12. June 2025
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Six US States And Nashville (Day 9 – 7th June 2025) – The Colonel and Baseball

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

My Six US States And Nashville was slowly coming to an end. After three nights in the Great Smoky Mountains, I was about to head North to Lexington in Kentucky. This also meant that there is not too much time left for me in the United States. Here is my trip report episode of Saturday, 7th June 2025.

 

Late Start and a Big Disappointment in Knoxville

I was feeling much better than the day before. However, I was obviously still weak and got up much later than I originally hoped to do. Thus, I left the hotel right at check out time at 11:00 and skipped some minor stuff I originally still wanted to see in Pigeon Forge. Instead, I directly headed to Knoxville.

The was some scattered, but heavy rain on the route to the major city North of the Great Smokey Mountains. I was really forward to the sports museum I had on my list there. However, I have to state that the Women Basketball Hall of Fame was the biggest disappointment of the trip. Outdated, poor maintenance and about a third of the museum space was blocked without further notice – at least my stay there was rather short.

 

Where Fried Chicken Started To Conquer The World

Apart from a gas station stop, where I urgently needed to grab a coffee, I headed straight into Corbin in Kentucky. The city comes with a nice city center and good services, but is majorly famous for being part of culinary history. The Sanders Park is already suggesting the special heritage of that place. Do you know the guy in the statue? I am sure he added some calories to your nutrition as well. Before I headed to the key sight in that regard, I took a few steps South to the Pinball Museum of Corbin and spent about an hour there.

Quite a bit North of the small memorial park, you cannot miss a restaurant which was originally called Sanders Cafe. The Indiana-born Harland David Sanders, commonly known as Colonel Sanders, opened his first restaurant there. It was the foundation to the worldwide fast food chain, which you nowadays know as Kentucky Fried Chicken. I have visited the First KFC Restaurant a few years ago – and loved the upgrades they did it to it. Of course, I also had my lunch in Corbin – you guess my bite.

 

A New Hilton Experience

Due to my late departure, I skipped some places I wanted to visit en route. I might add them to the Sunday plans, though. My hotel for the night was the Spark by Hilton Lexington Hamburg. The hotel might be one of the first reviews based on my trip – it was indeed the first time ever I stayed at a Spark hotel. My first impression was really good – details will follow in the review.

 

Back To Legends Field

The key reason I wanted to be in Lexington on that trip was to be back at Legends Field. I have been at the baseball stadium in 2017. At that time, it held a country music festival in summer. The festival was rainy and thus destroyed the whole grass of the outfield. Nowadays, the festival does no longer exist and the stadium comes with artificial turf. The Atlantic League of Professional Baseball match against York Revolution was very entertaining, with a lot of hits and runs. Unfortunately, the bad weather came back and I went back to the hotel soaked with water, but happy.

 

 

My Song of the Day: Zac Brown Band – Chicken Fried

This trip is about music. Thus I felt present one song each day which somehow accompanied me every day. And I added a playlist of these songs – and some more – on my Spotify account as well:

After visiting Corbin, the choice of the song of the day was obvious and easy. They even played the biggest song by the Zac Brown Band in the original Sanders Cafe. Apart from that, I added two songs which are closely related to my love to country music, Play It Again by Luke Bryan and One Big Country Song by Locash. While driving through Tennessee and Kentucky, I also listened to some German Southern rock. I got stuck by the lovely Middle Band by Torfrock – and added that one as well.

Here is the full playlist, which will grow day by day:

 

Six US States And Nashville – Daily Episodes

Here is an overview of the daily postings. I will link them once they

There will be no Day 12 report, as this would only cover the flight back to Germany.

 

Flyctory.com on Sports Museums

Here are all Sports Museums I visited:

 

Postings with Tour Dates 2025

Here are postings released in 2025, which contain tour dates:

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