TSDA Chronicles #3: University of Tennessee and Travel Day

So after eating a ginormous free breakfast and loading up the ice chest with extras, we headed to the UT campus in downtown Knoxville in search of Lance Thompson.  We didn't find him, but we did get some sweet pics of Neyland Stadium.  It kind of looks an oversized merry-go-round with a bunch of tin scrapmetal attached to the outside as if it were an afterthought.  

We also tried to give ourselves a self-guided tour of some of the academic buildings there, but most of them were locked.  Hayden and I did manage to finagle into their main campus library however, where we both found it inside ourselves to leave sizable donations.  We noticed that the library didn't really have any books in it, so now hopefully they'll be able to buy some.  Also of note was a display case containing a "centaur skeleton."  I can't decide if it was some kind of school-backed anti-evolution statement, or if they actually think they found a centaur.

So after leaving campus, which was surprisingly devoid of any and all alleged "rockiness," the three amigos headed east to North Carolina.  The hills and mountains were nice, but ole' Teetotlin' did get frustrated from time to time with the 55 mph speed limits.  We planned on going to the Biltmore near Asheville, but admission was $60 per.  So we watched the intro video, took some pictures of some pictures, and went downtown for lunch.  We would have taken some pictures from the parking lot, but the driveway was 3 miles long.  

From Asheville, yours truly piloted the crew safely down out of the mountains, over the rivers, and through the woods in the torrential rain to Durham, NC.  We got a sweet deal on a room at the Courtyard Marriott near Duke and checked in, brought our stuff to the room, and posted up.

Gasoline purchased today: 15 gallons

Sleeping Accomodations: Courtyard Marriott-Duke University

Tomorrow's Destination: Duke/UNC campuses, Richmond

Potential Stops en Route: Who knows

Potential Problems: Clear skies with an 80% chance of mixin' it up