Knoxville

"At least we knocked over the Sunsphere..."

We arrive in Knoxville after Johnson City, not only that but we drove in the snow to get here, yea... snow. I didn't even bring a pair of socks let alone a coat for snow.

This is my mother's house.

The puppies, one is evil and one is good... but which one...

(Polly Ann and Emmy Lou)... I identify with Emmy most

Holy shit its snowing! Mom! Take my picture!

that's her, always making us up a storm of organic food.

Her she is playing a large metal bass at the base of the sunsphere... this was a reoccuring theme in knoxville.   (my momma actually does play upright bass)

see

During the day, Patrick and I went walking around downtown, just across the river from my mom's house. Knoxville is kind of a strange town... all the towns are strange i guess. Knoxville promotes and supports the arts and the eccentric. Lots of music venues, (larger ones mostly, Bob Dylan always plays here), but for some reason, I still can't get a gig here, which is ridiculous since I always come here too to see my mum. Anyways, there is amazing street art, which is most important to document:

(bass # 3)
 

yea, you better believe its art:

why haven't i thought of this yet?

are you seeing this detail? someone stood on the street and went through like 7 sharpies.

this is an icon in Knoxville, its on some kind of electric box near old town, i always photograph it. make sure when you come to knoxville you pay homage.

We always go to this pub called Barley's, mostly because they have 10,000 beers on tap, but more importantly because they have 3 pinball machines, including Mars Attacks... here's my friend Kent.

Patti's a pimp in a pink chair

Cheers, farewell Knoxville

 

Who's words are these!??!!

Thanks.

Anyways, I'm really behind on the blogging, but bear with me... here are pictures of Chattanooga and the things we encountered... (way before winston-salem... but heck)

We met these really nice girls right off the bat and they were flirty with Patrick so we decided to follow them into the night...

Guess which one was flirty:

We stayed with George and Sarah and Neyland and Carter!

They made us spaghetti and played video games for us to watch and gave us a bed and listen to us rant about stuff and were generally very pleasant and wonderful. We own them so much thanks for helping us get the show and draggin all their friends out, thank you George and Sarah!

And Neyland

and Carter!  

he likes to smell eyelids!

"pleeeease... let me have just a sniffy sniff"

i have a new hobby:

to document public bathrooms. 

I have always had this obsession, it is just now with my camera back and my new computer that has made it all possible.

The Pickle Barrel... nice colors

you can always tell if the bathrooms I'm documenting are in bars... (my favorite kind)

because the pictures are blurry... wait till you see the Root Bar in Asheville... woo!

Not only did George and Sarah do all that stuff above, they took us to a brunch being held at a friends house. 

This french toast is a pipe bomb.

Cigarettes were included on the buffet

Full bar... one of the vodka bottles is actually cucumber gin... way not awesome for screw drivers.

Patrick wasn't going to drink this morning... but then he saw the 'vodka' and had to try it... the good news is he loves biscuits more than alcohol, so they evened each other out

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat

Anna Banana!

What the fuck?

(gas station somewhere in Tennessee right before it started to snow)

Last Call in Winston-Salem

 a lot has transpired since Alabama, we are now in the deep of North Carolina. It is April 11th, we have been through Tennessee, (visited my mommy in knoxville), and then onto Asheville, Wilmington, Winston-Salem and tomorrow Greensboro... yes, thats right, we're opening for the Grateful Dead... now just called the Dead. 

I am hiding in a corner of the bar. Patrick is hiding in the car. We are getting along alright, and by that i mean we have learned how to fight with each other. Sooner and sooner the moment comes when we realize how futile and stupid our arguments are. 

We made $1 tonight... 

I'm ready for bed, no... my bed. We keep making the mistake of staying with the bartender... waiting through last calls, closing time, the drunkest of the drunks, long after our 4 free beers are pissed out we are here in the dark corners stealing wifi from the air. 

I am slightly cold.

Slightly smelling of cigarettes and the coffee i spilled on my sweater. 

i am tired, but not in my legs or back,

mostly in my eyes and heart. 

i miss you.

but i shall go on because we must of course... and I will leave you with some humor.

"i'm,     ...so cold.... 

must....  

  i'm a beeee!   

i'm a beeeeeeeeeeee!!!

...  sucks."

Huntsville

where were we...   oh yes...

Huntsville

there is more to Huntsville than the Flying Monkey, that's just my favorite. After we came out of the Monkey, all dazed and swirly with art and culture, we drove to the other landmark, the Space and Rocket center. Our friend Vincent, (that we met at the Monkey last trip), had ordered a custom wallet, wish i had a picture of it because it was awesome!  So we made the delivery inside the space center, and then we were set free to explore the exhibits.

Blastoff:

take heart little space man

all of american is behind you... literally

hee hee hee

Who knew that today was the annual Moon Buggy Race!!  

All these groups from all over, engineers and physics grads build their own buggys 

and bring them to Huntsville to race them, they were pretty serious about it.

And actually, it was a pretty serious obstacle course.

a metal thing!

we answered some age old questions:

Fuck yes freeze dried ice cream. 

Fuck, yes.

Chad's going to be so happy when he sees the new costumes for

 Paper Scissors Rocketpack I got him!

(chads going to have quite a wardrobe when i get home)

After the space museum and freeze dried ice cream we headed out to the car to make some  sandwiches and hang out in the sunshine, it really was a pretty day. I had just married the peanut butter to my jelly when we see a sequrity guard coming towards us... actually we heard him first... he said,

"HEY!  You guys aren't from around here are ya?"

"... uh... no."

fuck.

Then he said, "oh, where are you from, the boots and the blue hair totally gave you away." Then he introduced himself, he name is Daniel. He just moved to Huntsville from California to take care of his grandmother... and he's bored to death. Not just living in Huntsville, but standing for 14 hours in the parking lot without a break. He was a pretty cool guy... we actually just had him pose for these pictures for the blog. 

We gave him a sandwich and then took out the instruments and played some songs for him. He even bought a cd. We told him to go to the Monkey to find some cool people. And that we'd call him next time we come to Huntsville... yeay! friends!

Pack it up.

move it out

back on the road.