of demographic represented.

If loud music is not your groove you can enjoy some old world and new age architecture in buildings like the State Capitol (designed by a Philly based architect) to the Symphony to some more modern looking Music hall of fame.




A good dose of local artists taking to mural painting adds charm to street corners.

Another fun side activity which coincided with college graduations this weekend was visiting Vanderbilt Uni campus in town.



Fortunately the Vandi complex was not marred by war demonstrators

Adjacent to it is Centennial park that houses a 100 plus year old exact replica of the Greek Parthenon.

Inside is a 50 foot Athena the goddess statue replete with gold paint to mimic the one in ancient Greece.


 


Other attractions in the area include a trip to see an old Indian trail that runs from Mississippi to Nashville and a portion close to the south end of the city includes a dramatic arch bridge.



This trail is called the Natchez Trace.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Costa Rica

 Our first foray into Central America. That elongated isthmus that forms the geographic boundary between two vast continents of North and South America. Specifically landing for NYE 2026 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Capital city for this region that does not have its own army, instead relying on its big bro the Estados Unidos to the north is a metropolis of approx. 500K people. Largely wilderness and with both a Pacific and Carribean/Atlantic coast the country is rich in bio diversity. In Spanish it means the rich coast so named by Columbus landing in early 16th century and being mesmerized by the local tribes sporting gold jewelry.   Our stay included visiting the foothills of a large strato volcano called Arenal and enjoying the naturally heated thermal baths for a while.  Lunching amidst lush forest and watching indigenous species of avian noise makers fly overhead. Toucans, some sort of pea hens, multiple song bird species completed the spectacle. Iguanas and a lonel...
Post a Comment
Read more

Charges attract

It is said that opposites attract meaning people with contrary viewpoint sometimes find chemistry to be together.  But I'm referring to a modern twist where people are merely attracted towards a common place because their uber communication device aka smart phone is about to die.  The charging station. From airports to hotel lobbies or even bathrooms, when in need they are attracted to this power outlet like moths to a flame or a junkie to a needle. A whole new business of supplying these hyper connected folks is now born whose lifesaver product is a backup charge. Asian tourists perpetually carry a phone sized battery pack stuck to their latest Apple phone updating their status to folks in Hong Kong or Shanghai or Bangalore as they pose for selfies with weird facial expressions and fingers pointed out in a letter V. Vain? PS:  I dis'charged' my blogger duties making this insightful observation as my phone is about to breathe it's last and my flight gets call...
2 comments
Read more

Back in DC

This time for a tech conference in the realm of what else? AI. But applied to an oft neglected space called Knowledge Management. The latter is a community of practice that focuses on analyzing, organizing and making available reams of data that have been gathered over time by various functions within an organization for anyone in the company to utilize. This function or process is ripe for applying AI agents (or agentic AI framework) and optimize for better outcomes. It was informative. More rewarding was getting acquainted with folks who practice this craft as well as learning of what they see in the corporate or public sectors. Since the venue was Washington DC it also afforded me the chance to take evening strolls albeit the weather was trying. With wind chill in the single digit it still is a glamorous place to perambulate through history absorbing what this country has been through since its founding days. I was able to visit the place Lincoln was killed along with his monument t...
Post a Comment
Read more