Smoky Mountains and more

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The smoky mountains are absolutely gorgeous and of course with it being Autumn all the leaves have started to change colour and are falling off the trees. I took some pics but they just didn't do the scenery justice so check out the video attached.

I spent a day hiking through the National Park which was fantastic and free. I couldn't believe they didn't have park entrance fees. I saw Elk in their natural environment. They were just standing in the river in the late afternoon sun. I visited an old farming village which showed how they farmed corn in the olden days and I visited cherokee an indian village, which wasn't much of a village it was mostly tourist shops. I wandered the Pigeon forge parkway and visited mountain valley winery I tried every wine on offer and bought nothing. Not surprisingly the wine was crap I guess that's to be expected when your used to the best wine in the world it's hard to settle for anything less.

If you love playing putt putt then Pigeon Forge is definitely the place to visit there were at least 6 courses on the parkway including one called firehouse golf I didn't play but was tempted too. For the most part I really enjoyed having some privacy and a TV all to myself. It was a nice change after 2 months of living with a bunch of tourists.

After a week of relaxing it was back to Nashville and the music scene. First stop Brady Seals at the Listening Room He used to be the keyboard player for a band called Little Texas I was surprised at how upbeat the show was. Usually at a place like the listening room it's sit down only no dance floor and you are really there to simply listen to the music which is usually accoustic but Brady had a full band and played all upbeat songs.

The weekend was fun I went to Lynchburg Tennessee home of the Jack Daniels distillery for the Jack Daniels invitational BBQ. BBQ teams from around the world were in Lynchburg for the world championship cook-off. This is probably the part where I'm supposed to tell you all about the different types of BBQ's and sauces that were on offer, but there was an hour wait at the BBQ tent so I had a hot dog instead. I never even found out who won, or what it was even really all about because of course, I was as always there for the music. The Mulch Brothers were playing so between watching them and helping out on their Merchandise table (because their Merch girl got caught in traffic) I never got around to seeing much that was going on.

Saturday and Sunday night was bar hopping on broadway as well as more of the Mulch Brothers at the wildhorse on Sunday night. They did an accousitc set. One of there new songs, shortcut through texas is sensational and I think it sounds better accoustically than with the band.

This week it is back to job hunting (but only in between the music of course) I figured if I didn't get serious soon then companies will be shutting down for the Christmas break and they won't start up again until mid January. So I went to a careers night on Monday night and got a good contact for a reputable recruitment agency that will actually meet with people face-to-face so I have an interview with them tomorrow. I also applied for a HR specialist position with the National Guard. That would be interesting to see how another emergency service organisation operates although I'm not sure that I would fit in given that it is military and the south tends to be big supporters of the war in Iraq and I think they should have pulled out the troops long ago.

This week was also sad Jazz a girl who has been at the hostel for as long as I have decided to head back to Canada. She had been looking for work solidly for about 3 weeks and got no offers. She's spent the last couple of weeks travelling aorund the southern parts of the US with an English guy, she came back to Nashville for a few days but left today.

It also seems that summer has finally said goodbye......I went out Sunday night wearing a halter neck top and walked outside Monday morning and almost died from frost bite. I can't believe how dramatically the weather changed from mid 20's to 5 degrees in 12 hours....Totally crazy! Tomorrow it's supposed to reach freezing point.

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