Sunday, July 15, 2007

Well, it's no Lewis & Clark Expedition...

...but just some musings from the road between Nashville and Knoxville.

1) Driving to Nashville, I get 30-31mpg running the A/C most of the way. Coming back to Knoxville, I only get about 28 over the same route. This is because I-40 westbound takes a brief, steep climb up out of the Tennessee river valley west of Oak Ridge, and then generally trends downhill the rest of the way to Nashville. On the return leg, it's the reverse.

2) Temperature in Nashville: 91 degrees. Temperature in Knoxville, down in the valley: 91 degrees. Temperature up on the Cumberland Plateau between the two: 85 degrees.

3) It took me a bit to realize why it got dark earlier in Nashville. I'd be sitting on Oleg's back porch reading a book and suddenly look around bewildered, "Huh? It's barely 8 o'clock. Why's it dark already?" Nashville is towards the very eastern edge of the Central Time Zone, while Knoxville is at the far western edge of the Eastern Time Zone. This accounts for the sun setting 50 minutes later in Knoxville than it does in Nash Vegas.

3 comments:

phlegmfatale said...

It's funny, living in Texas now all these years, I've slipped into thinking every other place is small, but I forget how loooong Tennessee is. Nice when a long drive is that beautiful, good mileage or no.

Tracy said...

Interestingly, Terlingua is also in the central time zone, although El Paso isn't.

Tam said...

"Interestingly, Terlingua is also in the central time zone"

Which is why Summer evenings there stretch lazily away... Well, that, and the cervezas.