Where I stayed the night before was only about 60-70 miles from the Tennessee border. I quickly got to Memphis before I was even hungry for lunch so I kept on and eventually had lunch in Nashville. Tennessee is one of those long but skinny states. Taking the long way I’ve driven 435 miles through this state. When I got to Knoxville some serious storms started. It was hard to see in the quickly darkening skies. I also passed into eastern time zone so it ended up being later than I was anticipating. Originally my plans were to camp in eastern Tennessee. Instead I got a cheapo hotel in eastern TN. $39.95 for this Days Inn in Newport, TN. It’s not a dumpy place either. Guess all the cheap hotels are in this part of the country. With the storms and it getting darker an hour earlier than I planned, I think I made out pretty good with this hotel.
So after much thought yesterday I have decided that instead of being home tonight, which I could do, that I will continue east all the way to the coast. I just packed my map away, but I know I’ll continue I-40 until I get to Raleigh and then pickup another road that continues heading east (can’t remember the number now) and then pickup 13 and ride it up through Norfolk, VA and cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. I’ve heard that is a pretty cool structure so I wanted to check it out. I didn’t start from the Atlantic on my cross country road trip, but since I saw the Pacific and it’s not much trouble to get to the Atlantic and back from here, I decided that’s what I’ll do. I’ve seen plenty of spectacular mountains and ranges during my trip so the Blue Ridge Parkway can wait for another trip.
North Carolina is long like Tennessee. I think it’s actually longer. So, it’ll be a far drive today. I figure I need to get far if I don’t want to get back home too late tomorrow night. I’d rather get home earlier in the day rather than later at night. We’ll just see how far I get today…