Trail Grazer: Day 1: Western MD, WVA, Kentucky, Tennessee

Saturday night I was so tired I wound up going to bed without being anywhere close to being finished packing. This past week has been exhausting! I woke up early Sunday morning, finished packing, packed my car, and hit the road (I left at about 7:30am).
Instead of taking 81 south, I drove all the way through Western Maryland and then straight down West Virginia & Kentucky to Tennessee. The drive through Western Maryland was beautiful - I'm sure the colors in the fall would make it spectacular! I've never been as far west in Maryland as I was, so it was cool to drive through Frostburg and by the exit for Deep Creek.
Once I left MD, I began the seemingly never-ending drive through West Virginia. If you draw a line from the top of West Virginia to the bottom of it that's where I drove... And boy was it hilly! I did pass a car with a bumper sticker that said "hell yeah I'm a redneck" and also saw a tractor in the median of the highway broken down and it looked like it had been there since they first discovered WVA. I also had never been as far west in West Virginia as I was-- it was weird driving past lean-to shacks in Appalachia. I did see van loads of kids from a youth group in Ohio or Connecticut heading to a work camp there -- wish we had a work camp there when I was in high school! Anyways, I decided to stop in Charleston, WV for a light lunch. I found the "Bluegrass Cafe" on yelp! and got a spinach salad -- everything on it was from local farms and it was DELICIOUS.

Once I got back on the road, I continued towards Nashville. Thank you to everyone who gave me snacks- the drive was much more bearable because all I did was eat for 11 hours! I did realize the crunchier something was, the more awake I was, so all of those crunchy snacks are pretty much gone... Ha!
I know Kentucky has some beautiful farmland but seriously as I was driving I felt like it was almost a waste of space -- I guess I'm in for a rude awakening the further west I go! Kentucky also has an interesting way of doing road construction-- there were a few times where they had road signs saying "road construction ahead" and there were a bunch of cones set up but no road construction. There were cones making the highway one lane for almost 10 miles at one point... But no construction.... No construction equipment was even to be seen. It was kind of frustrating but I can't really complain that much because at least people driving on those roads know how to drive with cones on the road... Not like your average Maryland driver.
I saw signs for Lincoln's homestead when I was in Springfield, KY, so I made a pitstop there off of the Blue Grass Parkway.

Then I ran into some rain:

...And Brad Paisley's trailer!!

I made a total of 4 or 5 stops yesterday and was on the road for 13 hours. I only stopped for coffee once (and it was Dunkin Donuts coffee!). If you're a techy person, check out Waze and Songza--- make road trips much more bearable, as long as you have service!
I got to Nashville around 7:30 pm their time, 8:30pm EST. I stayed with Chelsea Gough, a girl I went to Mount de Sales with who has an internship at the Grand Ole Opry Hotel. We went to the "Pharmacy" for dinner -- great burgers and beer! We went to bed early from our food babies :).

Well, today I'm off to Houston... Still trying to decide if I'm going to go through Arkansas or down through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Probably going to be the latter.