Across the U.S., Day 14 - Henderson (KY) to Nashville (TN)

Driving through parts of Kentucky and Tennessee today was awesome.

The total ride of ~ 230 km was comparably short and I took my time to explore off the beaten path. With success - for the most part.

Darn! I guess, I have to turn around.

There is obviously so much space that cars and junk (oh, I'm repeating myself in the below cases) are simply left sitting there. And sitting there. And sitting there. Well, at some point nature will have taken care of it.

Longterm parking?

I learned a lot about Kentucky today: Its nickname is "Bluegrass state" because this perennial grass species can be found a lot here. It is one of four commonwealths in the U.S.; the other three are Virginia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Its state capital is Frankfort! It has the world's longest cave system (Mammoth Cave National Park in central KY and certainly worth a visit. Next time.). And it also ranks 2nd in tobacco production, behind North Carolina and outcompeting its neighbor Tennessee.

Open barn with drying tobacco leaves

Happy hay for sale!

Around mid-day I got welcomed by the "Volunteer State" Tennessee. Like Missouri, it has borders with eight states (obviously Kentucky and also Virginia to the north, North Carolina on the east side, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi to the south and on the west side Arkansas and Missouri.) Many soldiers who volunteered during the War of 1812 came from Tennessee, which explains the state's nickname. Tennessee's state capital is Nashville, where I will be staying for the next 2.5 days.

As mentioned earlier, Tennessee is also very big in tobacco production. Three types of tobacco are grown in Tennessee: burley, dark-fired and dark air-cured and according to the USDA, burley is the most prominent one. Tobacco has been commercially produced in the U.S. since 1612!

One more snapshot from Tennessee's beautiful scenery.

I noticed one more thing today: I am obviously approaching the southern areas of this country because I'm having more and more trouble understanding people's dialect. Why can't they just take the hot potato out of their mouth? ;-)

More to come.