Johnson City, TN

Well, I'm home.  For those of you that did not know, I was visiting my brother in Tennessee this weekend.  We sure did have a great time.  It really wasn't that bad of a drive, only about seven hours.  It took us through some very beautiful areas of the state.

Cotton Field - 2007

I use to drive to Greensboro once or twice a month to see Donna and Christopher, so that leg of the trip was a pretty easy four hours.  It was rather amazing how much had changed in the last nine years west of Newport.  There was this spot on Highway 70 right before you get into Kinston coming from New Bern.  There was this very old building in the middle of a cotton field and I literally stopped one day in the middle of traffic to snap a few photos.  Well, to my dismay, this building no longer exists and the field is no longer filled with cotton.  There was actually a power line that ran through the sky in the photo that Cory edited out for me so...woot for him!

So now, heading west from the beach, there is nothing but bypasses.  It shaves a good thirty minutes or so off of your drive to Raleigh but you miss all of the small towns and stuff on the way.  Give and take I suppose, right?  But once we got west of Greensboro, it was just an awesome drive.  I love the mountains and being able to drive through Boone and into Tennessee through winding roads that caress the edge of a beautiful lake was the highlight of my year so far.  What was so cool was that all along this lake there were these recreation areas that were just filled with people fishing, swimming, camping and cooking out.  Just an awesome little spot in the middle of nowhere Tennessee.

I did not know what to expect coming into Johnson City.  The vibe is actually hard to describe.  It's a little bit hipster, a little bit college town and a little bit red neck.  Eastern Tennessee State University is located in Johnson City so the city was a bit larger than I thought it would be.  There was a small historic down town that was just beautiful red brick.  The buildings were very old, many of them having been there since the early 1900's when Johnson City was a big railway hub.  In fact, my brother's restaurant is one of the old train depots.

Tupelo Honey Cafe in Johnson City, Tennessee is just absolutely beautiful.  I regret not getting a single photo of the interior of the restaurant. Props to the interior designer.  They kept a lot of the original interior and stuck with the train theme.  The original wood of the depot is everywhere from the floors to the supports.  They even had a scaled model of the railroad as it was back in the 1900's on display.  The history of this place is rich and it shines through in everything they have.  Their outdoor eating area is actually the old passenger platform.  They have a stone fireplace and lanterns hang overhead. 

I'm so proud of my brother and I hope he knows that.  His restaurant (he is the general manager) is just amazing.  They serve southern cuisine (on their brunch menu, they had friend chicken and pancakes...so, yeah).  It looks like he is doing a great job there and I know the challenges he faces.  Johnson City is really trying to revitalize their down town district, where Tupelo Honey is located.  However, you can tell it is a struggle.  A lot of the buildings are vacant and sort of run down.  They have a really nice park where they are doing a concert series, which I think will help out a lot.  They just need to get more people down that way, which will lead to more businesses coming in.  But I loved the down town look and vibe.

So there really wasn't a lot of free time to spend with my brother, but the time we got was good.  We watched a thunder storm on his porch and talked for a little while the first night we were there.  He was around for most of the time we were at the restaurant though he was still sort or working in between being with us.  It was still a great visit and I really wish I could have stayed another day or two.

The drive home was good and there were no issues.  Dad and I were jamming to SiriusXM the entire trip.  Some of the channels were doing like top 100 count downs for the weekend.  We listened to all 100 of the songs on Classic Vinyl and as we entered the top 5, I looked at dad and asked, "Hey, I don't think they played Stairway to Heaven yet.  I bet that's the number one song."  Well guess what?  Duh, it was...dad was tripping out, he couldn't believe that I guessed the right song for the count down.  We had a good laugh over that.  Then he changed the channel to Hair Nation and they were doing their top 100 count down.  Jokingly, dad said, "I bet you can't name the number one song for this count down."  They were on number 8 at that time and I told him, "Let me listen to a few songs to get a feel for what they are playing."  After three songs, I looked at him and said, "Guns 'N Roses, Sweet Child of Mine will be number one."  He was like, yeah, whatever.  Well guess what?  The number one song came on and it was - Guns 'N Roses...Welcome to the Jungle.  I was so close!  He was still blown away that I even guessed the group after only listening to three songs.  What fun.


So, that pretty much sums up my weekend.  It was a great trip and I'm very thankful that I got to even go.  Work is going to kick my butt this week, but I'm ready for it.  I missed a lot of hours so I'm hoping to flirt with some overtime this week to make up for it.  We shall see.  Enjoy the photos and Later Days!