Knoxville to Chattanooga (with a song stuck in my head)

The city of hard-knocks had treated me well.  I wasn't the guy who got shot in the leg by a stray bullet on Tuesday night.  That was probably some crack-junkie.  The locals in front of the Old City Java laughed about it, pointing across the street to where it happened.  I sipped my bottomless cup of coffee, and we chatted about elections and baseball and the decriminalization of marijuana.  They made me feel at home.  And then, I left.  Again.

In a good frame of mind, I waited patiently by the road in the southwest of town.  I hummed: "Pardon me boys, is that the...I've got my fare, and just a little to spare...".  It was maybe only the 100th car that stopped.  He was in the business of polished concrete floors and benches.  I was in the business of professional travel, today.  Sometimes I'm a musician.  Sometimes I'm on my gap year.  If you were the same person everyday, life would be a bit boring no?  

He dropped me at the recently developed outskirts of Knoxville.  I waited.  "Read a magazine and then you're in baltimore."

The second guy was into roughly the same thing as the first, except with marble instead of concrete.  He was a curious fellow, saw my guitar and figured what the hey.  He had lots of questions for me.  I was in the mood to talk so that was good.  He dropped me out past the 'split' where the 70 heads south to Chattanooga while the road continues on West to Nashville.

I'm yet to see another hitchhiker on these adventures.  But where he dropped me off, there was a note written by a guy who had stood on the same spot, about 4 years ago.  It was a slightly more detailed version of "I was here."  I liked that.  I waited  "...dinner in in a diner, nothing could be finer, than to have your ham and eggs in..."

I got hungry and bought fried chicken, potato and gravy with a biscuit.  A biscuit is a bread-roll i found out.  Good, because I didn't really want a biscuit.  The girl guessed I was Australian.  She had the sweetest smile.

I went back to the road, was just biting into my first bit of chicken when Taylor pulled up.  He was an environmental scientist on his way back home.  We cruised along.  He had great geographical knowledge, naming the rivers and the plateaus and explaining the local geology.  He was a smart guy, who wanted out of America for a while.  He was planning to go to Bali to live with his wife.  We used his phone to call ahead to my host, and we arranged to meet for a beer downtown.  We crossed the Tennessee River, did a loop passed the Aquarium, and then, "woo woo Chattanooga, there you are!"