Nashville to Knoxville -- Apr 6th

Not the weather I wanted when I woke up this morning. I awoke to "Housekeeping" this morning b/c I was up until 4 last night. I got a late checkout and hit the road looking for a quick bite. The weather was about 40 and rainy and stayed that way all day long. :( However, I still had a fun day, just spent more time in the car than I wanted to. I hope I can get more exercise on this trip, or I'll come back to Omaha fat as shit.
I started my day eating lunch at Shoney's, It was decent food and they had a 7.99 lunch buffet, with mashed pots, fried chicken, corn, and mac and cheese. Can't go wrong there. I accidentally planned this location about a block away from where the Tennessee Titans play, so I went there and took pictures of the stadium and also the downtown skyline near the riverfront. Then I went and drove around downtown to check out the vibe. It seems pretty cool, definitely country music heavy, but still cool. Then I went to Vanderbilt University and checked out the campus and the football field and took more pics. Absolutely gorgeous, wish the weather was better so I could've seen a few more students, but it's like Creighton on roids. After that I decided to go and get on my laptop to see what was going on in Knoxville and try and book a hotel. Borders there doesn't have wi-fi!! So I went down the strip mall to a Panera-type place but less corporate. I felt bad just sitting and taking their wi-fi, so I bought a Sprite. Then I found out that very few pages worked there. I couldn't get on Hotmail, Facebook, Expedia, or half the other sites I wanted to go to, so I left, disgusted with the whole wi-fi scene in Nashville.
Nashville is very beautiful, though, everything is green and the city is set in beautiful rolling hills. The drive from Nashville to Knoxville didn't disappoint either. More green everywhere, with a kind of hue I envision Ireland to be like, but probably is nothing like it. Maybe it was because it was raining the whole time. Anyway, the drive reminded me of the drive through the Ozark mountains in Southern Missouri, but not as curvy. There are slight elevation changes in between, with one major climb and descent in the middle. At this point, the rain turned to snow and was accumulating, then back to rain. The road is cut right through the trees and the drive is gorgeous. It's a very wooded mountain range and the interstate is divided by huuuge "medians" that give you a ton of space. There are long, slowly winding curves the whole way, which are super fun to me, and going downhill, you have to hit the brakes if you don't want to go 80 mph. I didn't hit the brakes, I like that speed. I felt like I was crawling along when I had to do 45 for a stretch there.
Knoxville seems cool, although it was dark again when I arrived, and I probably won't spend too much time here tomorrow. I may het breakfast and visit the Tennessee campus, but I really want to spend a good amount of time in The Great Smokey Mountain N.P. tomorrow. Then on to Charlotte!
I am sitting in a BW3s right now and it appears as if NC is going to win the NCAA tournament. (Boo!) But we'll see, there's 5 minutes left. Hopefully I will find a cheap motel nearby and get an early start tomorrow, but these Coronas are tasting good, so we'll see.
Peace.