I Love Tennessee

**Please note: I wrote this post on June 6th, 2016, possibly wanting to go back and add more but I ended up forgetting about it and left it as a draft. Today, April 13th, 2018, I am posting it as is.**

It's confirmed, after spending nearly a week in Tennessee again as an adult, I still love it.

I had a list of all a million adult things to complete before my trip, and I'm proud to say I completed every last one of them until the very night before my flight. I packed light, didn't forget anything although I really should of packed a couple more things like pants, a warmer jacket, and some shoes for the lake. But those weren't too bad and were able to be bought.

After I finished everything, I took a little time to myself to relax, smoke hookah, drink wine, and watch Netflix. I slept for 3 hours and woke up a little after 3am, got ready and ordered a cab to the airport. I took an Uber cab to the airport around 4am. I knew that Uber would be available that early and never have to wait more than 5 minutes for them. I will say that was probably the most stressful part of leaving Arizona. My driver was nice but I could barely hear a word he said with his mumbling and weird ways of saying stuff. He kept asking me which way I wanted to go, whereas I'm thinking, "Fuck dude, just get me there the fastest way!" At last, I made it still with plenty of time.

I arrived to the airport 2 hours before boarding with a hangover and not a single place open in sight. Security was a fucking joke. It was such a breeze and so easy and quick, a plus side to booking a really early flight. Security took maybe five minutes but not a single guard told me what to do, so I just based it on watching others and remembering what my friend told me. I had sabotaged my sleep schedule for the past 4 nights, hoping I would sleep on the plane. My first flight was a little over 4 hours long, and I did not sleep at all. I was too excited and eventually got hungry. I tried resting but with no success, I had an empty seat between me and the other passenger, an older woman who slept most of the flight. In total, I had four planes to get on, two on the way and two on the way back, all with window seats. It was a cloudy and nice day in Arizona, I had a seat near the plane's wing. A gorgeous and cloudy view the entire way to Charlotte, North Carolina. I always have this joke that anytime someone leaves Arizona, or at least the Phoenix metropolis, the weather is always great. That's exactly what happened, it's been over a hundred degrees for the past several days before I left, and was only under ninety degrees the day of my departure.

Thankfully, all the flights I booked were from the same airline, American Airlines. So I was able to use their app on my phone, which was extremely helpful. I checked in my flight the morning prior, everything was set and on time. I could look at maps of the airports I was going to, check my boarding pass, I could track my bags, find out the gates I needed to be at and so forth. However, I will say as soon as I got into the airport, I was a little lost. I knew where I was but I thought the machines to print your boarding pass would be more obvious to me. Once I found it, I didn't have a clue how to use it. Eventually I figured it out but I was so nervous and fiddling with my phone and bags in ways that were not beneficial to me. I got my bag tag but nearly left my boarding pass in the machine, not knowing it was there, thankfully I asked an agent who told me and I ran back to the machine before someone else got to it. Once that was done, I wasn't so stupid.

The whole morning, or the whole day actually, I was texting my mom wherever I could. She knew that I was waking up at 3 and I kept her posted on times of flights and what not. It was adorable and fun. Every take off and landing, I would text a handful of people just to let them know I was safe and things were going well.

I took a few pictures from my plane seat. When food and drinks finally came around to me, I ordered the cheapest meal, a little breakfast and Tennessee Jack Daniel's and coke. A little tribute.

Four Peaks Brewery was right across from my gate and wasn't open yet. My friend told me to ease my nerves and get a drink before my flight. I planned on it, even if it was after 4am. However, when it finally did open, the line was ridiculous and my flight was getting ready to board.

Boarded my plane at Phoenix Sky Harbor.

Up in the air above Arizona

My Tennesee drink.

I almost cried when departing the airport. The beauty of the planes and all the things they can do. It still astonishes me how a big machine like that can take people safely across the world. It was so cloudy and the sun was shining on the clouds, making everything bright and white. My eyes had a hard time adjusting to the darkness of the inside of the plane every time I looked away from the window. I kept trying to stop, but couldn't control myself, I just kept staring.

I finally finished one of my books on the flight, Hector and the Search for Happiness. With about 2 hours left of the flight as I was reading, I looked out the window and at a distance I saw another plane above the clouds, like us, with it's smoke trail. It was so beautiful and brought tears in my eyes. It was blindingly bright.

I know it may have been said before but when flying over the all those clouds it feels like the clouds are an ocean. Amazing. Purely.


My connecting flight was in Charlotte, flying over North Carolina was a beautiful sight. When it was announced to start landing, we began to lower and all I saw was a ton of green trees and a lot of lakes. The weather looked great but I was sad never to go outside. My layover was only 2 hours. Just before landing while still above the clouds, I saw a plane ahead of us gradually lowering into the clouds. It looked like a giant shark lowering into the ocean. It was incredible, and soon we followed after it. After we went under the clouds I saw a lot of smoke in the distance. A fire, perhaps, although I could never find out despite researching online. I did see a lot of other planes flying around us, more smoke trails. I was happy in my heart.

As soon as I got into the Charlotte airport I noticed one thing. Everyone stared at me. I'm used to it, but I recognized that in the Phoenix airport, no one stares, I don't really look all that different here. Granted, I was probably the only person with red hair in Charlotte. I went to a bar in the airport, Taste of Carolina, and got a beer. A NoDa Brewing Co. Coco Loco Porter. It was delicious and $10. I drank it, laughed with the bartenders, and wrote some notes of my flight so far. I realized what a bad idea it was to do that though, I had to pee at least twice before boarding my plane and felt another urge the second I got on the plane. My stomach was gurgling and my bladder was full. Finally I used the restroom and felt better and started to read my next series of books, The Hobbit. The plane was hot and packed. It was a smaller plane than the first, more crowded. The man next to me took up the armrests and fell asleep almost instantly. That flight was a little over 2 hours until my final destination in Nashville, TN. Once I was on this plane, most of my nerves were done with. I was excited and relieved that everything was going as planned. Honestly, my nerves weren't even all that bad, surprisingly. I'm usually really anxious, but overall I handled everything quite well. Although, I was really nervous and confused if I needed to get my bag or if it would transfer onto my connecting plane on its own. I had to ask an agent just to be sure, I'm glad I did.

Charlotte airport, a view from my table where I ate tacos. The airport was large with lots of windows to see the nice sky.

Coco Loco Porter, brewed in North Carolina.

Just a blurry photo of the beer menu so I wouldn't forget what I drank.

View from Taste of Carolina.

Boarding in Charlotte airport.

View above either North Carolina or Tennessee, probably the former.

More clouds.

Once I landed in Nashville, I was so happy I was finally here, I may have cried a little. The whole trip was very emotional. In a good way. I kept looking out the window, wondering where I was, I kept thinking "Am I in Tennessee yet? Am I now?" I really wished pilots would tell you as you are flying, where you are. I like knowing what I'm looking at.

Once we landed, I could take my phone off airplane mode and my uncle who was picking me up told me he would meet me in baggage claim. As soon as I was on the escalator I saw him. I think I was more excited than he was. He got there early and took a nap while waiting. Baggage claim is extremely fast in Nashville airport. Got my bag, went to pee, and we were on our way to about a 2 hour drive to Crossville/Mayland, TN where my uncle lives.

The second I walked out of the airport I was thrilled to finally breathe fresh air, to be outside. It was nice and chilly. It was after 4:30pm and I would arrive at my uncle's house in time for dinner. As I would rightfully assume, the whole drive was lined with greenery. Nothing but trees and a gray sky. My uncle and I talked the whole way, I just asked a bunch of questions about the upcoming wedding and we talked about his daughters, my family, the great things about Tennessee, how there is absolutely no traffic and so on. It started to sprinkle a bit as we neared his house. I told him up front that I didn't really pack much in terms of warm clothes but that my plan was to suck up all the cold weather while I was there, I was not going to complain about it once. It was surprisingly cold that night. Even surprising to the locals, it had been warm the past few days, but we were also expecting rain in 2 days. I knew this because I was checking the forecast everyday for the past two weeks prior to arrival. I was also glad that the weather did not cause any delays to my flight.

My uncle's fiancee, D, had been texting me prior to coming and it was sweet because she asked me what I'm drinking and that she had me covered. D is from Mississippi and is a wonderful, or incredibly talented cook, which I was looking forward to. D has lived in TN for 5 years, she only came for 6 months to help her brother who lived there and wasn't doing well. Eventually she met my uncle and has since stayed while her brother went back to live in Mississippi. I've learned through the many stories she shared, that first she fell in love with TN, second she fell in love with my uncle. I have goosebumps because I get it, and I love it. I will say now that I learned a lot about the people of TN, but I will reserve it for when I'm telling stories that involve me learning those things. I can say first and foremost the coolest and one of the first things I learned about the people of TN. Almost everyone is a transplant. Only one couple of my uncle's friends are actually TN natives, everyone else is from somewhere else in the country or even outside of the country. This includes my family and D. My uncle, his ex-wife, and his two daughters are from NY. If it's not already clear to you, this says a lot about TN. It's one of those places that everyone comes to love, it's a place where people are more than happy to love and stay in. My uncle is extremely grateful to have moved there, having living there for nearly 20 years now. His daughters [my cousins, obviously] were very young when they moved there. The exact two main reasons my uncle relocated was that his ex-in-laws moved there, and he didn't want to raise his kids in NY. Collectively, we are all glad the girls did not grow up in NY. We joke that they would be big bitches if they still lived there. The funny thing I should mention to, is that I went to visit my family in NY when they still lived there and everyone had a strong NY accent. The first time I went to TN, 16 years ago, the girls already had a TN accent, and they still do. My uncle's NY accent is there but not nearly as strong as it once was.

Anyways, we finally got to the house and I was happy not to be bound by transportation anymore. We brought my things in and I was greeted by D with so much love. I had met her once before when she came with my uncle to Arizona a couple years ago. From the moment I met her, she instantly felt like family and warmed right in. She reminds me of my mom in some ways, which I can understand why my uncle loves her, he was always really close to my mom [who is his older sister]. I want to write this real quick just to remember it forever. They met at a bar where she was a cook. She's a little older than my uncle too. He got drinks there and wouldn't ever leave her alone, finally she gave in after many nights of late night talking. I'm extremely happy for my uncle. He was in a bad marriage, which thankfully bore him his daughters, but his ex-wife is not a pleasant person. Very controlling, drama-filled, confrontational, and just not very nice. She wanted to see me, but I told my cousins I had no desire to see her. Thankfully, I did not.

Upon settling in, I shared a rum and coke with my uncle and helped myself to some chicken tortilla soup. We talked and enjoyed ourselves. Their home was cozy and modest. A 3 bedroom place on 3 acres with a lake and a lot of grass. I had a small room to myself with an air mattress. The house was dark, wooden panels, with a lot of sentimental things on the walls. Across from the house was a newly built power plant which required cutting down countless trees. However, off in the distance was a beautiful field of grass that lead to the forest. I was sad to see it was fenced off because my body just wanted nothing but to run through the grass and lay in it. Sometime after I got to the house, D's daughter and her two children joined us, they drove up from Louisiana. D's daughter, O, was in her late 30s, Mississippi native who recently moved to Louisiana for her husbands job. O is a typical country woman, she had a thick accent like her mother, she was strict with her kids, had great humor, a nice smile, and could do anything in the world. This is something I love about the country, the self sufficiency of the people. I admire these type of people, much like I admire the wide range of skills and knowledge of my own father [who is from Nebraska].

The view from my uncle's house on the cold night of arrival.

My uncle's house.

Kitchen.

Extra dining room.

Living room.

Main dining room.

The beautiful Manhattan skyline mirrors that belong to my uncle.

Front porch.

Before I continue, I realized at some point in this vacation that I felt totally at ease. Something about being in TN after being here before, and something about the country that instantly relaxed me. All of my typical vacation worries and anxiety washed away. I only had a few expectations of this trip, which were achieved. Generally, when I go to the beach or to the city on trips with friends, I tend to be anxious and wanting to do a lot of things and getting easily annoyed when we are just sitting around or doing nothing or things we could typically do in our own homeland. But here, I was chill, and go with the flow.

We stayed up late, drinking and talking a lot. I got to hear countless stories about the area, my uncle and how he met his fiancee and about her family. It was wonderful. It was probably the most my uncle has ever spoken to me. He's kind of a more quiet guy, funny considering his sisters [my mom and aunt] are very talkative and loud. I did realize during my trip that my uncle is very relaxed and funny all the time. It was hectic at times trying to sort everything and get it all ready for the wedding. Yet, he was always cracking jokes and hardly worried about anything. A good complement to his new wife who was pretty stressed out for various and necessary reasons. Shortly after O arrived, I decided that I wanted to go outside and soak up the cold weather. I put on the only kind of warm shirt I had and went to sit on the porch, I took some pictures too.

I had a room to myself, my uncle's small office where I slept on an air mattress. That was all fine for me, for I do enjoy sleeping on those kinds of mattresses. And I appreciated having some privacy. I slept very well and asked everyone to let me sleep in til at least 9 or so before one of my cousins was picking me up so we could spend the day together. We planned on lunch and then exploring a few places in nature.

My cousin Da, is the oldest, 23, her boyfriend T, and their dog Sonny came too. Sonny is an adorable and super lovable dachshund. They picked me up and we went to lunch at some fast food joint called Zaxby's that I would consider is much like Raising Cane's which we have in AZ. At lunch we kind of did a basic catch up. She asked me about my family at home, I talked about our aunts, grandparents, my mom, my brother, and my cousin. We also talked about work, T does very similar work to what I do. So it was cool to hear a different perspective and easily talk about what I do since they had the same basic understanding that most people don't.

After lunch we were on our way to the beautiful Colditz Cove, located east of Allardt in Fentress County. It was probably an hour drive or so. They placed relaxing music and I just stared out at all the greenery. It was much warmer that day, but still very tolerable compared to AZ. The cove is a largely dense forest with a bunch of narrow trails. I was so busy watching my cousin walk and stepping in the same places she did. Been awhile since I've hiked. But every now and then I would stop and take pictures and just take it all in. Pictures will never do justice to the beauty there. It was a Thursday so not many people were there. We ran into a few people on the trail, but once we got to the waterfall, we were all alone. Sonny was incredible, as we walked further downward, they let him off the leash and he would run ahead of us for a bit and then come back to us anytime his name was called. It's amazing the skill that little dog had. He loved these trips. As we got further down, there were caves and massive boulders and rock formations. It became cooler the further in we got. The thing that surprised me was that there was hardly any wildlife, which would be normal considering the trail would clear that a bit. As we got down to the waterfall, we heard birds and saw a couple, but no fish or even any bugs really. And it was relatively clean. The caves along the way to the waterfall were incredible, a good place for shelter if one were ever stuck down there due to weather or whatnot. It was mostly muddy and damp but not humid, which I appreciated. The waterfall isn't very big, and it falls into a nice sized lake, small but deep. The water was cold and I would of loved to jump into it. It was clear and we saw no fish. They told me that during the summer, a lot of people come there and drink and trash the place. But it was still too cold for anyone to come yet. Sonny kept going into the water and running around to the other side, eventually he swam across the river to us. It was adorable. After a while of checking out the waterfall, we walked another trail back. This trail was less dense but require a little bit more climbing. Thankfully T is strong enough to help haul my ass upwards. All while walking we talked about all sorts of things, from different places to see in TN, other places we have each visited, etc. It was fun to get to know my cousin and her boyfriend better since I hadn't really had a relationship with them. She was more open minded than I expected her to be, still with her flaws, but as soon as we met up, we instantly felt like family and talked about anything. Another thing that astonished me was that they never needed their phone to tell them where to go. It made me realize that they do this a lot, they know exactly where they are where I feel like I'm in the middle of nowhere. Even to get to most places in nature in AZ, I need a map. So there was an ease to letting everything fall in Da and T's hands and just go where they take me.

Sonny!

The drive to Colditz Cove.

Following behind Da.

The view down at the waterfall.

Sonny, T, and Da.

Getting closer to the waterfall!

Here's the little lake.

The little waterfall.

I did find a millipede!

After we finished hiking at Colditz Cove, we drove to Jamestown, where T is from. It's a very small town, relatively religious and a dry town as I was told. We went to a gas station, used the facilities, and bought a 12 pack of Coors light and some snacks. I was told there's only a couple bars and places you can buy alcohol in Jamestown. It's a very small town where most people don't mind their own business apparently. Once on the road, T hands me a can of beer, we both discreetly drank while Da drove us to Pickett State Park. At first, I didn't know what to do with the beer, then I saw him drink so I decided to join. This was very comical for me, I laughed and told them I've never done this before but "What's a vacation if you don't break some laws." We drank a couple before we arrived to our destination. It was a longer drive, gorgeous of course. We hid some beers in our bags and started to walk. We crossed a trusty bridge over the lake and hung out in the little wooden ramada, or whatever you would call it. We sat and drank and ate some snacks while talking about the area. It was relatively emtpy, not many people in the area at all. A couple of people walked by us and everyone hid their beers so I followed suit. After the people departed I asked something that was puzzling me. I said to T, "I noticed you are really paranoid, if we were in Arizona, no one would really give a shit if we were drinking, it's almost expected." He told me that for the most part it's not a problem but there are a lot of people who have nothing better to do than ruin the fun of others. That's when we got into a conversation that opened my mind to small town living. I realized one of the first things that I did not like about TN. That mostly people are pleasant if not extremely kind in small towns, but there's not a lot happening so drama can be easily stirred over small things. Once I was told, I understood. The wooden structure had carvings and graffiti of people's names and this person loves this person and what have you.