Category Archives: USA 2014

Our travel blog from the visit to Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington DC in Autumn 2014

Mississippi Minimalist

Minimalist Panorama - the Mississippi at Memphis
Camera: Panasonic DMC-GX7 | Date: 22-09-2014 17:33 | Resolution: 4956 x 1652 | ISO: 200 | Exp. bias: 0 EV | Exp. Time: 1/640s | Aperture: 5.0 | Focal Length: 12.0mm | Location: Lee Park | State/Province: Tennessee | See map | Lens: LUMIX G VARIO 12-35/F2.8

Not much to say about this one. I’m just catching up with some shots from our USA trip last year (trying to clear the decks a bit before the Bhutan trip which is now less than a week away). I’m quite pleased with the minimalist vibe here.

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The Tail End

In the Smithsonian
Camera: Panasonic DMC-GX7 | Date: 06-10-2014 12:11 | Resolution: 4475 x 3356 | ISO: 250 | Exp. bias: -66/100 EV | Exp. Time: 1/60s | Aperture: 6.3 | Focal Length: 28.0mm | State/Province: Washington, D.C. | See map | Lens: LUMIX G VARIO 12-35/F2.8

Day 16

A much better night’s sleep. Washingtonians obviously follow the "Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting" rule, and cause less trouble on other nights. I’ve also developed a hybrid bath towel and pillow scheme which fares rather better in the head supporting department. Frances resorts to cotton wool in the ears.

Breakfast is taken at a rather unique institution across the road from our hotel, which appears to be a 24 hour political bookshop and cafe. I suppose if such is going to exist anywhere in the world, an area which houses many young people associated with the US administration is a good bet, but we certainly haven’t seen one before.

First stop after breakfast is the obligatory shot of the White House. Today there is almost no visible security activity and we are among a total of about 6 people at the fence. Much easier.

The bulk of the day is spent exploring the National Space and Flight Museum. It’s great seeing such iconic vehicles as the actual Apollo 11 command module, and we get the weight off our feet with a couple of excellent Imax films about astronomy.

We then pop over the road to the Museum of the Native American. This is rather less inspiring, reminding us of some rather less impressive American behaviour, but still interesting.

We finish up back at the bookshop. Oh well…

Day 17

Last day. Sniff…

First order of business is a tour of The Pentagon. This is mainly walking around a very large office building sandwiched between two very smartly dressed military men. In our case the lead is a young sailor who swears he’s over 6ft tall but we’re not convinced. However he certainly has the trick of walking backwards for an hour spouting a string of interesting nuggets and funny stories about the American military and their history.

For the afternoon we go to the Newseum, a museum dedicated to the news media. This substantial establishment deals with all aspects of the news media, including the history, ethics, risks and challenges of getting news to the people over the years. Historic papers go back to the 1500s. Static displays include items such as the antenna from the top of one of the Twin Towers, then used by all the New York media. More interactive displays include a fascinating quiz on how to handle the most challenging ethical publishing dilemmas. I even manage to buy a singlet with the slogan "Exercisin’ my right to bare arms"! Although squeezed into a few hours at the end, this is in some ways one of the highlights of our visit to Washington.

Our journey back takes in the third Washington airport at Baltimore, and uses train, plane, automobile and bus. However everything goes smoothly, and we’re home ahead of schedule.

What Worked And What Didn’t

This was my first trip with just the Panasonic cameras, and they appear to be an excellent solution. The GH4 combined with the two f/2.8 zooms is a first class kit which handles pretty well, although I’m still getting used to some of the button positioning, and I don’t have to worry about the odd bump or drop of rain. However it matches 2.5kg of Canon or Nikon kit while weighing less than a 550D and single lens. Around town I switch to the GX7 and the power zooms which lose little in capability and are so light I have to occasionally check they are still there.

The infrared-converted Panasonic GF3 seems to have produced some very interesting results from the rising clouds and running water of the Smoky Mountains, and the main cameras continue to surprise and delight in unexpected ways. It looks like the GH4 is designed to hunt for focus through each "plane" of a scene in turn, so if you just hold the camera steady and keep refocusing you should be able to capture all the shots required for focus blending. We’ll see how well this has worked in practice.

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Washington – The Monuments

At the Martin Luther King Jnr Monument
Camera: Panasonic DMC-GX7 | Date: 05-10-2014 14:44 | Resolution: 2850 x 2850 | ISO: 200 | Exp. bias: 0 EV | Exp. Time: 1/320s | Aperture: 8.0 | Focal Length: 22.0mm | State/Province: Washington, D.C. | See map | Lens: LUMIX G VARIO 12-35/F2.8

Day 15

A rubbish night’s sleep. Between stupid pillows (of which more later), shouting drunks in the street, private cars beeping horns and the local emergency services insisting on using full sirens and horns throughout the small hours neither of us do very well. Frances is seriously considering shooting the paper seller outside. And apparently I snored, but I’m sure that’s not true.

Morning brings more peaceful conditions, although there’s still a drunk guy shouting for "Liam". After breakfast we move off to explore DC. Our first stop is the National Archives, which have been a target since we saw National Treasure. The display of the American Declaration of Independence etc. is just as good as expected. After that we browse a fascinating display of documents with interesting signatures, such as Einstein’s letter to Roosevelt about The Bomb, or Duke Ellington’s draft card.

Over coffee we watch a motorcade go past. Frances is sure Obama is in the limo, but I can’t be certain. Given the ambulance and fire engine following up his presence seems likely.

The main part of the day is spent wandering around the Washington Mall and the various memorials to key presidents and others. The new WW2 memorial is an impressive surprise, as is the way the space is clearly being used as an active park as well as a tourist centre. We’re entertained by a group of young blacks taking "glamour" photographs at the memorial to Martin Luther King, but mainly just impressed by the scope of memorials. We finish up by trying to view the White House, but for reasons unexplained the Secret Service decide to clear all onlookers out of the public areas just at the wrong time. However we do end up having coffee at The Willard Hotel where King finished his "I have a dream" speech.

We finally get back to the hotel very foot sore. Frances has read an article which suggests that genuine exhaustion is not uncommon among visitors to Washington as it’s easy to do more miles than you think. We may not be quite that bad, but ankles and knees are certainly complaining a bit. However overall it’s been an excellent day.

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The End of the Road

Mustang in Shenandoah NP
Camera: Panasonic DMC-GH4 | Date: 04-10-2014 09:29 | Resolution: 4608 x 3072 | ISO: 500 | Exp. bias: 0 EV | Exp. Time: 1/200s | Aperture: 8.0 | Focal Length: 93.0mm | Location: Moormans River Overlook | State/Province: Virginia | See map | Lens: LUMIX G VARIO 35-100/F2.8

Day 13

A day of odd contrasts. We awake to fog so thick we can’t see Abbot Lake from our room, a distance of about 30m. It’s still thick by the time we’ve had breakfast and checked out, and the first few miles along the Parkway are at about 20mph hugging the yellow lines.

However it also becomes clear that during the night while the fog effect was on someone also turned the "Fall" switch up to 11: there’s suddenly colour everywhere, with leaves falling like snow and forming a thick carpet across the road in some places.

After over an hour’s careful driving we need a coffee break and get off the Parkway. Buena Vista VA is a classic case of "get the problem out of the way in the title". It is – there’s no kind way to put this – a dump. Despite frequent and friendly-looking "welcome" banners all the way up the high street, nothing appears to be open, at 11 on a Friday morning. The only place serving coffee is a dreadful fast food joint where the collective IQ of the staff is probably still in double digits and suggests unkind jokes about Bulgarian policemen and dangerous intellectuals. We finish coffee and beat a hasty retreat back to the Parkway.

Less than 20 miles up the road we try again. "Vesuvius" is equally poorly named, as it turns out to be a very pretty, quiet rural community. We decide against the long waterfall hike, but get some charming photos and a very nice lunch at the Country Store.

I obviously haven’t read the Parkway guide carefully enough, and assume that a second mention of Crabtree Falls in my notes is a mis-print. However a careful read of the book reveals the note "not to be confused with the other Crabtree Falls in North Carolina". So having done both Lynchburgs we now visit a second Crabtree Falls. Not as impressive as the one further south, but worth a quick visit.

A few more miles brings the end of the Parkway, once again shrouded in fog and with rain threatening. Overall we’re extremely impressed by this long, thin National Park.

One oddity at the end of the day. The floor of the hotel bathroom is not slippery to the touch, or even in socks. My Italian shoes stick like glue to most surfaces. Yet they slide freely on the bathroom floor. Go figure…

Day 14

We drive into Shenandoah National Park, which is effectively just a continuation of the Parkway if you are driving South to North, albeit with an entrance fee and more park facilities. We don’t have time for a long hike, but instead focus on enjoying the steadily intensifying Autumn colour on the road and at many of the viewpoints.

It’s another dry and mainly sunny day, but the temperature has dropped markedly and I have to stop asserting my "right to bare arms" and put on more than a T shirt for the first time. Two days ago Lynchburg was 86°F, now we’re seeing just 50°F.

At the end of the Park we hit the freeway back to Washington. The drive is fairly painless, but we’re surprised how heavy the traffic is for a Saturday afternoon, and finding the Dollar return yard at Reagan airport, separate from all the other companies, is a bit of a magical mystery tour.

The Mustang is feeling desperate for a service, with squealing brakes and an increasingly clunky transmission, but the biggest mystery is the odometer. At various times in the trip I’ve used this to track progress to a waypoint without any problem, but subtracting the initial figure from the final one gives a total for the trip of 115 miles…

The Dupont Circle Hotel is elegant and well equipped, although our room would make more sense with one bed rather than trying to squeeze two in. We have dinner at a little Greek restaurant around the corner. We are at least 30 years too old to be drinking in the hotel’s main bar, and my hearing would never cope, but instead we find a small second bar where we have the charming barman to ourselves and enjoy some cocktails and bourbon samples.

Tomorrow we explore the city.

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Continuing the "USA 2014" Travel Blog…

The Peaks of Otter Lodge
Camera: Panasonic DMC-GH4 | Date: 02-10-2014 17:15 | Resolution: 4608 x 2592 | ISO: 500 | Exp. bias: 0 EV | Exp. Time: 1/160s | Aperture: 6.3 | Focal Length: 68.0mm | State/Province: Virginia | See map | Lens: LUMIX G VARIO 35-100/F2.8

I just realised that for some reason I never posted the last few days of our blog from our trip to the USA in 2014. Since I’m shortly going to start another one, I thought I should get my house in order! Hopefully you will have followed so far, but if not please look at www.andrewj.com/blog/usa2014.

Day 11

The next section of the Parkway is relatively empty, winding through North Carolina and Virginia farmland, so today is a day to cover some miles up to the northern section. At about 10 we get off to get coffee, and get trapped in long and complicated roadworks on a side road. However we find a wonderful little Cuban restaurant which makes a great cup of coffee to compensate.

At lunchtime we arrive at the Mabry Mill, which must be the busiest location on the Parkway. This has an excellent restaurant where we actually have to wait for a table, a fascinating park with rangers practicing old folk crafts, including a working blacksmith’s shop, and the mill itself, which must be the single most photogenic site on the road.

After a long lunch break it’s back on the road to The Peaks of Otter, which is home to the only park lodge on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Another excellent restaurant, and we make the tactical error of ordering a prime rib each, and can hardly move when we’re finished. This holiday may be pleasant, but it’s certainly not diet friendly!

Day 12

The Peaks of Otter is a very photogenic location, with the tiny Abbot Lake nestled between three small mountains. A loop around the lake produces shots with wonderful reflections of the Autumnal trees and lodge buildings in the mirror-like waters. The only challenge is that there’s quite a lot of algae in the water and the look changes a bit with the light, so we do two loops, one at each end of the day.

After breakfast and the morning loop we go to explore the "wrong" Lynchburg, the much larger town in Virginia. While this doesn’t have a certain distillery, it does have a lot of Civil War history, and is a shining example of urban regeneration in progress.

The ladies in the visitor centre are charmed to see us – I don’t think they get many British visitors – and deluge us with advice and leaflets, as well as welcoming us to leave the car outside the centre all day, which solves any problem with parking. We decide to follow the Civil War walking tour. This starts with a memorial which spans a long set of steps between two streets, reminiscent of a San Francisco staircase, and honours local dead in all wars up to the first Gulf War. Presumably the Iraq / Afghanistan memorial is being planned.

Lynchburg was mainly a Confederate logistical and medical centre. They did have one short battle, but a wily old Confederate general pulled off a large-scale version of the Beau Geste trick and persuaded the Union that he had many more men than in reality, and after that they were left alone. This means the walking tour is more about hospitals and supply depots, but it does take in the various areas which are being vigorously regenerated in the hope of creating a cosmopolitan, modern café-culture city centre using the shells of old tobacco warehouses and shoe factories.

Lynchburg does go in for the law in a big way. Court Street has five courts, and more legal offices than the Grays Inn Road.

Everyone we meet is charming and welcoming, and hopefully in a few years Lynchburg will be a model of a modern town making full use of its legacy.

On the way out we are reminded that Oscar Wilde was right. One of Lynchburg’s marshal arts centres has the splendid name of Feck’s. Wonderful!

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The Last Link in the Chain

The Linn Cove Viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway
Camera: Panasonic DMC-GH4 | Date: 30-09-2014 10:28 | Resolution: 3624 x 4832 | ISO: 200 | Exp. bias: 0 EV | Exp. Time: 1/160s | Aperture: 8.0 | Focal Length: 12.0mm | Location: Linn Cove Branch | State/Province: North Carolina | See map | Lens: LUMIX G VARIO 12-35/F2.8

Day 10

We start by driving back to the Linn Cove Viaduct, the last piece of the Parkway finally put in place in 1987. It’s a great feature in its own right, but there’s also some very colourful foliage on the slopes of Grandfather Mountain above it, and great reflections in a small lake slightly further along.

Then we move on to the Moses Cone Estate, home to the inventor of denim. The manor house itself is charming, but is now a craft centre and you can’t even get a cup of coffee. We decide to do the walk down to his Bass Lake, which is pretty and relatively easy, but misleadingly described on the map and turns out to be a round trip of almost 5 miles. We get some great shots at the lake, but by the time we get back up the hill to the car we are both almost speechless…

Dinner is taken at a small Mexican across from our hotel, which is most impressive for the sheer industrial volume with which they are producing and serving some very tasty fresh food. We are in and out in 40 minutes, during which time three couples are served at the next table. Unfortunately our otherwise very efficient and hard-working Hispanic waiter fails to understand the highly technical concept of beer, so I fail yet again to get my preferred drink.

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Waterfall in the Rain

The Crabtree Falls, North Carolina
Camera: Panasonic DMC-GF3 | Date: 29-09-2014 12:55 | Resolution: 2774 x 3698 | ISO: 400 | Exp. bias: 0 EV | Exp. Time: 1/60s | Aperture: 8.0 | Focal Length: 14.0mm | Location: Upper Falls | State/Province: North Carolina | See map | Lens: LUMIX G VARIO PZ 14-42/F3.5-5.6

Day 9

We awake to something we haven’t seen so far this trip – rain. Fortunately I’m a great believer that bad weather makes good photographs, so hopefully we’ll still enjoy the day. We get back on the Parkway and head north. Some of the views are almost invisible behind the rain and cloud, but others are very dramatic with rising mist. We seem to have found an area where the Autumn colour is better advanced, which also makes a positive difference.

At lunchtime we hike down from the road to the Crabtree Falls, one of the most dramatic waterfalls in this part of the world, and still photo-worthy even at this time of the year. The infrared camera renders the somewhat moody scene beautifully. On the way back the rain starts again and I get a lot of complaints…

Late lunch / early dinner makes up for this. We each have a “Philly” sandwich served with a baked sweet potato with cinnamon. Absolutely sublime.

We motor quickly through some very interesting looking scenery on our way to the overnight stop at Boone (named for the famous trapper), but we have a whole day in the area tomorrow so things look promising.

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In the Blue Ridged Mountains…

View of the Smoky Mountains from the Blue Ridge Parkway
Camera: Panasonic DMC-GH4 | Date: 28-09-2014 09:54 | Resolution: 4608 x 3072 | ISO: 200 | Exp. bias: 0.33 EV | Exp. Time: 1/250s | Aperture: 6.3 | Focal Length: 18.0mm | Location: Minnie Ball Branch | State/Province: North Carolina | See map | Lens: LUMIX G VARIO 12-35/F2.8

Day 8

North Carolina. Lattes! Sparkling mineral water!! Vegetables!!!

We drive through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and join the Blue Ridge Parkway. This was one of FDR’s great public works initiatives in the 1930s. Running along the ridge of the Smoky Mountains all the way to Shenandoah National Park near Washington, it’s essentially a long thin National Park in all but name. There are no commercial vehicles, it has a gentle speed limit and frequent viewpoints and there’s little development or human activity visible most of the way. Some of the views from the high points are stunning.

A couple of hours gentle driving and snapping brings us into Asheville, home of the Biltmore Estate. George Vanderbilt, the third grandson of the great rail and shipping magnate, inherited $10M in the 1880s, and decided to spend it on a great mansion in the Carolinas. The result is effectively French chateau on the outside, English stately home on the inside, and 8,000 acres of farmland and forest which have allowed his descendants to keep it running as a self-sufficient entity, first as a working farm and now as a tourist destination.

Lunch is taken in the stable courtyard with nothing fried or battered in sight. We spend a very happy afternoon first doing the guided tour of the house, and then having an excellent meal with the first recognisable vegetables for a week!

Nice clean, modern hotel, but with about a 2 degree slope on the floor. Very odd.

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An Unloved Park?

Corn Dollie, Gatlinburg, TN
Camera: Panasonic DMC-GX7 | Date: 26-09-2014 17:44 | Resolution: 2909 x 4364 | ISO: 200 | Exp. bias: 0 EV | Exp. Time: 1/200s | Aperture: 5.0 | Focal Length: 14.0mm | Location: Baskins Creek | State/Province: Tennessee | See map | Lens: LUMIX G VARIO PZ 14-42/F3.5-5.6

Day 7

A slightly frustrating day. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited of the American parks, but in some ways it feels like the least loved. We are shocked by fresh graffiti in what may well still be consecrated chapels, and some very poor traffic management decisions result in miles of backed-up traffic around the Cades Cove loop road for no good cause.

On our way out the next day we see a young woman openly sprawling her name on a rock at a viewpoint. Astonishing.

Maybe because the park lacks a natural centre it’s more difficult to create a real park culture, but the Parks Service could help themselves by charging for access, which would help create some sense of value, and by providing better explanatory information at the points of interest.

Food follows a similar pattern to yesterday. Frances observes that the Tennesseeans seem to have endless ingenuity in increasing the calorific value of food, while minimising its nutritional content.

We have a quiet end to the day, with an hour by the pool, followed by dinner, coffee and a moonshine tasting! However it’s interesting to observe that the roads through Gatlinburg are now completely gridlocked with traffic leaving the park and arriving in the town. One of the shop owners cheerfully explains that they seem to have pulled off a unique trick, thanks to their climate, and the summer season doesn’t really end until after Christmas. If anything October is their busiest month. This contrasts sharply with Britain, where Christmas begins in September, or the typical ski town which shuts down between the last walkers leaving and the snow arriving.

One thing which is charming is the way every shop and common area in Gatlinburg is beautifully decorated with a “fall” display of corn dollies, pumpkins and wreaths of corn and leaves. Frances is so inspired we purchase our own corn dolly and wreath to try and create the look at Coppertrees.

The trick to Gatlinburg is wandering right through to the back of each alley. This process locates the best food and a great coffee shop which serves cream cakes and a proper latte.

Tenessee has proved a very friendly place. The streets of Gatlinburg may be full of bikers and rednecks, but with everyone eating ice cream and making an effort to be friendly it works.

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Into the Mountains

Panorama from 4 Infrared originals - original colours. Taken from the car park below Clingman's Dome
Camera: Panasonic DMC-GF3 | Date: 26-09-2014 10:48 | Resolution: 1920 x 1280 | ISO: 160 | Exp. bias: 0 EV | Exp. Time: 1/2000s | Aperture: 5.6 | Focal Length: 12.0mm (~24.0mm) | Lens: LUMIX G VARIO 12-35/F2.8

Day 5

After last night’s “oh bugger” moment we establish that the “right” Lynchburg is only about 60 miles south of Nashville and therefore a manageable diversion. The drive down is very pleasant, and the tour interesting, although our guide has a very thick accent and also assumes we understand the basics of the whiskey-making process, either of which might be a challenge for other attendees. The most impressive aspect is the sheer industrial scale of production tucked into a tiny site in Tennessee.

Through the remainder of the day Tennessee proves itself a bit odd. First although Moore County houses one of the world’s most famous distilleries, they never quite got around to repealing Prohibition, so you can’t actually buy a drink. Our long drive over to the mountains goes quite smoothly, except halfway across there’s a change of time zone, and we lose an hour mid-state.

The gateway area for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park doesn’t resemble any other park gateway we’ve seen. Pigeon Forge at the bottom of the hill is like a mini Las Vegas. Frances is in shock at the concept of “The Hatfields and McCoys Dinner Experience – What All the Fuss Was About”. Bad taste or what? Gatlinburg at the top of the hill is marginally less tacky, but still more like Blackpool than Moab. The difference is probably that this is one of the Eastern USA’s main ski areas, but it’s not Cortina D’Ampezzo either!

Dinner holds another surprise, when the waiter refuses to serve me a beer without my passport. There wasn’t evidence of much ID checking in Beale Street Memphis or the Nashville Broadway. Explaining to him that I was old enough to drink beer before he was born doesn’t work. Fortunately Frances does have her passport and buys the beer for me, but he makes a big thing of checking the passport’s “expiration date”. Now it may be just me, but I fail to see the logic here. If Frances was old enough to drink beer when an ID was valid, she will presumably still be old enough if it has expired, that’s how time tends to work. I suppose there’s a small risk she is a Time Lord who has regenerated as a youngster like Matt Smith, but that’s a bit of an edge case…

The mountains beckon.

Day 6

A great night’s sleep, with the gentle rush of the river a soothing influence. We forgo the free breakfast at the hotel in favour of a much nicer one at Shoneys. We end up sharing a steak, eggs, bacon, sausage and toast, which seems to be the most reliable protein-centric option.

Then we’re off into the park. Fears of overwhelming traffic rapidly prove unfounded, and other users are never in the way on the roads or at stops. In addition everyone is very friendly and welcoming.

On a less positive note the park itself is a bit underwhelming essentially just a nice large green space with a high road through the middle, and nothing to compare with the genuine wonders of the more famous parks of the American West. We are a few weeks early for true Autumn colour and I might be making a different statement seeing the colour at its height.

Lunch is taken on the North side of the park, at Cherokee which is almost exactly what we expected Gatlinburg to be, a small quiet park gateway town. I have trout from the river, Frances has steak again.

In the afternoon we do a loop which purports to be a nature trail, but serves much better as a route between old dwellings near Gatlinburg. It’s lovely to see all the old homesteads, but sobering to think what a tough life they represent.

Then into town where we find a nice “back alley” bar with excellent sandwiches, nice beer (and no nonsense about ID) and yet more live music, this time a couple singing country classics. I have a pork sandwich with crisps which have been freshly re-fried. Gorgeous, but God knows what their calorific content is. Frances has steak, again. There’s no problem getting something to eat in Tennessee, but you do run the risk of too much of a good thing, and not enough variety overall.

The infrared-converted Panasonic GF3 comes into its own photographing the “smoky” mist which give the mountains their name, rendering it by default as a dramatic “sunset” picture, as above. This is probably my favourite version, but it also works well with the red and blue channels swapped to create a deep blue sky, or as a high contrast black and white version.

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Music from Every Orifice, and a Sudden Realisation!

Songstress at the Listening Room, Nashville
Camera: Panasonic DMC-GX7 | Date: 24-09-2014 18:14 | Resolution: 3424 x 3424 | ISO: 3200 | Exp. bias: 0 EV | Exp. Time: 1/25s | Aperture: 5.6 | Focal Length: 46.0mm | Location: The District | State/Province: Tennessee | See map | Lens: LUMIX G VARIO 35-100/F2.8

Day 4

It’s a long but leafy drive from Memphis to Nashville, a bit like a 200-mile long tree lined avenue, but with bigger trucks! The road is misleadingly uniform, so it’s a surprise how different the two cities are. Nashville feels hotter (despite being higher and further north) and has a much more prosperous appearance.

Lunch is an alleged “prime rib sandwich”, basically a complete prime rib with two wonderful pieces of fried bread. Then we visit another fabric shop, which has by far the largest selection of fabric prints either of us have ever seen in one place.

Fabric shopping complete, it’s a short drive to the “music district”. Nashville must have more live music venues than London, and they are all within about half a mile. There’s literally music coming out of every orifice. We take afternoon drinks on the rooftop of the Hard Rock Cafe with a bunch of madmen who are prepared to attempt anything from Johnny Cash to Whitesnake, although they have to read the lyrics of Brown Eyed Girl off a phone. Dinner is with three charming young ladies playing their own country songs.

In the middle of dinner one of the songs is about whiskey, and I realise to my horror that I’ve been heading to the wrong Lynchburg for the Jack Daniels tour. Fortunately the mistake is recoverable just at this point, so tomorrow will be a slightly different route to the one we originally planned!

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‘Nuff Said

No comment...
Camera: Panasonic DMC-GX7 | Date: 22-09-2014 19:42 | Resolution: 3527 x 1411 | ISO: 3200 | Exp. bias: 0 EV | Exp. Time: 1/80s | Aperture: 5.0 | Focal Length: 59.0mm | Location: Beale Street National Historic | State/Province: Tennessee | See map | Lens: LUMIX G VARIO 35-100/F2.8
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