A Race Against the Elements

I started driving a tad later than expected today, but that ended up adding a tiny(and I do stress tiny) element of excitement to the approximately 8 hours I drove from Virginia to my current location right outside of Crab Orchard, Tennessee.

Why did this add any excitement? Well it seems a largish snowstorm was headed right toward my planned route and I spent most of the day barely outpacing it. In the end I saw a few scattered flurries and drove through a light misting of rain for an hour or two. Another, smaller section of snow is due to pass southwest of me tonight, but hopefully it will be mostly cleared away by the time I get to it tomorrow.

Now many of you might prefer not to drive in the snow, but I doubt more than a few of you hate frozen precipitation to the same extent as myself. It borders on phobia, but more angry...

I've never actually had a serious accident in the snow; my driving record is actually fairly clean(stop laughing, mom!); but I've had more than enough close calls to despise ever trekking through the stuff.

I've joked to a few of you that one of my main reasons for heading to Texas was to avoid accumulated snowfalls. I said them as jokes anyway, but there was a lot of truth in those statements. Milwaukee might also have a bustling Arts and Entertainment industry, but you won't see me choosing to head there any time soon...

Thankfully, no snow hampered my trip today.

I spent a lot of today's drive in Virginia. After discovering yesterday that Scotland was actually in PA, I was even more surprised today to find that Glasgow is located in VA. Geography was never my strong suit, but even I know something is off here...

After hours trapped in the never ending state that is VA(BTW, VA, your rest area bathrooms leave a lot to be desired!) I finally drove through Kentucky and then Tennessee.

Knoxville, TN, which I drove through a couple hours ago, surprised me by being the first major city I've driven through so far(at least as far as I would know from the interstate). It was odd seeing a city after nothing but mountains and cows for two days. After Knoxville though, the misting rain(and overall dearth of streetlights) led me to take a somewhat early night. I'd like to be able to see where I'm going when traveling at [the legal speed limit of] 70MPH. I'm weird that way.

Tomorrow I'll be driving through/past Nashville. Depending on traffic/weather conditions, I may make a pit-stop. I'm not much for country music, but music in general is one of my main loves in life. It would seem stupid to miss out on an opportunity to check out the music capital of the country.

(One of those underwhelming VA rest areas. At least it's pretty to look at.)