Jane's Best of North Carolina & Tennessee

baby-jane-lane
Originally uploaded by jane1000.

Now that I'm back in Vancouver I've been thinking about some of the highlights of my time in the South and I decided to compile my Best of the South List...

Best street to live on in rural North Carolina:
Baby Jane Lane, middle of nowhere, NC

Best Artist Run Centre:
Elsewhere Artist Collaborative - Greensboro, NC

Best Vintage Clothing:
Design Archives - Greensboro, NC
Flashback - Memphis, TN

Best Record Store/'70s Museum:
Shangri-La - Memphis, TN

Best Live Music Venue:
Wild Bill's - Memphis, TN

Best City Museum:
Civil Rights Museum - Memphis, TN

Best Rural Museum:
Bufford Pusser Home & Museum - Adamsville, TN
Floyd Garrett Muscle Car Museum - Sevierville, TN

Best Ribs:
Larkin's on the Lake - Lake Lure, NC

Best BBQ:
the duck special at 223 South Elm - Greensboro, NC

Best Hush Puppies:
Bert's Seafood - Greensboro, NC

Best Biscuits, Grits & Gravy:
The Smith Street Diner - Greensboro, NC

Best Coffee:
The Green Bean - Greensboro, NC

Best Bed & Breakfast Breakfast:
Blair Moore House B & B - Jonesboro, TN

Best Inn Decor:
Blair Moore House B & B - Jonesboro, TN

Best Car Magnet: "freedom isn't free" - "these colors don't run"

Best Reason to Turn Down Local's Offer to Share Insider Knowledge:
Our waiter/local river rafting guide's offer to take us rafting to the location where "that scene" in Deliverance was filmed - Chattanooga, TN

Best Place to Bond With Gnomes:
Rock City - Chattanooga, TN

Most Beautiful Place to Get Road Rage:
The Blue Ridge Parkway - North Carolina

Scariest Place to be a Woman, Gay or Both:
Cumberland County, TN

Best Place to be a Woman, Gay or Both:
Asheville, NC

Freakiest Bug to Encounter in a Bathroom:
Cave Cricket

This unusual cricket lives a life in almost total darkness. But it doesn't seem to mind. Instead of relying on its eyes to navigate through cave passages, the cave cricket maneuvers using its long antennae to "feel" its way and to find food. It resembles other crickets in one important way, however -- it has long, powerful legs for jumping.

COMING NEXT: the film, literature & Music guide to Elsewhere.