That much further west

One good thing about living in extreme West Tennessee is that it means when I travel to see friends and family, if I time it just right, I can drive back home alongside the sunset, and watch the sky slide from blue to orange to pink to purple to black as the sun outruns me.

This weekend I made it up to Nashville to visit Tamara for a couple of days. We sipped our way through several bottles and several varietals — of all colors and consistencies — and damn near broke her corkscrew when we came to the final corked bottle (thank God for screw-tops). We drove up to Percy Priest Lake to take photos and gaze out over the lake in the late afternoon sun. We giggled at M*A*S*H episodes. We baited the cat into shredding our hands. We ate brie and gouda and crackers and fruit. We sipped on plastic cups of Big House Red while watching Pan's Labyrinth at the Belcourt. We ducked into and out of stores in search of a working bathroom. We endured a surreal moment of pure WTF-ness as a convenience store clerk practically molested Tamara's gloved hand. We grimaced and grumbled at the Girls Gone Wild bus that settled into a parking spot in front of the sports bar beside Boscos. We watched as much of the Puppy Bowl as we could stomach.

It was a fantastic weekend.

Thanks for being such a good host, TB.