Greetings from Tennessee!

You may have gathered that I'm in Tennessee for work. I'm doing a round of public meetings at the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area - the South Fork of Cumberland River. It was not an easy process to get here.

Last Wednesday, there was a big hailstorm that went through DIA which took out 20 of Frontier Airlines fleet. It has been slightly organized chaos ever since. Thankfully at 9 am I checked my flight status and saw my 4:25 flight had been pushed to 10:15. By 5 pm it had been pushed to 11pm. We were lucky that our flight wasn't canceled, but I was tired from my birthday weekend in Steamboat and definitely had trouble containing my "Philly" when checking in and getting through security. We finally landed in Knoxville a little before 4am and were overwhelmingly happy to find one rental car company was still open at the airport. We hauled our 1.5 hours to our hotel, grabbed some complimentary breakfast being served (if they serve anything other than biscuits and gravy, I couldn't find it), and sacked out until noon. It was long, but I was thankful our meeting wasn't until 4.

Now, I have nothing against small towns, but I prefer towns with character. I think if I had to live here, it would be a very depressing life. The main area of town is just ugly strip mall after strip mall with the token anchor of Wal-Mart. It somewhat reminds me of Bill Bryson's description of Gatlinburg, but he delighted in its ugly splendor. In "The Lost Continent" Bryson searches for the perfect small town - I can tell him that Helenwood and Oneida aren't it. Although there is a local utopian town in nearby Rugby...

I'm excited to get into the park at bit tomorrow to explore off the beaten path and see the more scenic areas of Tennessee. I'm thankful that I am traveling with a co-worker who also wants to see the park and we are getting up early to do so. Also on the agenda will be a training run - pounding some pavement in the heat and humidity. I am feeling stronger every day and ready to kill the SF half. I've crossed the threshold from "ug, not ANOTHER run" to "ooh I like this - maybe I'll do another half...", so the training is getting more enjoyable by the day - especially when I get to do runs in new areas each week.

On the nutrition front, its hit or miss, but I went for yummy grilled chicken and didn't pick french fries as a side tonight at dinner. Avoiding fried food in rural TN is like trying avoid food on a stick at the MN state fair, but I'm doing what I can. If nothing else, we're staying in a dry county so the standard post-meeting beer (or two) isn't even an option! Which is good because my hotel replaced their gym with a couch, TV, and beer cooler. Utopia indeed.