Ancient Greece lives on in Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville isn't all country music, southern food and whisky. It's also ancient Greece.

The Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee.

This full-scale replica of the Greek Parthenon stands in a beautiful Nashville park.

Visitors are as likely to check out the museum inside as they are to walk or bicycle along the nearby paths. A handful of runners use the covered portico as the gorgeous and unlikely setting for their daily workouts. On this day, one young man stood on the steps of the Parthenon, hoisted a guitar above his head and posed for what would undoubtedly become his awesome debut album cover.

The story of this out-of-place monument begins with the 1897 Centennial Exposition. For that event, the fairgrounds were littered with such monuments to help establish the worldy atmosphere. The monuments, including the Parthenon, a pyramid and others, were made of cheap, temporary materials and destined for removal at the fair's end.

During the course of the fair, however, the people of Tennessee grew attached to the full-scale Parthenon building, so it was re-built from permanent materials to remain standing forever in Nashville.

Outside, the building looks the part. Only up close could we find a few spots that revealed the plaster or cement of modern construction versus the ancient stone that one would surely find in Greece.

Inside, a cramped museum gallery betrays the authenticity, but it does help convey the history of the building and the fair, as outlined above.

Literally the biggest surprise awaits in one of two suddenly and shockingly spacious exhibit rooms.

Athena looms large inside the Parthenon.

This six-story-tall statue of the Greek goddess Athena is as impressive for its size as it is for its color and detail.

The figures and markings depicted in Athena's crown, on her shield and sandals, and below her on the statue's base, all tell their own ancient stories.

The size, though: the winged god standing in the palm of Athena's hand is a life-sized, six-feet tall in his own right.

Fist bump.

Surrounded by spectacle and the combined histories of Tennessee and ancient Greece, we wrapped up our Parthenon tour by posing for the silly photo above and exited through the park, back to our car. Next stop: Belle Meade Plantation.

Josh Turner headlines the Grand Ole Opry

Tucked in between Nashville's biggest indoor shopping mall, and the oasis that is the Opryland Hotel, we made our way to the Grand Ole Opry, or "the show that made country music famous."

Obligatory photo op outside the Grand Ole Opry.

The Grand Ole Opry features a long list of performers at every show, and each act gets to play a couple of songs. It's a fun format and the variety is impressive: we heard everything from today's hit country by Josh Turner and the deep bass of an up-and-coming performer who accompanied country legend Billy Ray Cyrus, to old-time yodeling and acapella in harmony by the impressive Gatlin Boys.

Billy Ray Cyrus accompanies an up-and-coming star.

The show is steeped in history. The round section of off-colored wood at center stage comes from the stage in the Grand Ole Opry's original theater. When a performer stands there, she feels the combined history of all the acts that have preceeded her.

We're not sure what Uncle Sy from Duck Dynasty feels when he stands there, but he indeed made a few cameo appearances during our Opry show.

Can't visit the south without running into someone from Duck Dynasty.

The Grand Ole Opry is simultaneously broadcast online and locally over the AM airwaves. From behind his on-stage podium, a buttoned-up announcer reads modern-day companies' old-fashioned-sounding ads to the audience and the listeners at home.

There's some modern history here, too. A recent flood in Nashville closed the doors of the Grand Ole Opry for the first time, and the show was forced to relocate for a time while the damage was repaired.

That same flood inundated the neighboring shopping mall, ultimately wiping out the home of Gibson Guitar, where tourists and shoppers could previously visit to see the iconic instruments manufactured.

There's plenty of live music to be found in downtown Nashville, but none of that can match the ambiance and variety of a show at the Grand Ole Opry.

Southern fried catfish, chicken and shrimp

From Johnson City to Nashville, the closest we'd come to southern homestyle cooking was the baked bean chili dogs and sweet tea at the Bush's Best Baked Beans Visitor's Center in Chestnut Hill.

At the Cock of the Walk Restaurant, hidden around the corner and alongside the highway behind the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, that finally changed.

It's worth the hunt to find this Nashville restaurant.

Cock of the Walk is a huge restaurant with winding, wood-paneled hallways leading to various eating nooks and dining rooms.

The spacious front lobby features walls of photos showing the southern celebrities who have dined there throughout the years. Rows of large, wooden rocking chairs seat guests who are waiting for a table to open up.

Once we were seated, the waitress explained how the family-style dining worked. We ordered the sampler meal so we could try southern-fried catfish, chicken and shrimp. They were each great, and depending on one's tastes, any one of the three might be a favorite.

What'll it be? Fried chicken? Fried shrimp? Fried catfish?

The main course was served with tin cups and small, cast-iron skillets of side dishes. We helped ourselves family-style to unlimited coleslaw, cornbread, hushpuppies, onions and beans.

The staff was friendly. We ate at Cock of the Walk twice, and they kept the food coming and the sweet tea filled both times, and they were also just generally polite and fun to talk to.

Courtesy of Pinterest, a typical meal at Cock of the Walk.

We got the sense that Cock of the Walk was a favorite destination for Nashville locals, and that's a bigger recommendation than anything I could write here.

Want to find one of Tennessee's best, authentic southern dining experiences? Grab a seat in one of the rocking chairs, and order some fried chicken at Nashville's Cock of the Walk.

We walk in and out of Nashville, Tennessee

Downtown Nashville is not for us.

Welcome to Nashville, Tennessee

All I'd heard of Nashville is what you might hear on the national country music stations: it's the heart of country music!

Navigating past the bars and crowds of Nashville

But, what we found in downtown Nashville was more like a giant, suburban house party that spilled out and took over a handful of city blocks.

Countless bachelorette parties were parading through the streets like drunken ducks in a row. Some pedaled open-air bars through the streets, others cheered from inside party buses, and others navigated through the crowded streets to hop from bar to bar the old-fashioned way.

Typical day in Nashville with Hot Wing Festival cameo

As you might expect, every bar along this cliched, pop-country version of Times Square offered a live musical act. From the street, all of this Music City noise blended together to create a cacophony of cymbals, guitar chords and people shouting over each other to be heard.

This was Tennessee as we'd never seen it before, and all the crowds, the noise, the drinking - it didn't appeal to us.

We ducked into a two-level souvenir shop, and I waited in line at a crowded coffee shop, but it wasn't long after we arrived in downtown Nashville that we walked ourselves back to our parking garage and got out of there.

Joe's Crab Shack in Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville still had a few great surprises in store for us, including the Grand Ole Opry and our first homecooking-style southern meal, but those surprises wouldn't be found in this crowded downtown area.

The Tennessee Titans play just over the river from downtown Nashville

Later the next day, we popped in a second time, wandered around and checked out the bridge that led to the Tennessee Titans football stadium, but on the list of places we visited in Tennessee, downtown Nashville is at the bottom - and that part of the list is soaked in the tequila spilled from some bachelorette party's last round of shots.

Experiencing five decades of Johnny Cash

Our journey took us next to Nashville, Tennessee, and our very first stop was the Johnny Cash Museum.

Actually, the absurdly expensive nearby parking lot was our first stop, and that offered our first true taste of downtown Nashville. More interesting than the jacked up parking rates, we also saw the first of many drunken bachelorette parties. This one was climbing onto the stools of a mobile bar that they could power through the city by pedaling as they partied.

We later found it's better to hunt for an actual garage, since they can afford to offer a more reasonable rate thanks to the larger number of customers they can accommodate.

"Hello. I'm [the] Johnny Cash [Museum]."

As a fan of Johnny Cash, the museum was an experience I'd been anticipating. My wife isn't that much of a fan, and this contrast eventually helped shape my overall impression of the museum.

We picked up our tickets at a line between a cafe and the gift shop. Guests were shown into the museum in intervals to keep the small exhibit rooms from getting too crowded. While we waited, we looked around to see Johnny Cash pictured on all kinds of souvenirs and listened to some of his lesser-known songs over the speakers in the room.

This combination of listening and looking turned out to be an accurate prelude for what was to come.

Five decades of Johnny Cash.

Inside, the main hall featured exhibits along one wall, and listening stations along another.

It was crowded, so it took some patience to wait for headphones to become available, but I was able to listen to full Cash songs representing music from the 1960s through 2000s. In the space of that first hour, I enjoyed five decades of Johnny Cash.

The exhibits offered a lot of history, plus some really cool pieces such as a hand-written letter from Johnny Cash to his friend and former Air Force buddy Ted Freeman.

It began, "Friend, you've been cussin me for weeks now, but I've been on the road for weeks and I ain't had time to write.

"I've been to Beaumont, Galveston, San Antonio, Wichita Falls, Amarillo, Lubbock, Abilene and San Angelo, Texas..."

Through the rest of the museum, we found movie screenings; listening stations for artists Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins; audio comparing the quality of Cash tunes produced through the years on records, cassettes, discs and digital devices; and other cool exhibits, including the mixing board used to record Cash's final records.

The mixing board used for Cash's last albums under the American Recordings label.

Overall, there were hours of music to enjoy and lots of interesting things to learn. I mentioned earlier that my wife wasn't a big Johnny Cash fan, and that led to a lot of killing time for her while I listened to another song and tried to take in the whole experience.

Because of all the listening stations, the Johnny Cash Museum is better suited for one person than it is a pair of visitors. Had each audio exhibit offered a couple sets of headphones, it would've been a better overall experience for the two of us together.

As it was, though, I had a great time as a Johnny Cash fan, and would definitely recommend the museum to any fans who will take the time to really enjoy the music, for it's those decades of songs that are the museum's greatest treasure.

Eating in Knoxville, Tennessee

Maybe had we stopped in to visit the residents of Mountain City we could've had some authentic southern food, but through East Tennessee and Knoxville, we hadn't found much other than what Bush's Best Baked Beans was serving up in Chestnut Hill.

What it lacked in southern style homecooking, Knoxville made up for with the variety of restaurants and bars along Gay Street and Market Square.

A crowd gathered for Shakespeare on the Square in Knoxville's Market Square.

While we were in Knoxville, we tried two of the Market Square restaurants.

Soccer Taco was set up like a Mexican sports bar. The food was good, but of course, it was the soccer-themed decor that left the biggest impression.

The televisions on the wall betrayed that soccer theme, however, by showing some collegiate American football during our meal. Between this and the food, Soccer Taco was a fun place to grab a bite, but it couldn't top our earlier experience at Ole's Guacamoles in Johnson City.

Flow serves beer and coffee drinks to to the residents and locals in Knoxville.

Elsewhere in Knoxville, we found the small, trendy Flow Brew Parlor with its coffee, beer and espresso offerings. We enjoyed a Memphis-brewed coffee milk stout by Wiseacre.

Back at Market Square, Not Watson's offered a comfortable experience with big booths, dark lighting and interesting artwork. It also served up an awesome alligator po' boy sandwich.

The food at Not Watson's is served with style, including the alligator po' boy.

Checking out the menu, we learned the story behind the restaurant's peculiar name. Watson's was a renowned department store on Knoxville's Market Square one or two generations ago.

Whenever the restaurant owner's mother wanted to take her family to town, she'd suggest Watson's. They went so often that the kids would always answer the question of, "Where should we go today?" the same way:

"Not Watson's!"

When one of those kids grew up to own this Market Square restaurant, naming it was easy, and Not Watson's stands as a subtle tribute to Mom.

We didn't try this Market Square bar, but we did spot the man pulling a keg through the wall.

Just one block from Market Square, on Gay Street, we tried the Irish pub called Clancy's Tavern and found some good, but pricey versions of pub staples such as fish and chips. What set this place apart was its unique drink offerings, called beer-tails.

The cocktail version of a glass of beer, the bartenders created beer-tails by mixing together two complimentary beers. This sounded to me like it'd be awful, but the one we tried - called Snakebite, it tempered a hard cider with Harp's lager - was delicious.

Our final Knoxville dining experience came on a whim a little further along on Gay Street.

It was early afternooon, and we were headed to a beautiful, historic movie theater now owned by Regal Cinemas when we saw the Parisian-styled French Market Creperie.

The French Market Creperie in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Inside, we ordered a sugary dessert crepe and a savory ham-and-cheese crepe to go along with a couple cappuccinos. For that long moment, my wife and I sat in Knoxville, Tennessee, and reminisced over our honeymoon in Paris, France, just a few years earlier.

Taking a ride on Knoxville's free KAT trolley

We like to see as much of a new city as we can. One way to do that is to climb to the top of something like Knoxville's Sunsphere and take it all in at once. Another way to see Knoxville in a hurry is to hop on the free trolley and take a 15-minute lap around the downtown area.

A park between Gay Street and Market Square.

We spotted a couple waiting at a Gay Street station for one of Knoxville's free KAT (Knoxville Area Transit) trolleys, so we grabbed some shade on the edge of the adjacent park and waited there, too.

A few minutes later, the trolley arrived and we started down Gay Street. Around the first bend, we found ourselves overlooking the Tennessee River on one side, and passing the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame on the other.

The route eventually took us by the entrance of a downtown Hampton Inn & Suites hotel. More than anything, the free ride was perfect for tourists at this hotel who wanted a lift to Gay Street, Market Square or Knoxville's other downtown attractions.

The Rowing Man sculpture in Knoxville, Tennessee. Sculpted in 1988 by David L. Phelps.

A few minutes later, we were the only passengers left on board, and the friendly driver checked in with us and let us know the trolley wouldn't be running much longer.

This worked for us, though, because we soon turned the corner back onto Gay Street, passed the Knoxville Visitor's Center and arrived back at the station where our tour began.

Making ourselves sick in the Sunsphere

The first thing we noticed as we drove up to the city of Knoxville was the iconic Sunsphere in its skyline.

Welcome to Knoxville, home of the Sunsphere.

We had plans to visit it, but as we walked around downtown, we were surprised to find out how close it was. We walked the handful of blocks to the Knoxville Convention Center, which stands watch over the Sunsphere and World's Fair Park.

The Tennessee Amphitheather sits in the shadow of the Sunsphere.

The Sunsphere has an observation deck that lets tourists look over all of Knoxville, and we were surprised to find out that we could check it out at no charge.

Overlooking part of World's Fair Park and beyond.

The view from inside was as cool as we expected on a clear day, and there were murals and information posted to provide more insight on the city.

We walked up to the angled windows and peered down to get the sensation of floating in place.

Lean over far enough and you feel like you're floating in air.

There were a handful of tourists in there with us when we arrived, but after a few minutes, we had the place to ourselves, and that's when I came up with the brilliant idea that almost got my wife sick.

We were about to head out when I suggested we walk really quickly around the observation deck and take in all of Knoxville in just a couple seconds. Off we went. It turned out to be a trippy experience where it felt like we were walking down a normal corridor as the city spun around us.

Successfully fending off motion sickness for all of our road trip, it was this 30-second lark that nearly put my wife over the edge.

Back on safe ground, a view of the park and its fountains.

Somehow, she kept it together, and we headed out to the nearby World's Fair Park where we played some Frisbee and checked out the beautiful East Tennessee Veterans Memorial, all with our feet firmly planted on solid ground.

The Veterans Memorial honors soldiers who gave their lives from World War I to the present.

Where to discover country's next-generation stars

Every weekday morning, Knoxville provides one of the best values in all of Tennessee. In a state that's so proud of its musical roots, the Knoxville visitor's center offers a free hour-long concert every day featuring two up-and-coming country acts.

The mural on the side of the Knoxville visitor's center.

The visitor's center doubles as the home of WDVX 89.9 FM, and we joined the regular crowd on hand for two live sets by new artists Brandy Zdan and Big Shoals.

The daily performance is part of the radio station's Blue Plate Special broadcast, and not every performer promises to be great, but the price is right, and it's a great way to discover new acts and original music.

Brandy Zdan impresses us at the Blue Plate Special.

On the day of our visit, Brandy Zdan opened. Speaking with a soft, almost raspy voice, Brandy Zdan surprised us by belting out a few of her original songs. Originally from Canada, Brandy now lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and she impressed us with her look, her voice and her talent on guitar.

Not to be outdone, Big Shoals left a big impression on us, too.

Big Shoals added a drummer, a bassist and a little harmonica to the small stage. Compared to Brandy Zdan, this band's material was darker (listen to "12 Steps" on the Big Shoals website), and we were impressed by the singer's confidence and emotion.

If Brandy Zdan or Big Shoals are ever pushed to the national stage, we won't be surprised, and we'll remember the time we saw them at the WDVX Blue Plate Special in Knoxville, Tennessee.

You won't believe what we found in this alleyway

Knoxville is a fun city in central Tennessee.

It's got some well-known attractions, but you get the impression that it's more for locals than tourists. We tested out our new Bush's Best Baked Beans Frisbee in the park next to the Sunsphere and were surrounded by a group of local athletes running laps, probably to prepare for some cross-country race.

Downtown, Market Square is one block from the visitor's center and its shops, restaurants and bars pack a lot of personality and cater to the nearby college crowd.

Surprise! Sharks and much more await in this Knoxville alleyway.

We browsed the shops, poked our heads in two of the bars, and tried a couple restaurants while we were in town, but the biggest surprise for us came that first evening as we were walking back toward our car to leave.

Moving from Market Square toward the visitor's center, we noticed an amazing piece of graffiti artwork in an alley we were passing. It caught our eye, so we stopped, and that's when we noticed another amazing piece, then another and another.

We turned in and headed down the alleyway, which isn't something we'd normally advise when visiting a new city, but we were rewarded in Knoxville by a block-long street gallery. We spotted the Kool-Aid man, we saw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a piranha plant from Super Mario Bros. and a host of other scenes, some of which defied description.

When we visited the visitor's center the next day to catch the Blue Plate Special, we saw that this alley is a known attraction, but for us, it was a surprise, and that made it even more special.

At the end of "Graffiti Alley," it seems not every landlord is as appreciative of the arts.

An introduction to drinking in Tennessee

In the course of our Tennessee adventure, we came across a variety of locally made drinks, including beer, wine, whisky, bourbon and moonshine.

Our self-guided tasting tour of Tennessee started at a local liquor store near Johnson City.

We'd passed a number of vineyards along the nearby highways, so we asked about Tennessee wine. This store offered one variety, and we took home a bottle of Tennessee-made apple peach wine. The peach flavor was strong, the apple was subtle, and overall, this sweet wine was fun to drink, though I'm still not sure if it was best suited to go along with dinner or to stand alone afterward as dessert.

In that same store, we found an entire selection of moonshine. It's weird to think of moonshine as a commercially packaged drink, but we went along and I picked out the most traditional looking bottle (glass jug) I could find, which ended up being Roberson's Tennessee Mellomoon.

At first sip, this drink was rough. I had it just after dinner, and maybe having another taste involved made it a lot harder to swallow. Later on, I was able to appreciate it's subdued sweetness and the little jug was empty after another week or so.

Bourbon, moonshine and whisky at Corky's in Memphis.

Later on in our trip, we found a hip, but empty place called Flow in the bottom of an old, downtown residential building in Knoxville. Flow serves coffee drinks and local beer to the residents. I ordered a coffee-flavored oatmeal stout by Memphis's Wiseacre brewery and enjoyed it from one of a couple sofa chairs on the far end of the room.

The staff at the Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville surprised us with a wine tasting at the end of its tour. The plantation was once known for thoroughbred horses, but today it offers its own selection of wine, which is where I discovered muscadine wine.

Muscadine wine is a southern staple, apparently, because I heard about later in country songs such as Jason Aldean's "Country Boy's World" and Canaan Smith's "Love You Like That":

Muscadine grapes are larger than other grapes, with stronger skins, and they grow individually on the vine as opposed to in clusters. Of the Belle Meade wines we tried, the muscadine wine was my favorite. At home, we paired the sweet wine with a spicy dish, and it was perfect.

Finally, in Memphis, Tennessee, we sought out Corky's Ribs & BBQ where part of its offering was a custom flight of bourbon, whisky and moonshine.

I tried a sweet tea moonshine that tasted like a spiked iced tea. The Jack Daniel's Fire whisky is Tennessee's answer to Fireball, and it offers a delicious cinnamon flavor. Calling back to our plantation experience, the third drink I tried was the Belle Meade bourbon. As the most traditional flavor of the bunch, this was my favorite, but the novelty of the other two drinks made it a tough call.

Image courtesy of trndmonitor.com.

One last note: it was in a Tennessee discount liquor store that we first spotted Tennessee's own Dr. Enuf soda as well as the above curiosity, courtesy of Budweiser. We purchased a can of this hideous-sounding, light beer concoction, but to this day, we haven't found the courage to try it.

Discovering the home of Bush's Best Baked Beans

We're big fans of places like Hershey's Chocolate World and the Turkey Hill Experience, so when we passed signs for Bush's Baked Beans, we made the quick (long) detour to check it out.

The Bush's factory, seen from the nearby visitor's center.

Pulling up, we first spotted the Bush's factory. We'd eventually find out it was a magical place, but for now, we met a friendly guard at the entrance who directed us to a visitor's center a little further down the road.

The Bush's factory is set in the beautiful, green hills of Chestnut Hill, Tennessee, and the visitor's center is an amazing museum/gift shop/restaurant combo.

Everything is immaculate, the staff is friendly, and the featured video inside taught us about the factory's lightning-fast bean canning assembly line.

This was the magical part.

The assembly line is perfectly automated, and it's a good thing since most of it moves faster than our eyes and brains can keep track of what's happening. Factory workers unload entire tractor trailers in seconds and at the touch of a button. The water used to wash the beans and cans is recycled by a sprinkler system that waters the vast rolling hills nearby where a herd of Bush's cows keep the grass neatly mowed.

It's worth the trip for a photo like this alone.

We also learned that I weigh the same as 145,154 beans. That is, I did before we sat down to lunch.

The chili dog I ordered was overloaded to such an awesome degree that I had to eat it with a fork and knife. The appetizer was the baked bean of the day, and on that day was southern bbq flavor. Bush's also provided us our first glasses of southern sweet tea.

There's more here than you'd expect from a baked bean factory.

Bush's baked bean recipe is still a secret, but there's one thing we know for sure:

If you have any passing interest at all in American grilling food, Bush's dog mascot Duke, or standing inside a seven-foot-tall can of Bush's Best Original Baked Beans, the Bush's Beans Visitors Center is worth the trip.

The second oldest town in Tennessee

We were putting a few more miles on the car when we passed this sign for Dandridge, Tennessee, and had to stop for a photo.

The town of Dandridge, aspiring to near greatness.

Not quite as significant as historic Jonesborough, it's Dandridge.

Tennessee's second oldest city represents itself well on the state's fourth tallest welcome sign.

"We saved a place for you," they proclaim, and you'll find it the third most affordable in the tri-city area, and very nearly in accord with your slightly tempered expectations for service and ammenities.

My smile in this photo was the fourth or fifth most genuine of our Tennessee adventure.

We love you, Dandridge.

We have our run of the Allandale Mansion

On the list of attractions we wanted to see in Kingsport, Allandale Mansion was next, so we got our directions and hit the road.

We've seen a handful of mansions in our travels, and we thought it'd be cool to get a tour of this one in east Tennessee.

But, I guess, it doesn't work that way.

Out front of Allandale Mansion in Kingsport, Tennessee.

We pulled up the long driveway and were impressed by the front of the mansion with its covered steps and stately columns.

We found parking around back, and with the help of the nearby grounds crew, we made our way to the office entrance.

Inside, a woman was busy preparing for her appointment with a local bride-to-be - mansions like this are great for weddings - and she burst our tourist bubble by telling us the mansion was only really open to the public twice a year.

But then she surprised us by saying we could go through a door on the other side of her office and let ourselves around the mansion anyway.

Inside the front door of Allandale Mansion.

We took our own private, guide-less tour. We loved the working kitchen, marveled at the staircase in the front hall and checked out the bedrooms upstairs.

We didn't learn a thing about the history of the place, its residents, or its importance.

Upstairs in someone's important, probably historic bedroom at Allandale Mansion.

We took our pictures, resisted the urge to pose in funny ways with the mansion property and eventually saw ourselves out.

We snapped a few more pics out front and drove off. Who knows what goes on at Allandale Mansion, but at least the trustworthy staff saw fit not to deny a couple curious travelers.

Authentic southern food (deep, deep south)

Main Street in Johnson City shows a lot of promise. There are one or two late night bars, some shops, some restaurants, and, of course, almost all of this was closed in the middle of a weekday, which is when we showed up.

Our choices for food were pizza or nothing else, so we drove down Roan St. toward a more residential area and came across authentic Mexican food by Ole's Guacamoles.

Mexican counts as southern food, right? Deep, deep south?

From the Ole's Guacamoles Facebook page.

We've had authentic Mexican before, so this wasn't the very best we've tried, but the food was tasty and they surprised us by providing an awesome bean dip with our free tortilla chips.

With a starter like that, we should've known we wouldn't be leaving hungry.

There was a complimentary salsa bar with different flavors, too, as if the bean dip wasn't enough.

It may not be southern fried chicken and biscuits, but Ole's Guacamoles is awesome and Johnson City locals should be excited that it's in their backyard.

It looks like there are only two Ole's Guacamoles out there (the other one is in North Carolina), so show this local restaurant some love when you're in town, and help keep them going strong.

Exploring Mountain City

We spent the next part of our trip getting lost on our way to Mountain City.

A lake at the foot of Mountain City.

As we criss-crossed the long county highways of east Tennessee, we passed a few breath-taking views, a public swimming area at the foot of the mountains, and one cow in a lake.

A Mountain City cow. In a lake.

We finally made it to the main strip of Mountain City. It's a quiet, old town with some thrift stores and a local gift shop that was home to another new souvenir, the Appalachian Candle Company's High Octane jar candle, a candle that offers an authentic motor oil and gasoline fragrance, and one that my wife would never allow me to actually light at home.

The locally-owned Coffee House Cafe is a great place to stop in Mountain City, but it's hard to spot since it looks like a residential building. The fried bologna sandwich was worth it, the coffee was good and it felt like we were having lunch at a neighbor's house.

There's not a lot going on in Mountain City, but that kind of laid-back atmosphere is as comforting as it is charming.

Want to know why it's called Mountain City? Try driving across the border to Boone, North Carolina. Those roads are so hilly, twisting and never-ending, they put most rollercoasters to shame.