Back home now. Wife and I got our Bristol "baptism" right off the bat. Got into the track, picked up my t-shirt, got a bite to eat and went to our seats. No sooner got to start chowing down and the sky opened up! Back up the stairs to a relatively dry spot. Once it quit, things dried off pretty quickly. Got past the opening ceremonies and it was green flag time. My wife has never EVER experienced anything close to a NASCAR race. Sitting down in the front row she sure got an eyeful. Or should I say earful. When they hit it and got rolling her eyes were HUGE and her hand was over her mouth for about the first 3 or 4 laps. Then we put in our earplugs and settled in for the show. Truex went sliding right in front of us when he crashed. You hear the boos for Kyle Busch on TV but it's way more apparent in person.
Explored the countryside the next day, then headed over to Gatlinburg. Took the back roads and saw some neat things. Went up to Pigeon Forge, saw the Dixie Stampede show, and even found myself a new pair of dress cowboy boots. The next morning the wife saw a bear walking through the hotel parking lot when she went out for a smoke. Cades Cove was nice. Critters didn't really cooperate, only saw about 12 turkeys, 3 deer, 1 coyote and 1 groundhog. The old log cabins and barns were the highlight of the drive!
Left there for a trip over to Memphis. Stayed just a half mile from Graceland. Wife wanted to see it all there, so I went along even though I'm not an Elvis fan. Went to Beale Street, ate at Central BBQ, went to the Bass Pro Shop in the pyramid, then topped off our bellies at Marlowe's with fried catfish and an order of BBQ tater chips.
Had planned on swinging over to Missouri for the Bass Pro Shop over there but decided to head for home instead. Now it's back to grass mowing, green bean picking, laundry, grocery shopping, oil change and tire rotation, and so on! Work again Monday...
Thanks for the suggestions and tips! We had a good time!