Final Route

Map

Last Leg(s)

We stayed our final night in Staunton, VA – I tell you what, the motels there have some nerve considering its frickin’ Staunton.  We tried 3 that were either full (who the hell is in town?!) or overly expensive before giving in and paying slightly too much for a room.  We ate at Waffle House in the morning, b/c its not a true trip through the south if you don’t go to Waffle House.  They have a jukebox full of songs about Waffle House, and we were told that the CD is available for purchase on their website.

After a stop at K-Mart to buy a wheelie to haul home all our crap, we got into Philly around 2:30, unloaded said crap in the Chinatown Bus parking lot, then I spent a while consolidating bags and chillin in the lot while Mike returned the car.  1 busride, a walk through Chinatown (nyc) and 2 trains later, we were back in Brooklyn, un-mixing our belongings at Mike’s, and then sadly calling it the end.

By the time I got home and ate some dinner (I think I need a plain pasta diet for the next week to recalibrate my system after all the meat) I was having withdrawal symptoms and had to call up Mike and crack jokes about Graceland. 

And so it ends.  But stay tuned for retrospectives, car music summaries, and more as we wean ourselves off of road trip mode.  Also, yes, pictures are coming.

-E

Blue Ridge Mountains

Mmmm, mountains

We took what we hoped would be the scenic route home (well, partway home), based on it being a green line on the map, which seemed promising, and scenic doesn’t even begin to describe.  We went a bit out of our way to skirt the northern edge of the smoky mountains, which were really nice, and then after a few detours we took the Blue Ridge Parkway north through North Carolina and part of Virginia.  If anyone ever has the opportunity to do even a bit of this road, seize it.  There were insane views around every other bend, just endless mountains.  We listened to Loretta Lynn’s High on a Mountaintop (well chosen, Mike), stopped a few times to get out and gape at the view, and stayed on it until just past sunset, then switched over to the interstate right before it really got dark.  Really a perfect penultimate day.

-E

Ice Cream and Printing Presses

We wandered around Knoxville a bit in the morning, nice little town (emphasis on little).  Ate good ice cream.  The notable thing was this spot that does old-style letterhead printing – they generally do stuff to order for businesses, concerts, etc, but they sell the extras & old stuff for the general public.  Anyway, it was a super-cool place, I think we each could have easily bought 20 posters but we limited ourselves to 2 each.  We chatted with a few of the people working there for a while, they said this was the busiest day they’d ever had b/c all the Tom Waits fans were stopping in. 

For the New Yorkers reading this, they’re coming up to NYC for a week or 2 in August for some show, and will be selling posters on the street in SoHo, so keep an eye out. 

-E

Show 3

Last show, which was sad, but it was a great one.  More repeat songs since there were now 2 shows worth we’d heard to repeat from, but still a number of new ones.  On the Nickel, and Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis were particularly priceless.  The venue was nice, although not nearly as cool as the Fox Theater in St. Louis.  One of the highlights of this show was the guy sitting in front of us — middle-aged man, said he’d seen Tom 10 times, and he was just so visibly bursting with joy the entire time, it was great to see.  He kept turning around and offering us a look through his opera glasses (we were up in the balcony), and exclaiming in southern accent “isn’t it just so cool!”  And yes, it was.  So 3 incredible shows, and if he tours again ever, I’ll be there for sure.

-E

SETLIST: Knoxville, TN

Lucinda [Orphans: Brawlers, 2006]
Way Down In The Hole [Frank's Wild Years, 1987]
Fallin’ Down [Big Time, 1988]
Hang Down Your Head [Rain Dogs, 1985]
Chocolate Jesus [Mule Variations, 1999]
God’s Away On Business [Blood Money, 2002]
Get Behind The Mule [Mule Variations, 1999]
Metropolitan Glide [Real Gone, 2004]
Trampled Rose [Real Gone, 2004]
Cold Cold Ground [Frank's Wild Years, 1987]
The Part You Throw Away [Blood Money, 2002]
Black Market Baby [Mule Variations, 1999]
Rain Dogs [Rain Dogs, 1985]
On The Nickel [Heartattack And Vine, 1980]
Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis [Blue Valentine,  1978]
You Can Never Hold Back Spring [Orphans: Bawlers, 2006]
Lucky Day [The Black Rider, 1993]
Innocent When You Dream [Frank's Wild Years, 1987]
9th And Hennepin [Rain Dogs, 1985]
Lie To Me [Orphans: Brawlers, 2006]
Jesus Gonna Be Here [Bone Machine, 1992]
House Where Nobody Lives [Mule Variations, 1999]
Eyeball Kid [Mule Variations, 1999]
Make It Rain [Real Gone, 2004]

ENCORE
Fannin Street [Real Gone, 2004]
Come On Up To The House [Mule Variations, 1999]

Knoxville wins the prize

Knoxville wins the prize for worst signage to date, and let me tell you, Charleston had set a difficult bar to meet, but meet it they did.  We went the wrong way at least 8 times on our way to the hostel, and keep in mind this is not exactly a large metropolitan area.  My stress level was worsened by the fact that A, Mike forgot to charge his phone last night so no googlemaps (yes, we are spoiled and travelling with technology), and B, we forgot that we would cross back into the Eastern time zone between Nashville and Knoxville, so it was an hour later than we planned on it being.  Then we got lost again between the hostel and the show, but that was mostly b/c we were following people we met a the hostel who went totally off track (I think the lesson there is never trust anyone to know anything).

-E

When in Nashville, dress like a cowboy/girl

Nashville

We weren’t actually in Nashville for very long (well, we weren’t anywhere for very long, but I particularly feel like I didn’t get much actual sense of Nashville). However, a few thoughts:

1. The Music City hostel in Nashville is hands down the coolest hostel I’ve ever seen. We met a lot of great people, everyone went out together at night, there had been a barbeque just before we arrived, plus the space is beautiful.

2. The nightlife scene is like an enormous frat party, and I was reminded of why I went to a college that had no frats, and why I stopped doing even Vassar’s un-frat-like version of frat parties after freshman year.

3. Knowing Mike was looking for inline skates and having trouble finding the kind he wants, and being the thoughtful sort of person I am, I post-it-ed the page in the guide book about a great inline skate shop for him, and we went, and it was perfect, except it was closed.

4. Half the restaurants in the city seem to be closed Sundays, which is absurd and really frustrating when you’re trying to find some lunch. However, we wound up eating at Swett’s, which is some sort of institution, and had super delicious fried chicken and “veggies”, none of which were actually of the vegetable food group, and pie that hasn’t actually gotten eaten yet but will definitely be good in the car. Also, we met Oprah Winfrey’s dad – he had a great cane.

-E