Carolina On My Mind

Where's James Taylor When You Need Him...


Well, we're back on the road again later this morning, with what is technically a 3-1/2 hour drive from Greenville, across the narrow western part of North Carolina, and on to Knoxville, Tennessee ahead of us for a Tuesday morning appointment.

Of course, unless your butt is on fire and the only fire extinguishers are for sale in Tennessee or you're driving an ambulance on the route, I believe that it would be a complete and total shame to actually cover that distance in a time frame using less than most of a day, in the process averting the wasting of numerous opportunities to make detours to out of the way places and enjoy the views along the way.

The landmarks, topography, and scenery are just too good to do things in a rush, but the only problem for me is actually deciding what to do and where to do it. We want to be somewhere interesting by lunchtime--possibly Asheville--but then Hendersonville using back roads I'm familiar with rather than interstate is tempting and Bat Cave and Flat Rock also beckon.

Then again, a detour over toward Maggie Valley could be possible, although I think that might be a bit too far out of the way requiring backtracking to attain the final destination.

Any way, downtown Greenville has been a pleasure to visit and see the improvements made since I was last here about eight years ago, and Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup are holding up well under the multi-city itinerary.

When it's all said and done, my little pup will have visited Mississippi (where she was born), Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee in her short little 14 month life, and enjoyed every minute of it.

She's a real little four legged trooper...I wish she could share the driving duties.