TN food!

This is a fast foodie lover's post.  All the TN food highlights (and lowlights).

Things started off shaky with a stop in Ohio at White Castle.  I've been to one in Missouri 15 years ago and hated the sliders.  They tasted worse than cardboard - I ordered 4 and threw 2 away (and I never waste food, so that says something).  All these years later, they still taste awful.  The cheddar and apple butter slider wasn't too bad though.

The next TN food stop was for the food Nashville's known for - Hot Chicken.  My buddy Shawn highly recommended this, so even timed my drive to make sure I was hungry for it.  Hot Chicken is basically a chicken breast with a really hot dry rub.  I of course had to get "hot" because it's in the name.  But it was way too hot for me and overpowered the whole meal.  Not a win for that reason only, but their mac-n-cheese was awesome!  And next time (there will be a next time) I'm doing medium chicken lol.

Things had to turn around in the morning, so hit up Biscuit Love.  This was an hour-plus line!  No way was I waiting that long for breakfast.

But then I randomly ran across the #1 fast food restaurant on the planet.  I had no idea Cookout was in Nashville!  Yes, corndogs are a side there and the hushpuppies are a thing of food beauty.  While in line a guy started talking to me about how bad they need a Cookout in New York (too funny running into another New Yorker there).

The bad food vortex I was stuck in was finally over!  Saw this random place in the Opry Mills Mall but was still too full from Cookout, so it's on the list for my next Nashville trip.

  

The next food highlight was Bennett's Pit Bar-B-Que in Pigeon Forge.  I mean really you can not go wrong with pulled pork on a breakfast buffet.  I was in food heaven.

If you ever visit the Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg area, an Ogle Dog is a must!  It's a corndog made with TWO hot dogs and it's by far the best corndog I've ever had.  This is always a mandatory stop when I'm there.

The trip ended with another fast food favorite of mine - Bojangles.  I love the Bo-Berry Biscuits and pretty much everything else on the menu (as you can see by the massive meal I ordered).  I couldn't decide what I wanted so ended up going with two breakfasts lol.

Nashville & Pigeon Forge, TN

I go to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge every November, but I've never ventured further into Tennessee before so decided to stop in Nashville on the way.

The drive was brutally long and because it gets dark early this time of year I wasn't able to stop and see too much.  But KY Stonehenge was a must.

The pic is awful but it was night, there was no moon, and most important it's private property (the yard of the town's mayor no less), so there was no way I was going to get arrested to get a cool pic.   It's about 15 minutes north of Mammoth Cave in a town called Munfordville, KY.  I've now seen Foamhenge (a Stonehenge made of foam in VA that I was super impressed with), the real Stonehenge in England (which I wasn't impressed with because it was so touristy), and then this which was just awesome.

A few exits down the highway, saw this marker.  Check out the middle part - yup, a UFO partially blamed for this mess lol.  The marker was in a strange spot surrounded by fast food restaurants (a McDonald's was literally right across the street).

Then it was time for Nashville!  My first big stop was the Parthenon the next day.  It's an exact replica of the one in Greece.  I ended up staying there almost three hours.  Just walking around it was amazing, but then inside was an excellent art museum - they even had an exhibit on the 1897 Nashville exhibition the Parthenon was built for.  If you go to Nashville, do not skip this - it's totally worth a visit.

Of course everybody told me I had to see the Grand Ole Opry.  This was the extent of my visit.  I was more in the mood to see Jigsaw which was playing in an Opry Mills Mall theater next door.  Great movie btw, as good as the Saw 1 - 3 movies.

That night I hit up Broadway in Nashville.  That's like the Chippewa of Buffalo.  But they've got something there that tops anything in Buffalo - the HQ Beercade.  It's a bar but with tons of classic arcade games and pinball (good ones).  Here's the thing that makes it so different - no cover charge to get in and all the games were FREE!  Obviously they want you to buy food and drinks there and believe me I did.  Ended up staying there almost four hours.  But I left for a bit to see the entire area too - definitely the cool night spot in Nashville.

After that it was off to Pigeon Forge to meet up with my friends.  I absolutely love Dollywood and the entire area it's in.  Dollywood is the home to the fastest wooden roller coaster in the world.  It's kinda debateable whether it's really a wood coaster, but I love it (especially night rides) so don't care.

Lots of other random stuff happened too - Rowdy Bear Mountain alpine coaster, Jungle Boat ride, Big Top arcade, dancing fountains.  There's so much to do, it's impossible to hit it all in one trip (a year lol).

 

And finally, there was this...