Snapshots from the USA

Aradhna and I on Broadway in Nashville after watching the Predators lose to the Flyers -- Aradhna's first hockey game -- on Saturday night. Writing from my father's place in Port St Lucie, FL now. Will post much more about this trip when we return to Australia next week, but here's a handful of photos.

My Fijian-born wife was treated to her first-ever snowfall in Maryville, Tennessee.

Curious neon in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee.

Spotted in the Maryville Cracker Barrel: Hershey's Scented Skin Lotion. For people desiring that all-over, cheap chocolate scent.

Along an East Tennessee backroad.

Aradhna was disappointed by the condition of Athens' Parthenon during a visit to Greece earlier this year. Lucky for her Nashville's got a full-scale version of it, all cleaned up and tidy.

Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, original home of the Grand Ol' Opry.

On Broadway in Nashville, TN.

Walking into the arena to see a Predators / Flyers game, Aradhna's first hockey game.

Outside Montgomery, Alabama.

Along Rt 231 in southern Alabama.

South Alabama. Note the post-firing smoke from the gun.

Closed and abandoned. "It just makes sense."

South Alabama.

Aradhna gets introduced to the cotton trade.

My stepmom's efforts to bring Christmas to their Port St Lucie, FL neighbourhood.

A Thanksgiving miracle!

A rare -- or maybe new normal -- pre-Thanksgiving snowfall blanketed East Tennessee overnight, providing my wife with her first-ever snowfall.

Dawnie

I posted this photo back in November with the caption, "Oh, the indignities of being a spoiled dog ..." It could just as easily read "A good life, defined." Sweater, hat, window ledge-cushion ... my mom's miniature Doberman named Dawn lived the life of a short-haired, 4-legged princess. Sadly, after more than a dozen years of constant companionship, Dawn passed away this week. Anyone wishing to pass along condolences to my mom, please do so here.

Mornin' vittles.

Mom and I took a ride to Knoxville to do a little shopping this morning. First stop, Cracker Barrel for biscuits & gravy (above). It's a Southern thing.
Gay Street in downtown Knoxville.
The stately Tennessee Theater.
The main drag of Knoxville's 'Old City'.

Southern Saturday.

I count my blessings every day. I'm married to a remarkably beautiful woman. I have a warm, wonderful family. I have friends I've known all my life. I have a curiosity to know the places I visit, not just see them.

So when I'm in East Tennessee on an autumn Saturday, my wife is 16,000 kilometres away, the Vols are playing for the SEC title and my mom is asleep in front of the television ... I unabashedly go to Hooters.

There's no challenge in poking fun at a place that promotes itself as "delightfully tacky, yet unrefined." Its business model is sexist. Its interiors have the charm of dorm basements. Its customers range from beer-bellied soccer dads to toothless yokels. For a guy looking for a place to catch a college football game, however, it's got Dos Equis on tap, tasty chicken wings, a dozen plasma TV screens and -- yes -- pretty girls in criminally revealing outfits.

The woman above is Brittany. She's a bartender at Alcoa Hooters and a student at Carson-Newman College. She has a sweet smile and relaxed demeanor. Today, as the Vols took on the Kentucky Wildcats, her workplace looked like this ...
... so it goes without saying she was a sight for sore eyes.

Black Friday

Drove mom to work at 5:30 am this morning (she's a nurse at a dialysis clinic -- patients await even before the sun rises) and took a ride by Maryville's big stores afterwards. Not surprisingly, the Wal-Mart lot was packed and both Staples and Target had long lines of bundled shoppers braving the cold to be there for door-opening sales. The "biggest shopping day of the year" in the US is called Black Friday because retailers herald it as the day their businesses begin to turn a profit (out of the red, into the black); in other words, capitalism's high holy day.

Thankfully, not every place in town is a madhouse. I'm sitting in a spectacular cafe in Maryville's downtown called Capitol Coffee. It's within the refurbished lobby of an old Capitol Theater lobby, and includes an art gallery next door and party room upstairs. The owner (and resident artist) Heath Claiborne was telling me they're in the process of refurbishing the old theater. If I wasn't returning to Australia next Tuesday I know for sure I'd be at the restored Palace Theater down the street on December 22nd when they screen It's a Wonderful Life, the greatest Christmas film ever made.
Outside.
Inside the cafe.

Thanksgiving defined.

When my Aussie family and friends ask, "What is Thanksgiving?", I'll direct them to this post. Above is my first helping of the feast Kevin spent the day preparing. My brother cooks with the easy temperament of a world-class surfer; even more, his mastery is self-taught. To the holiday checklist we go:
Roaring hearth? <check>
Lovely table & family (note my mom in her Aussie jumper)? <check>
Photo ops of family in front of roaring hearth? <check>
Big ol' dogs on the porch to pet when we leave? <check>
And let's not even mention dessert ....

Give thanks, y'all.

All is right in my world this morning: I'm in Tennessee, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is on TV, mom's making pies and, unlike last year, I'm not at work. It was counter-intuitive to awake on this morning a year ago and trudge into ResMed, my employer at the time, and .... work. I brought some sort of Thanksgiving-like food -- a pie, maybe? -- to share with co-workers. They offered kind words about my 'American' holiday but it was just another day at the office.

As someone who's traveled to Tennessee to spend Thanksgiving with my mom since she moved here in 1987, Thanksgiving is anything but another day.

A hearty, happy Thanksgiving to my family and friends around the world.

Pilgrims

Rage against illegal immigrants was once only an applause line in the Republican field manual, but in the time since I moved to Australia it's become a metastasizing tumor:

• On ABC (American) News an insipid Republican presidential candidate (Mitt Romney) just proudly contrasted himself with an opponent by boasting that he, in fact, voted AGAINST tuition breaks for children of illegal immigrants while his opponent voted FOR such sinister legislation.
  
• The other day I saw a pudgy white guy driving a Ford pickup with a "Where's the fence?" bumper stiicker on its cab window.
  
• Saddest of all, the two lovely mothers pictured above with their kids became increasingly uncomfortable posing for this photo taken along an autumn-painted river walkway in downtown Maryville. Amanda and I were deep in conversation when the oldest boy said hello to us -- that's all I needed to want a photo. Almost immediately the mother on the right asked why. It wasn't until she asked a second time that I connected her concern with anti-illegal fervor. Of course her hesitation was justified ... and so goddamned sad.

Two- & four-legged familia

My brother Kevin & sister-in-law Ruth sip chai I made using sasurma's recipe & spices packed in Australia by Aradhna. As their attire shows, it was cold (26 F) yesterday morning for the yard sale held in mom's driveway.

More photos ....
A neighbor's horse nibbles on autumn leaves.
Mom's (ahem) husky (ahem) cat, Sam.
Kevin with Lily, one of his many dogs.
Two of Kevin's other dogs, Tony & Ruby, survey their domain.
Beside the pond on Kevin's property sit Amanda, Tony & Cocoa, the hillbilly cat.
This horse, spotted on a hillside down the gravel road from Kevin's place, raced up to my car when I stepped out to snap its picture. Unfortunately, I was without sugar cubes or carrots.

Southern exposure I

Remember kids, when satisfying your smoked meat needs, be sure to buy in bulk. [A friendly message from the National Association of Cardiologists.]

Southern comfort

The two great Southern pastimes are college football and eatin'. As the Vols bore me to tears, I'm shoving comfort into my face at every opportunity. Spending this rainy Tuesday afternoon in drought-bedeviled eastern Tennessee at Maryville's Panera Bread (shown above), where I met my niece Amanda for coffee & a sweet before she went to work. Unsettling to watch someone you held as an infant drive away in their Jeep ... ...
Amanda showing off her new necklace, a gift from Mr & Mrs Sharma.
Mom and her beloved Dawn.
Oh, the indignities of being a spoiled dog ......
Fall foliage as seen in the back of mom's house ....
... striking sunset as seen in front.

Drive-by Trucker

Sunny Friday morning at my mom's place in Maryville. Arrived at 7:00 last night after 2 days of driving, first north from the Jersey shore to my dentist in Ramsey, then south for the 900-mile haul to Dixie and through autumn-colored Appalachia (shown above).Wednesday morning, U-Haul loaded and ready to roll.
My route south cut through the Shenandoah, Blue Ridge and Smokie Mountains.
Typically graceless gas stop in Virginia.
Long hauls like this make one appreciate a trucker's life.
Homestretch, closing in on Knoxville at dusk.