We spent 3 nights in Bluff City on our way to Nashville. Why? Not a clue! Bluff city isn’t known for anything. It was only marginally bigger than Chester VT which didn’t pretend to be a city. It had one gas station, one diner, no grocery store and two sets of lights.
It was close to Bristol, a 3 city complex spanning Tennessee and Virginia. For those of you not familiar with it, Bristol is famous for the fastest short track in NASCAR. It’s a 160 000 seat track situated in a town of 27 000!
Just our luck that on our second day there was a race on! Not NASCAR but big rig racing. I’m not sure if there’s anything quite as American as this. The day started with an open track and a meet the drivers event. Moose was unimpressed and repeatedly stated that “Lightening McQueen is faster”. Then there was the typical salute to the troops and first responders followed by a moving rendition of the Star Spangled Banner complete with $50 worth of fireworks. To really immerse myself in the moment I got a Bud and nachos with liquid cheese.
The racing was alright, no crashes though. The stadium was woefully empty, perhaps only 2000 people. More people were filing in when we left (after the heats).
The following day we went to the Bristol Caverns. They’re a naturally formed cave system discovered by accident in the 1920’s. I’ve never been into caves before so this was quite impressive. The tour was quite good and the guide seemed knowledgable about the stalagmite formations.
The next day we made the big drive to Nashville which is my new favourite city.