A few random thoughts that hit me while traveling through the upper South (southern Kentucky, chunks of Tennessee, northern Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia):
Could Michigan or Illinois name a state park and other landmarks after the first Grand Wizard of the KKK without triggering a riot?
Why do all local news broadcasts sound and look alike, no matter what part of the country you're in? Sure, a few anchors have southern accents, but everything else pretty much looks the same as it does in Michigan local news broadcasts.
The South doesn't have nearly as many lakes as the North, but their few inland lakes aren't swamped with lakeside cottages. I probably saw five or so lakes down South, and none of them had cottages on them. A few had fishing sheds, but that was it.
Why are the South's road signs so horrible? I'm pretty good with directions, but I got turned around or lost five times, and only one of them was my fault. The others: poor road signs.
African-Americans in the South behave like ordinary people. No attitude or mush-mouth talking. They're like blacks without the Eminem. Quite refreshing.
Why does Shoney's give patrons only eight french fries?
I'm not sure I've ever been to an area so tacky and tourist-developed as the Gatlinburg area. Its sister-city, Pigeon Forge, has about a dozen miniature golf courses. Gatlinburg itself has a slew of restaurants, Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not attractions, haunted houses, candy shops, over 5 million gift shops, a Hard Rock Cafe, and other staples of tourist living. What part of Gatlinburg was a street of mud when the boy named Sue visited it in the 1960s? It's hard to believe all that development took place in just the past 35 years.
