Plucky Survivors 3: 200 Miles for a Hot Dog

We were just discussing what would be our itinerary on Thursday, noting that while we will happily drive a total of 200 miles out of our way for a hotdog, and will plan to spend at least an hour admiring concrete dinosaurs at what is almost certainly a classic tourist trap, but we will barely give Nashville -- by all accounts a city full of interest -- the time of day. Plucky Survivors is about the journey, not the destination -- or perhaps it's about all the little destinations on the way. Certainly it's an awareness that one can plan all one wants and still not end up where one expected. (Not refundable hotel reservations notwithstanding!) This means we've missed out on most of the many charms of Lexington and Louisville, both of which have beautifully preserved and restored Victorian-era downtowns, and both of which deserved more of our attention than it got. But there we were, heading to Lexington, and there were signs for the Pleasant! Hill Shaker Village, and we've never seen such a thing, and so off the highway we went. And down the highway we went to Hillbilly Hot Dogs, because Louisville may be a short-ish drive from Lexington, but a graffiti covered series of shacks and school buses that serves sloppy messy wieners complete with a theme song is totally worth the gas money.

And when we think about what we have done, it's hard to imagine eliminating any one thing in favor of something else. This particular journey is coming to a close in another day, and it's already hard to keep straight.all we've seen and done. There are a few regrets. We wish we could spend days just watching a leafy green square in Savannah. We wish for more time at the Museum of Appalachia, so we could take in more of the many, many detailed, personal exhibits on display. We wish we had ordered the cheeseburgers at Kaelin's (which claims to have invented the concept of cheese on burgers) medium rare instead of having them served well done. We wish we could live at the 21C museum hotel in Louisville. We wish we could make art, for that matter. we also wish we hadn't paid for the GPS device in the car, since we haven't used it. After all, such things don't allow for detours and spontaneity and sudden lunches at Butts on the Creek, the place where we wished we had order two or! three of those incredible pulled pork sandwiches.

One more day and then we will be home. And wishing we were on the road again.