Postcard 1 Go With The Flow A Road Trip Down the Mississippi River Greetings! We're well on our way to Chicago, having stopped for the night in Louisville, Kentucky. While today consisted entirely of freeway driving, it was not without it's exciting moments. While we got off to a slow start, it allowed us to arrive in Nashville in time for dinner. It's been years since I've visited Nashville, and we decided to head downtown. With the completion of their new convention center, the downtown area has come alive with restaurants and nightclubs. Just like any other mid- to large-size city, Nashville has the tourist standbys: Planet Hollywood and the Hard Rock Café. While those two restaurants are certainly worldly enough to offer vegetarian fair (for Tony), it wasn't exactly what we were looking for. Traveling with a vegetarian presents its challenges as most restaurants in the South incorporate meat into all of their vegetable dishes some way or another. There was, however, one restaurant relatively new to the themed tourist restaurant scene: the Nascar Café, where chain link fence is a decor element. From the garage, to Pit Row, to the Grand Stands: Nascar is a sport that belongs to America. How could we resist racing to a table? Inside, we got our pole position. When our pole position flashed on the screen, we were to proceed upstairs to the grand stand seating where there would be a race delay while mechanics (wait staff) checked out our car (table). But until our Pole Position was called, we were free to roam the Nascar exhibits. All around the first floor were photographs, trophies, uniforms and other Nascar tchotchkes. Families browsed through the items as if they were looking through baby pictures of their children. It was hard for us to get caught up in the excitement, although we were thoroughly caught up in amazement. We chose to speed by all the racing video games, however the Virtual Reality Nascar Race at $5.00/pop we could not pass up. The woman selling tickets said it was "really, really neat. I've done it a few times myself. One guy last week road six times-of course, he'd had a few cocktails from the Fuel Center." We were waiting in line for the simulation with two guys who had brought their storefront-hair girlfriends. This was a big date, and the guys were finally doing something they'd always wanted to do--ride the Virtual Nascar Race. The Virtual Race is one of those Star Trek Shuttle looking things that bobs around on a bunch of hydraulics. While we were waiting, it began to shake and shimmy violently. The two guys looked at each other, broke out in a huge smile, and "Geeeez!!" slipped out of their teeth. Tony and I climbed into the cockpit for the ride. I sat down next to a guy wearing a Valvoline hat. The gentleman taking the tickets welcomed us to the Nascar Café, pointed out the ride lasted four-and-a-half minutes, and, if we needed the ride to stop, we could hit the red emergency stop button directly above our head. Tempting, but I thought it would be about as appropriate as talking at the symphony. The race started. On the screen in front of us was the view of a Nascar race from the cockpit of a race car. No different than what you see on ESPN when they cut to the "Car Cam", although it shakes and shimmies, as I mentioned. We race around a track for about 15 seconds, then it jumps to another. "Oh! This is Daytona!" says the guy with the Valvoline hat. "Charlotte." All of a sudden we spin out. "Wow! Myrtle Beach. " We're back on track again. "This is a road race. I'm not sure where it's at." In the back seat of the shuttle, we're really feeling the ride. "Cool. Talladega." The McDonald's Car cuts us off. We begin to spin out of control. "All right!" There's a wall. "We're going down. We're going down!" A fuel tank has burst and fuel is spraying everywhere. Tony and I yawn. The ride's over. I think the Valvoline guy was moist. What would have been really cool is if actual fuel had sprayed all over us. After about thirty minutes, we were seated at our car, and our driver had taken our order. The food was nothing special, however, the theme and ambiance continued to overwhelm us. From any seat in the "grandstand" you can see multiple video screens, which alter country music videos and Nascar crash scenes. At one point, a race car raises through the crowd, you can hear the roar of the engines, as the race is about to start. The building starts to shake. People stop eating. There's a flag stand above the dining room. A gentleman is standing there. "Ladies and Gentlemen," a voice booms. "This is Elmer, and he's turning 46 today. He's visiting from Mumfordville, Kentucky. Let's give him a big hand." The crowd cheers, food flying from mouths, as Elmer waves the green flag. The roar of the engines shakes the building (and we thought it was shaking earlier). The race car descends to its normal position, and the show is over. People return to their ribs. With that, we paid the check and returned to the highway. The darkness deepened as we drove through Kentucky The stars appeared over our heads, and it was just us, a few 18-wheelers, Trisha Yearwood coming to us live on the radio from Seattle, and smells of methane from Kentucky livestock. Go with the flow, Tim & Tony P.S. Check out Nascar. They are celebrating 50 years this year. Continue down the Mississippi River to the next journal entry. Return to the Mississippi River Tour.