One night in Knoxville

I was aiming for Chattanooga but what with the late start and the accident at the VA-TN line, I fell victim to the billboard advertising a brand new Motel 6 at exit 398 and wussed out early. It is brand new, and quite literally a scene out of Best in Show. I rode the elevator with a heavily made-up woman in a rhinestone-studded twin set who happens to be staying right next door with her husband and West Yorkshire or some such terrier in anticipation of tomorrow's dog show here in Knoxville--just one of many canines in the house tonight. Sorry Henry...it coulda been your moment to shine!

Universal truths uncovered today:
1. If your road snacks include Milk Duds, pretzels and baby carrots, the baby carrots will go uneaten.
2. Milk Duds and pretzels, when consumed simultaneously, approximate the taste and texture of a Take 5 candy bar.
3. Fresca is indeed the sauvignon blanc of sodas. I owe Rich Luppo for this unassailable insight, but today I came to understand it on an entirely new level, somewhere between Harrisonburg and Blacksburg.
4. As go road snacks, so go audio options: the ear candy goes first--in this case the George Carlin CD and the Ricky Gervais podcast, followed by some hand-selected tracks from my Blue Skies Ahead playlist and, when the ipod's FM transmitter crapped out, Paul Simon's Graceland in its entirety, which has in whole or in part intermittently played in the background of my life since Lori Scott brought the LP through the Rubble House door in the halcyon autumn of 1986. Among the ear carrots: a series of podcasts on the Byzantine emperors. Maybe tomorrow.