Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

Today we walked through the twin cities of Bristol, Virginia and Bristol, Tennessee. Again the weather was sunny and reached the mid-80s F. It seems that we have set record highs for temperature the last three days. It has been low humidity and comfortable. It now appears that we will dodge the rain one more time tomorrow.

Tennessee! After some 320 miles on U.S. Route 11 we reached the Virginia-Tennessee border. The border is in the middle of the two Bristols and easy to miss if you are not looking for it. I wanted a good photograph of the “Welcome to Tennessee” sign, but (1) there wasn’t much of a sign there and (2) the sun was at the worst possible angle. Alas, here is the best I could do. Quite a let down after 26 days of walking. 

The sign also shows another oddity: U.S. Route 11 splits in Bristol, Virginia into 11E and 11W. We are following 11E until the two join again near Knoxville, Tennessee.

Walking through the Bristols was fairly boring. Route 11 has lots of close-to-the-Interstate types of things on both ends of town. For a while though, Route 11 was part of Euclid Ave in Virginia. That is a nice neighborhood of homes built in the 1930s through the 1960s. It has plenty of well kept homes and yards.

Now to the more interesting items: the roadside attractions.

This is an old car I saw stored in a mini-storage place north of the Bristols.  (1) I don’t know the make, model, or year of the car. Perhaps someone out there who knows such will comment and let me know. (2) How in the world did they fit that car into that space. My guess is they lifted it straight in with a forklift or something. Still, there isn’t an inch of space on either end of the car.  

Here is yet another drive-in movie theatre – the Moonlight Theatre south of Abingdon, Virginia. This is still in operation and still showing movies on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.  

Here is a Statue of Liberty in Bristol, Virginia. This photo doesn’t give a good showing of the size or detail of this statue. It is impressive to see in person. I don’t know how it got here, but it sits next to a Liberty Income Tax service office. I saw three different Liberty Income Tax offices today, but this was the only one with such a statue.  

Finally, I walked up to a Starbucks Coffee shop in the northen end of Bristol, Virginia and had a good cup of Starbucks coffee. I like their coffee. I know that I have put a few comments in this blog nagging Starbucks about its prices and I still think their prices are too high. This is the only Starbucks I have see in 320 miles of U.S. Route 11. Hint, hint, hint to Starbucks – you may be missing a good market. No photos of the Starbucks as they all look the same. Just go see your local one and this one looks just like it.