Made a new friend today...

 

A couple days ago, a gentleman left a message in the comments that we would be traveling right by him on our way east.  I responded and we set a time for us to swing by his restaurant, Texas Roadhouse (a favorite of ours, btw).  No, we weren't hitting him up for a free meal - it was the opportunity to meet one of the readers here.  The number of views on this blog ranges from the hundreds to the thousands on any given day, but rarely does anyone comment (you have to register to make a comment).

Jim (Jolly) commented, I responded, and...

 That's Jim and me standing in front of his restaurant.  We have a lot of interests in common, so it was a fun visit.  We went inside his restaurant (first time I've ever seen a Texas Roadhouse not packed... because they weren't open) and sat down to visit.  Motorcycles, airplanes, boats, RVs - it was an interesting conversation.

And, what about Murphy - no, we didn't take him into the restaurant.  He stayed in the coach, with the generator and the a/c running (another warm day), but Jim did ask about him.

A fun visit.  If you find yourself in Cookeville, TN, stop in at Texas Roadhouse and have a great meal (they're always great meals there)... and tell Jim that Captain Jim and the Blonde sent you.  ;-)

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Only 188 miles today, but we made several stops.  The one above to meet Jim, from there to a nearby Publix so Joan could get some groceries.  Then down the road a ways, until...

Yep, they have Buc-ee's in Tennessee.  We didn't need gas, but we still felt the need to visit the beaver.  (You can take the boy out of Texas, but you can't take... you know.)

 

The drive between Nashville (we were just east of Nashville last night) and Knoxville (we're staying just east of Knoxville) was pretty and the roads were great - a real improvement over the awful roads we were on yesterday.

Lots of rolling hills and decent road.  And then some moderately crappy road around Knoxville... but, really, still better than that whole way between Memphis and Nashville.

We rolled into the "park" around 3:15.  It kinda feels like being in a farmer's backyard.  It is decent enough, but not fancy.  A few long pull-through sites with some gravel put in the grass.  We'll be here for 2 nights, since we can't get into our destination campground until Thursday (only 88 miles away).  There's another Buc-ee's at this exit, so we'll top off fuel when we head out on Thursday.