Knoxville and Beyond

It was beautiful out when we got to Knoxville on Monday, which put me in the mood to work out, which I never really do. I went down to the gym, and it was like a sauna. No way was I going to exercise in there! So I thought, well, it's nice out, so I'll just go walking outside for a half hour or so.


I took off, crossed a bridge, and saw a sign that said "Riverwalk". Awesome- I can walk down by the water! I go for a bit, and realize something must be wrong- I am not on a river, but rather walking through trashy houses. But I decide to keep going. I come to a yellow sign that shows a winding hill is ahead. Can't be too bad, right? So I walk up, and up, and up. I'm dyin'. I get to the top where there is a water tower, and I see a man in a truck. I also see a sign for the town I am in, which is NOT Knoxville. I ask how I get back to my hotel, and he gives me a weird look. He says I can either go back the way I came, or go down the other side and follow the hospital signs. That should get me back.


I walk/run down the other side of the winding mountain, practically spraining my ankle numerous times, as I run into the rocks on the side of the road to avoid getting pummelled by semi trucks, and avoiding the animals on the road who were not as lucky. I keep going, and going. I finally see a hospital, and I walk onto the campus. I'm tired, and hurting. I go to human resources to ask how to get back to my hotel. She gives me a weird look. I ask what time it is- I'll fill you in on that later.


I follow her directions out of the hospital to get to a path that is supposed to lead me back into Knoxville. I wind up on a horse and cow farm, with a man in a tractor that gives me a funny look. OK buddy, I KNOW I'm not supposed to be here! I finally find a freeway. A lot of good that is going to do me. However, there was by some miracle a pedestrian bridge and path that ran next to it. A bridge that did not take me to my hotel, rather to....


The University of Tennessee. I ask a bus driver how to get to my hotel. "You walkin'???" Yes, I am, and you don't even know Mr. I ask about five more people, and make it back on a main road that is supposed to take me to my hotel. Guess what? It did.


I wanted to die. My body was just shot. I had listened to 38 songs on my iPod. I left at 12:45 and got back at 2:30. I went on the computer to Googlemap the distance I had been lost for, using landmarks I walked past.


10.2 miles.


And thanks to no sunscreen, here is what my chest looked like:



Not the best day ever.

Durham, NC

We spent the weekend in Durham, which definitely had some cute areas. The theatre was brand new (just opened in November), and it was close to a few food options, which is a bonus when you are stuck there for the whole weekend, doing five shows.

There were a few things I wanted to see while we were there. One of them being Duke University. I guess that they have a beautiful chapel, gardens and art museum, and we were only a few miles away. This was my plan for Saturday morning.

Well, that didn't exactly happen. Five of us went to an area of town on Friday night to have a few drinks at George's Garage. There was a group of three women there that recognized our friend from the show, and they were already a few martinis deep. Lets just say these women were not hurting in the financial department, based on their clothing and wedding rings. One of them was a daughter of a major college coach as well. Well they just LOVED our friend and Darrel. They starting buying them beers and shots, as us ladies sat at the other end of the bar. The bartender felt bad for us, so HE bought us a drink! (I told Darrel to just go with it- free drinks!). We then went across the street to another bar with a band, and the women decided that they liked us girls now, and they starting buying ROUNDS for us, as they were crazy dancing. Next thing you know, it's 2:00am, we are at Jimmy John's eating sandwiches, and none of us had spent more than a few dollars.

We now refer to these women as the Real Housewives of Durham.

While this was certainly fun, by far the best part of Durham was seeing my cousins, Jon and Pat. Pat lives about 45 minutes away, so they drove to meet us on Saturday in between our shows for dinner. We were only able to hang out for about an hour, but it was GREAT!!

The Most Popular Purses In America

For the last few months, I have been seeing the same purses in every city. I see thousands of people a week in the lobby, and I see at least two to three of these a day. I of course had to ask who made them. When you take into consideration how many styles of purses there are out there, Dooney and Bourke seems to be doing just fine in this tough economy! The first one is from the zebra collection, and the second is from their giraffe collection So if you have one, you are definitely keen on the most recent trend!

Atlanta, GA

As I was writing the title to this blog, I realized that I already posted about Atlanta when we visited for a week last year. But sorry- you get it again. :)

We were there for the day on Thursday, and I realized that the King Tut exhibit was in town at the Civic Center. Some people in my office were nice enough to set aside six tickets for the exhibit (it is produced from our offices in Cleveland) with the audio tour, AND the 3-D movie! I had seen it once before, in Lauderdale, years ago. But my phone rang for work the whole time I was there, so I was thrilled to see it again and turn OFF my cell phone. We learned so much about ancient Egypt, the Pharaohs, mummification, and of course, Tut himself. It's amazing how the artifacts have stayed in almost perfect shape, for 3,000 years.

After the exhibit, we walked to a nearby restaurant and had appetizers and a few beers. It was nice, sunny, and warm- something we had not been around for too long!

Last time we were in Atlanta, Darrel and I found this little funky French restaurant, called Anis Bistro. I found it through my Continental dining program, and we loved it. It is an old house in a residential neighborhood. We had recommended it to some tour friends, and wound up sitting next to them at dinner. They ordered a bottle of wine for us, we both had salads, I had veal, and Darrel had osso bucco. Little did we know that they had picked up our WHOLE CHECK! Too nice of them.

And did I mention that thanks to Google maps, Darrel and I took public transportation all day?! We were staying on the outskirts of Atlanta, and we figured out cabs would have been about $100 for the whole day. Our cost? $8.00.

Jackson, MS

This week we spent a few days in Jackson, MS. Honestly, not one of my favorite places. But the weather was nice, so Darrel and I took some time to walk around one afternoon.

Jackson is the capitol of Mississippi. That being said, it pretty much means that there is NOTHING to do in the downtown area. All of their government buildings are there, and there are about a million churches. I ate Whataburger two nights in a row, if that tells you anything! Even though there is not much to do, it is a pretty place to walk around- the architecture, parks and landscaping were way better than the snow and cold we have recently been in!

The main reason I did not like Jackson is because I did not feel safe there. Someone had been shot right next to our hotel a few days before we got there, and I was approached by a man while I was loading the bus at night, and I had to scream for Darrel and our friend Ethan to make him turn around and walk the other way. We pretty much just locked ourselves into where ever we were, ate fast food, and watched movies and TV!

Smooth Rider

Our bus has been having a few technical issues in recent weeks, so we had to switch buses on Monday night, just for a week or so. Don't think they gave us a DAVE MATTHEWS BUS! I am in heaven. It rides so well, you don't even feel like you are on a bus. And it has a pop-out, which means that the front lounge slides out to make the inside of the bus bigger. It's like a living room in there! And we have a full fridge and freezer, dimmers on our lights, DVD players in our bunks... life is good this week!

The Fabulous Fox

Today we played The Fox theatre in Detroit. My camera is not good enough to even begin to capture what this theatre is like, but here is a link to one of my touring friends blog to show you photos: http://textingwhiledriving.blogspot.com/2009/03/fox-theatre-detroit-michigan.html.