Crossing the Line: The Road Trip is Complete

As the light left the sky Wednesday evening, Klep pointed to the line of mountains to our east and told me that the state line ran across the top of them. North Carolina was actually in sight. We set out Thursday, traveling through the last few small towns in Tennessee scattered among the ever taller mountains. We followed the French Broad River as we climbed toward the top of the mountains passing fields of hay, gardens, and travelling through roads with curves and climbs that can make a person catch his breath.

Colors were brilliant in the morning sunlight and a few white fluffy clouds floated in a bright blue sky. We passed through Newport, Tennessee with its stone buildings and colorful past that has tales of running shine all way to Chicago and the alleged connection to mobsters during the years of prohibition. We had already done the Newport things several years ago during our Thunder Road phase.

All too soon we rounded a curve and the sign for North Carolina was in our sight. We had crossed the state the long way.

We briefly contemplated turning around and heading back to Memphis for some more barbecue, but instead we crossed over to Hot Springs, turned north toward Tennessee and headed to our second home passing through some more of East Tennessee. We had a late lunch at Jubilee in Church Hill where we enjoyed a chat with a couple of EMTs from the area while we waited for our table overlooking the tree with the bird feeders. After a delicious lunch, we went by the hollar house to check out the lilac and burning bushes that we had set out in April. Everything was thriving. I think Klep knew that if he ever let me unpack the car that we would be there for several days, so he got me back in the car and we headed south. We made one more quick stop at the Golden Dairy for traveling treats.

We drove through the late afternoon enjoying the view of lakes and mountains, crossing over into Georgia before we stopped for our last evening on the road. Already we missed the little towns with their courthouse squares, the miles of rolling countryside, the tree tunnels and waterfalls, the blooming Althea's and hydrangeas and the thousands of pink blossomed mimosa trees which had dotted our way. Three hundred and fifty miles up the road was home. The next day we pulled into the driveway, unloaded the car, and slept in our own bed.

Crossing Into North Carolina

The last few miles went by quickly as we finished our trek across Tennessee on Highway 70. Many of the miles paralelled the French Broad River and most of it was through beautiful forests, over winding roads with curves that could take your breath away.

Newport was our last Tennessee town, one that we had visited on an earlier trip when we were doing our Thunder Road visit. We remember the functional still we discovered in a restaurant and the history of the area during the Al Capone years when organized crime is alleged to have had an East Tennessee connection.

We passed the turn off 70 for Del Rio where Catherine Marshall's mother lived and worked as a teacher. All to soon, se came around a curve and there it was: North Carolina. Our trip was over.

Ritzy Resort - Basic Early Fort:East Tennessee Contrast

The fog cleared to a clear, bright view of the Cumberland rim as we left the motel and headed east on 70. Our first site was Whitestone, a resort area on Watts Bar Lake which is used extensively for weddings and special occasions. It is a beautiful area with Victorian buildings around a lovely lake. Golf courses, tennis courts, luxury hotel, manicured grounds, little church, farmhouse....everything added up to a beautiful place.










As we headed back down the mountain to US70, we noticed that the hay fields were much narrower than those up on the Cumberland Plateau. One stretch of road reminded me of a leaf cathedral as we passed under very tall trees forming a domed ceiling over the road that little bits of sunshine slanted through.

We passed a sign for the Historic Avery Trace, the first road to cross Tennessee to Nashville. Highway 70 covers much the same route today.

In Kingston we explored the only federal fort in Tennessee that is reconstructed on its original foundations. It is very much a work in progress. The barracks, a blockhouse, and about two-hundred-fifty feet of the walls have been reconstructed. Thirty years ago archaeologists from UT exposed the foundations of the building. Since then this has been an ongoing project. The City of Kingston actually operates Fort Southwest Point. Admission is free and there is a very helpful Fort Agent operating the visitor's center. Don Lawrence is a Cherokee Indian who was interesting to talk with.

Fort Southwest Point was built in 1792 overlooking the point where the Tennessee River and Clinch River come together. It was also near the Avery Trace. At first the role of the soldiers posted here was to help insure the safety of travelers through Cherokee territory but with the change of things through the years it was eventually became the fort active in protecting the Indians and their land. In 1807, the Indian agency was moved to Hiwassee. Southwest Point continued as a small security post until 1811.

Don Lawrence, the on duty Fort Agent, suggested we try Red Bones On the River for lunch. This was an excellent suggestion. The restaurant was in a large old two story white building overlooking the water. We ate upstairs. Klep had an excellent sirloin sandwich; I had a grilled sirloin salad. We could have lingered there watching the water, but we were due for a brief visit with cousin Elsie in Knoxville.





We left 70 and wound around until we found her house, spent an hour and a half catching up, and joined the afternoon exodus from Knoxville. Dandridge was our destination.
As we gazed out to the mountains in the East, we could see the range along which the state line between Tennessee and North Carolina runs. We took a drive though the old downtown area, saw the old hotel and the dike which keeps the town from flooding, and called it a day.

Treasures Along US 70

Fog hangs heavy over East Tennessee this morning. We can just see the trees as silhouettes across the way on the mountain that is the eastern rim of the Cumberland Plateau. We made it to the hotel last night in time to watch the sunset over the mountains after a full day on the Plateau.

We left the Garden Inn and came back to 70 on through tree tunnels that cover twisty-turny highway 84 for a lovely summer morning drive.


Heading out of Sparta, our first stop was the Rock House, an old stop on the stage coach route across Tennessee. Stories say that at night whoever was at the stop after dark would go into the attic and pull up the ladder and close the door because of the dangers from vagabonds and bandits.

Both President Jackson and President Polk stopped at this place.


Our next planned stop was at the Pioneer Hall Museum in Pleasant Hill. Unfortunately it was not open on Tuesday. It is located in an old, three story building that was once part of Pleasant Hill Academy, a mission school established in 1884 by missionaries from the Congregational Church. Pleasant Hill now has a large retirement village, nursing home, and assisted living facility.

As we headed through hay fields and wild flowers toward Crossville, we marveled again at the blue chicory and the White Queen Anne's Lace. Just before town, we pulled into the parking lot of the Cumberland Playhouse to get tickets for the afternoon performance of Tennessee USA. Next we headed to central town and stopped at the rail road depot where Sgt. York returned from heroic duty in World War I.




We had lunch at the Fifth Street Diner which filled up while we were there. The floor had been painted with copies of old art masterpieces. We sat on a Cezanne and next to Van Gogh's "Starry Night."




After lunch we drove out to the Homestead Tower Museum where we climbed the steep 97 stairs to the top to gaze out over the Cumberland Plateau. After we caught our breath, we climbed down and read the exhibits about this FDR project of building homes and relocating families.










There were projects all over the country, but most of them did not work as well as this one did. The homes were quite well built by local people and most of them still stand. One of the houses is part of the museum, but is located several miles away. It was built before electricity was available, but it was plumbed for running water and wired for electricity which came a few years later. The guide at the house had grown up in one of the houses and told us that several years ago when a tornado touched down all the houses around the exhibited house were pretty much destroyed. The homestead house, made of local stone, still stood.


The pleasantly cool theater at the Cumberland Playhouse was a good place to be on a hot afternoon. The production of Tennessee USA was well done. The music was good, the history was interesting, and the dancing was lively. Klep enjoyed it although musicals are not his forte.

We headed toward our reserved room near Kingston, crossed into the eastern time zone, left the plateau, and entered East Tennessee. Our experiences on this trip have been memorable so far. We look forward to seeing what today has in store.

Courhouse Squares, Waterfalls, and Rising Elevations: Cumberland Plateau Country

Wilson County Fairgrounds is home to Fiddler's Grove, a collection of forty old buildings reconstructed on the site. We left our motel this morning, drove through the campus of Cumberland University and found our way to the Grove. Lebanon is the headquarters for Cracker Barrel and one of the buildings looks like a smaller prototype for the modern Cracker Barrel restaurants that now dot the interstates. We enjoyed rambling around the buildings which included just about every thing needed for a town from church, school, bank, post office, jail, and many more.






Today highway 70 took us through beautiful rolling farm land. We saw hay fields with their rolls of fresh hay. We also saw a farmer with A very old Farmall tractor. It is election year in Tennessee, and campaign signs compete with wild flowers for space on the roadsides.

We saw red clay again for the first time since leaving Alabama. Evidently red clay grows kudzu well because we passed mile after mile of huge kudzu statues. At the entry to Smithville, a billboard showing the graduates of the class of 2010 welcomed visitors to their town. We thought that was a nice gesture.

By noon as we rolled into Sparta,(home of Benny Martin, famous fiddler, and Lester Flatt, half of the famous Flatt & Scruggs duo) our elevation was over a thousand feet above sea level. We found the chamber of commerce to get information on how to get to some of the waterfalls in the area. We found a very helpful person and left with maps and suggestions about which ones we should visit. Since we were next door to Mom's Sandwich Shop, we ducked in there for a Reuben and a pastrami for lunch. We shared a table with Kevin, a young roofer who also had suggestions about our waterfall hunt. We enjoyed chatting about traveling as we downed our food.

Our first Waterfall was about twenty miles southwest of Sparta. After we took the driving tour of old houses, we went to Rock Island State Park and saw Great Falls which were really beautiful. Next we headed up to Burgess Falls State Natural Area where we saw a series of falls as we hiked about a mile up by the creek. The views were breathtaking.
Had I been a few years younger, we would have gone down to the creek and gotten in the water. Fortunately the hike up was entirely shaded which made the trek a little easier. Another path along a graveled walkway took us back to the parking area. The heatwave continues. We passed a beautiful butterfly garden, but I think it was too hot for the butterflies to be out.

We wound around the mountains, continuing to climb until we rejoined Hwy 70 north to go to our stopping place for the evening, The Garden Inn in Monterey. By the time we got here, we were well over fifteen hundred feet above sea level. After check-in. We gazed out over a vast range of mountains listening to low classical music. as the sun began to set this first day of summer, the temperature dropped, the fireflies came out, a bullfrog joined the last birdsong, and a slight breeze stirred the air. We sat on the deep deck, eating chocolate marble cheesecake, and enjoyed watching the moon take on color as the last pink eased from the Tennessee sky.

Father's Day on the Road: Church, Barbecue, and More History

Early Monday morning finds us still in the central time zone as we welcome summer. When we checked into the Hampton Inn in Lebanon, Tennessee yesterday afternoon it was a toasty 99 degrees. We had thought about going out for a tour through the streets where General Patton's troops trained for their march through Europe, but we decided to call it a day.

Yesterday we left our hotel in search of a Dunkin Donut shop which, as it turned out, closed on Sunday. We worshiped at Two Rivers Baptist Church out near Opryland. It is a large church which was used by the Opry for at least one performance after the flood. Yesterday was the interim pastor's last day, and we heard a good sermon on what it really means to be a church member. I liked his reminder that the church is a who instead of a what. Unfortunately too many people forget this.

After church, we again set off in search or brunch or lunch or something. We ended up having an early Father's Day lunch at Famous Dave's Barbecue close to the Hermitage. The meal was excellent. After lunch, we drove back up the road to the home of Andrew Jackson.

We began our tour with a film, standard procedure, picked up our headsets, and walked the five minute walk up to the back of the mansion. The front is currently under restoration. It didn't take long to recognize the political correctness that the interpreters had immersed themselves in since the last time we were there. I understand that much of what Andrew Jackson did, in hindsight, was flawed. This can be said about any leader. However, life does not take place in hindsight. If it did, great historical movements would never take place. Every action has two sides to it, if not more. Every time one group of people advances, some other group suffers in some way. Anyway, after we got to the house, groups of twelve at a time were taken through the rooms. We saw fourteen rooms. The hallways have the same wallpaper that Rachel chose, a wide sweeping vista, both downstairs and upstairs. Our favorite rooms were the bedroom and library that were Jackson's own rooms.

We exited the mansion and walked through the gardens. I loved the herb gardens leading to the tombs. The bees were working the blooms and the fragrance was heavy in the hot air. There were huge beds of echineacia in full bloom, daylilies, roses, alhea, and many other flowers and herbs that I could not identify. The gardens are laid out in a formal English pattern of squares. All in all, we spent over two hours walking the grounds.

After returning our headsets and retrieving Klep's ID card, we did the museum shop, returned to the car. The Battle of New Orleans was playing on AM 650. We drove around to the old Presbyterian church where the Jackson's worshiped and the home which is owned by the Donaldson's, Rachel's sister's family where the Jackson's adopted son's twin brother lived. I hope I got all that straight! After that, we found highway 70 turned left and headed East.

Saturday in Music City

We knew that we were back in Big Orange Country when we heard the band belt out "Wish that I was on ole Rocky Top,...!" during the prelaunch show on the General Jackson Paddle Boat. Today we relaxed and just took it easy. After sleeping in, we drove to the temporary parking lot for the General Jackson Riverboat cruise. Due to the damage from the spring floods, things are still getting back to normal in the Music Valley section of Nashville. The water got incredibly high out near the Opry House. The shops are all being worked on and the Gaylord Opryland Hotel is not due to reopen until November.

We made it quickly to the place we got the bus. Klep got us there using surface streets which were very low traffic this morning. Most of the traffic headed to the rainbow laden celebration down by the river in Nashville of Pride of the gay, lesbian, and transgender folks was a little later getting started later. Since we were some of the first people there, we got our own explanation about how the area was effected by the floods from our bus driver.










Now, looking at the docile Cumberland River, it is hard to imagine the water level being 40 to 50 feet higher than it is today.

We enjoyed sitting on the top deck listening to the music as our fellow passengers came on board. We did not have a full house today. There was a lot of fun had by all of us. One little boy really got into the music, dancing in front of the band. Many of the other passengers were up dancing, too. Just before we started moving we were called to lunch. We had an diverse group at our table including a young couple from Arlington, Texas celebrating their fifth anniversary, a couple of eighty year old widowers from Colorado and Phoenix, a couple from Hendersonville, Tennessee celebrating their thirty-seventh anniversary, and a mother and daughter who didn't share information. Our conversation was lively with sharing tourist information and just talking and laughing. We were served family style which was facilitated with the lazy Susan in the middle of the table. The salad was particularly good with lots of good leaf lettuces and tasty blue cheese dressing. Our entree included grilled chicken with mixed vegetables and glazed ham with hot potato salad. The cheese cake was tasty with a good texture. The service was excellent.

By the time we had finished the dessert, we were nearing downtown and we went on deck to get the view of the skyline and the riverside park where we could see the
celebrants and hear the loud rock band that was playing. I think the fourteen thousand that the news had said would be in attendance was somewhat of an exaggeration.

As we turned around, the stage show started. The show was a combination of country, gospel, and comedy. The feature Tim Watson was actually quite a good fiddle player and his back up group were the same musicians we had enjoyed earlier. The biggest laughs came when Tim said that if they would turn us Southerners loose to catch Osama Ben Laden, we would turn it into a tournament, offer a prize of a new four wheel drive pickup truck, and get it done.

We disembarked around three p.m. and headed back to the center of town where the traffic had definitely picked up. After we turned the car over to the valet, we freshened up and set off to catch the downtown shuttle to the Friest art gallery. By the time the shuttle came, we knew our time would be limited, so we ended up on Music Row where we enjoyed an ice cream cone and people watched. As we meandered down the street, we heard the sounds of bands coming out of most of the joints including Tootsie's Orchid Lounge. We waited for another shuttle to take us back toward the Hotel Indigo, and when one finally came, it just kept on going. I guess it was the driver's time to quit.

Our six block trek up the hill to our hotel was healthy. To reward ourselves for all that exercise in the Nashville heat, we stopped in at the Starbucks downstairs and rewarded ourselves with cold drinks: chocolate chip Creme for me, Vanilla bean Creme for Klep.

Are we going to the Ryman for the Opry tonight? No. We have done this before and tonight we are just going to kick back and listen to music on TV. Tomorrow we will finish our Nashville segment and head out late afternoon. It looks like worship and the Hermitage will be our main focuses tomorrow and then we will head toward Lebanon on Hwy 70.

Race Horses to the Poets of Nashville: Friday on the Road

Pulling out of Waverly, we headed through rolling wooded roadsides and small towns to the Belle Meade Plantation from which the blood lines of most of the Derby winners can be traced. We toured the house and grounds, once again getting a glimpse of the history of Tennessee. Walking around the grounds we looked in the dairy, the slave quarters, and the cabin in which the people lived while the big house was being built. Every so often, a line of kids with their blue and grey caps would cross our path as they participated in day camp.
We fought the late morning Nashville traffic to our next stop, lunch at Hog Heaven, supposedly Nashville's best bar-be-cue. To describe it as rustic would be an embellishment.

Located near the Centennial Park and Vanderbilt, it was doing a thriving lunch trade. We ate on a bench of a table and chatted with a local woman. After sandwiches, we circled by the Parthenon and found our way to the Upper Room Museum and chapel where we viewed wonderful stained glass depicting Pentecost and a large wood carving covering the front of the sanctuary of Di Vinci's Last Supper.








It was a moving piece of art work.
In the Agape garden is a wonderful sculpture of Jesus and the woman at the well.<

Our next stop was the Country Music Hall of Fame. After we mortgaged the farm to pay the parking fee, we spent a couple of hours enjoying the exhibits and reliving the music of a century of country artists. The museum has three floors and is well done with a good mix of media and memorabilia. We were somewhat bemused by the fact that we remembered most of the artists and things featured in the Hall.

Hotel Indigo, our pricelined choice of accommodations, was next on our itinerary. We unloaded and the valet parked our car. Unfortunately, we could not priceline parking! We accept this as the cost of spending time in a city. Our room is on the ninth floor and is quite comfortable.

Our last activity for the day was The Bluebird Cafe.
Our navigational device took us by way of I-40 and I-440, not something I would recommend during rush hour. What awaited us made the harrowing trip worthwhile. We were treated to two hours of back to back songs sung by the poets who wrote them. Some have been recorded; some, not. But there was not a bad song in the entire evening.

The performance was in the round with Barbara Cloyd (http://barbaracloyd.com) leading off. Her introduction to her first song was, "Good judgement comes from experience which comes from bad judgement." She sang about love gone wrong. Tommy Karlas opened with a song full of good images including the line, "Dream a little dream, sitting by a stream," a slow ballad. Will Nance, who seemed to have had the most songs recorded, opened with "Where Have I Been All My Life" which is on the new George Strait album. Jeremy Spillman opened with a song that began with "I was 14 when my daddy's old man caught me half way through my first beer" whose refrain was "I come from a long line of sinners like me."

These people had their guitars, their voices, and their words. That was more than enough for a wonderful evening. There is such a purity to hear the songs sung by their actual creators. It is so much more pure than what comes out of the studios today.

We drove back to the center of town through busy evening traffic, marveling at the number of people on the streets. The lights of Nashville lit the evening as we closed the drapes and called it a night.

Flatlands to Rolling Woodlands: Crossing Western Tennessee

With the sparkling farmlands washed clean, we headed East under a clear blue sky to Jackson, Tennessee where we left highway 70 to explore. Our first find was a State Farmer's Market where folks had set up their home grown bounty for sale. Squash, beans, okra, tomatoes (Green and ripe), peppers, egg plant (black and white), onions, corn, blue berries, plums, and black berries all created displays rivaling art. We enjoyed chatting with the sellers and Klep left, eating a bag full of black berries, fresh and sweet.

Our next stop is one of the top ten tourists destinations in Tennessee, The Casey Jones Museum and Ole Country Store. We both love trains, so this was a hit with us. The movie filled us in on the facts of who Casey Jones was and what had really happened to him. The exhibits were another good history lesson. The video of the reenactment of the hearings following his death was a reminder that spin is not a new concept. The replica of old engine number 382 brought back memories of the pre-diesel trains. We enjoyed climbing up into it and looking around and imagining what it would have been like to ride up there, speeding down from Memphis to New Orleans.
The house that Jones lived in has been preserved and is on the site.

We finished our morning at the Old Country Store which is actually old and has several food options for lunch. We are avoiding buffets, so we opted for the hot line where Klep chose a vegetable plate and I had some fried chicken, green beans, and mashed potatoes. Their food was good, Southern fare. They had fresh fried peach pies, one of which we shared.

We left, still humming Casey Jones, in the noon heat and headed up the road listening to a m radio to Milan to find the West Tennessee Agricultural Museum that our friend Judy had told us about. The museum has just about every agricultural tool on display that was used to change the wilderness into farmland and then farm it through two centuries. An old log cabin, complete with furnishings and an honest to goodness outhouse, complete with corn cobs, sit next to the museum building. We were the only people in the building which we explored for an hour or so. The farm wife's tools were there, too and we enjoyed looking at the old ice boxes, quilts, and other things.

We reconnected with highway 70 for our next stop in Huntingdon, where we explored The Dixie. We watched a children's pottery class and were allowed to go in the museum dedicated to Dixie Carter and Hal Holbrook which is in the basement of the building housing the performance center. We found more classes going on here with one area dedicated to summer programs in creative writing.

The square around the courthouse in Huntingdon was beautiful and busy. It looked like a good place to live and raise a family. We left and headed toward Camden which was sprawling and full of the usual fast food restaurants and other things we find common. Huge clouds were building by this time and a place to stop was on our mind. The winds picked up as we headed toward Waverly and the drops were falling when we started looking for a B & B which we did not find. We settled for a motel on the western side of Waverly, checked in, and watched the storm play out.

After the rain, we headed down Highway 13 in the Hurricane Creek area which was heavily wooded and beautifully rolling. I could tell my Tennessee boy was starting to enjoy the curves. We found an unremarkable restaurant geared to the tourists who come to this area for the Loretta Lynn Ranch. We had an unremarkable supper where Klep enjoyed another bowl of beans, onions, and cornbread, and headed back to call it a night.

Today we head into Nashville for the weekend.

Soul of the City; Soul of the Countryside: Headed East on 70

"Shout your memories" is one of the lessons at the Civil Rights Museum. If generations do not pass along the stories, they will be forgotten. After the assassination of Martin Luther King, a group got the money to save the Lorraine Motel from demolition and it is now the National Civil Rights Museum. We spent Wednesday morning in an intense history lesson about the struggles our country went through and is going through so that every man, every woman in our country has the same rights under the law. Much of what we viewed, we lived through. Maturity and more experience with diverse people gave us a different view from what we were getting as white children in the south. We shared the journey through the years with a diverse group of people at the museum. I heard one older woman standing in front of the motel room murmur, "Oh, Lord! Why did they hate us so!"

The final part of the museum is across the street at the rooming house from where James Earl Ray fired the shot across the street that was a pivotal point in our history. There is a great deal of doubt that he was the only one involved in this, but I will leave that to the theorists. There are a great many things in our history about which we may never know the truth.






Our last stop in Memphis was Alcenia's for lunch. The menu tells the patron that "Alcenia's was founded on Grandma Alcenia's dishes prepared from those unreachable roots of the soul that only a tried and true soul food cook can read. Baby Alcenia provides the inspiration to deliver the soul from our hearts to your stomach." We knew that we would be greeted with a hug and the owner-creator of Alcenia's(BJ Chester-Tamayo) did not disappoint. I felt more like I was having lunch in her home than in a commercial place. The place is in an old building at North Main Street. Colors, a bright orange, surrounded us as soon as we entered with purple, green, and yellow table cloths. A large painting of an older woman holding a child is on one wall, and other paintings and bright objects circle the room. We were the first customers and by the time we left most of the other ten or so tables had someone siting at them. The food is fresh and is prepared after it is ordered, so this is not a quick food place. It is tasty. We ordered the fried chicken and vegetables which included yams, green beans(fresh), cabbage, and hot water corn bread. There are spices and seasonings in the vegetables that I can't identify, but they were very, very tasty.

After we reluctantly (I think Klep really wanted dessert even though he had no room for it} left Alcenia's, we turned ourselves around, drove by the huge St. Jude's Hospital complex and headed north on Highway 51 to Henning to see the new Alex Hailey Museum and Interpretative Center which doesn't officially open until August. We drove through a summer early afternoon passing a sign that told us it was 102 degrees at 1:08 p.m. Blue chicory, golden daisies, orange native day lilies lined roadways and we passed fields of young soybeans. Henning was on the old road and we drove into a small neat town and found the house where the author of Roots spent much of his childhood listening to the tales of his grandmother.

We toured the house which is a well built house constructed near the beginning of the twentieth century by Hailey's maternal grandfather. One of the most interesting displays in the new museum is the replica of a slave ship built so that people can actually put themselves in the space that was provided for slaves being brought to this country. It is no surprise that so many died on the trip over.

A thunderstorm took us out of Henning and north to Ripley which is known for its delicious tomatoes and, in our family, as the place Klep spent a summer working on a surveying team during his years as an engineering student at UT. The old square is still in Ripley with a large brick courthouse in the center. The stores around the square are prosperous looking and the preservation efforts have been quite effective. We headed off to find the place where he rented a room and the beautiful old three storied brick home with its large inviting porch was still there.






We headed toward the river on highway 19 and a few miles out of town Klep showed me the bluffs which I describe as a mini-mountain range. And then....there was flat land to the right and left of the road. We rode for miles in between corn fields. After nearly twenty miles we glimpsed the river and then we were curving around and headed back through the flats to town. The elevation in the flats was around 300 feet above sea level; on the bluffs, 500.

We connected with Highway 70 in Brownsville, "A Good Place to Live," a neat town with well manicured lawns. We passed sunflower fields just beginning to bloom and passed through Nutbush the childhood home of Tina Turner.

With the day winding down, we found a clean motel, a little family restaurant, and settled down for the evening in an area which looks much like the farmlands of the Midwest.

Blues, Bar-b-cue, and Rock and Roll

The blues are still pouring out on to Beale Street, the carriages still carry tourists, and the lights are still bright, but we are ready to call it a day. Today was a delicious taste of Memphis from Graceland to the Sun Studios, and Stax Museum of American Soul Music.

The sun was marvelously bright when we awoke before seven at the Holiday Inn Express. At breakfast, I chatted with the woman in charge of the buffet, Maggie, an attractive woman about my age with a ready laugh and a happy smile. I could tell that she was a soul sister and we had a good visit. I asked her what two places she would recommend that we visit today and she said Graceland and the Lorraine Motel, two contrasting sites and both important to the Memphis experience. She also shared other things about Memphis and her family. Her good bye hug was a good way to get the day started.

Graceland was everything that we had expected. We got there at opening time and the crowd was already building. Rob had told us to get the platinum ticket and do the whole shebang instead of going for the mansion only. He knows our proclivity for pinching pennies well! By the time we got the senior and AAA discounts, the price wasn't much more than the regular ticket. We rode the shuttle over to the house and toured it and the grounds. The thing I found the most remarkable was the reverence that most of the people showed at the site. It was much quieter than most crowds were in the major cathedrals of Europe.

After we had been through all the house, grounds, memorial garden, little museums, and gift shops, we found ourselves washed down with sweat and more than a little ready for lunch. We found a bar-b-cue joint that was advertising a half price rib tip plate. A & R was a joint, but their lunch was outstanding. We really liked their sweet sauce and we enjoyed the combo of beef and pork ribs served with a side of fried okra, slaw, and bread. We shared a plate and there was more than enough food for both of us. There was a steady stream of customers in and out, picking up orders.

We were disappointed when we got to the Civil Rights Museum that it was closed today. We met a helpful young man as we were looking for the entrance who asked us to come back tomorrow and ask for him. We headed next to Sun Records where we had the tour of the studio where Rock and Roll was born. It wasn't fancy, but when we left, we had a good understanding of the history. As we waited for the tour to begin, I collected another person, Vic who was manning the cash register and "holding forth."

By this time, I was getting a little cranky, but Klep pushed us forward and we headed down to another part of town to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. The tour started with an excellent movie filled with information and good music. After that a self-guided tour took us through the exhibits, including Issac Hayes' 1972 Caddy. I was glad that Klep had persisted. We had the museum pretty much to ourselves. It was the least crowded of all the venues.

Our navigational device brought us to the Crown Plaza (Priceline.com reservation) by the scenic route with a drive by the mighty Mississippi River. We took a rest before we ventured back out for dinner at Charlie Vergos' Rendezvous along with almost every other tourist and businessman in Memphis tonight. The restaurant is in the basement of an old building several blocks north of Beale. We rode the trolley down to near the restaurant, put our names on the list, and waited for over an hour. We killed time people watching. I definitely did not have to feel under dressed with the other people there. My casual tee and capri pants was a little formal compared to many of the patrons.

The food was delicious, charcoal ribs done with a good dry rub. The atmosphere was interesting with the old brick walls and the tin covered ceilings. The service, once we were seated, was friendly and quick.

Beale street, our after dinner destination was ablaze in neon. We found an older group playing some good blues, but there were no seats. When they took a break, we headed up the street and called the hotel shuttle.

This place by the big river has a rich past, as rich as the soil that lines the banks of the river. This city has had more than its share of talent pass through it over the years. Beautiful homes line the high bluffs facing the river and sad, sad houses in disrepair occupy other sections. By and large, the most beautiful thing we have found here are the people who are warm and friendly. We feel right at home with those who call Memphis home.

Evening: Day one

A small sliver of a moon hangs in a royal blue sky accompanied by one lone star as evening comes to us just south of the state line. We finished out the day at one of the Nealey's three Memphis area barbecue restaurants for a quick supper after twelve hours on the road.

Lush fields, Queen Anne's lace, puffy mimosa trees blooms, magnolia blooms, crepe myrtles, little towns and large, neat trimmed lawns have all flown by us as we traveled through Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. We crossed over the Tallahatchie River and it was all Klep could do not to break out in "The Ode to Billy Joe."

Late afternoon a dwindling supply of gas forced us off our limited access road, Highway 78 in northwest Alabama, to find a station. We also needed a WalMart for new clip on shades for me. We found both in a little town, Hamilton, Alabama. An added bonus was the Hamilton Drive-In where we got late afternoon dairy drinks. At WalMart we were thrilled to find a lovely, helpful woman Helen who helped me find the right kind of shades that would fit my glasses. We shared where we were headed and found that she has a sister in one of the little towns we will visit later this week.

Tonight at the Interstate Barbecue, our waitress Rachel made my day by asking if I were really old enough for the senior special. That girl will go places! She shared that her grandmother refuses to tell any of them how old she is, but wants the discount for the senior items.

Tomorrow after we rest our road weary bones, we will be heading into the city. Our tentative plan is to begin at Graceland and go from there.

Our hearts are sad tonight. Our dear Traci's father Sol passed away this morning. He was a unique man with a lovely spirit and keen sense of humor. I feel richer for having known him.

Day One: Dash to Memphis

Chirping birds woke me, an unusual event since I generally am up before them. The air still has a little evening coolness to it, the colors of the hydrangeas and crepe myrtles are brilliant, the house is painted, the bags are packed, and we are headed to Memphis. The months of anticipation are behind us. We have planned and researched as much as we want to. It is time to see where the trip takes us.

Today we will see parts of four states, more of Alabama than we really want to see, but there will be beauty. We will listen to a taped book while we roll through the early summer farmlands and small towns. I pray that the day goes well.

Tonight we will be just outside Memphis, ready to enter Tennessee from the west.

Painting the House: The Text

Sunday afternoon was a washout. While I watched mindless television in between satellite blackouts, Klep discovered how to add pictures to the blog. This is in preparation of our long awaited road trip across Tennessee the long way.

Painting the house has delayed this trip. It has also given us more time to plan, research, and fine tune what we want to do and see as we enter the Volunteer State in Memphis and take old highway 70 all way to North Carolina.

Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville will all be important stops, but what we most want to focus on are those small towns which dot the highway and the wonders of nature that will be right off the road. We want to avoid chain restaurants and motels. We are considering bed and breakfasts and even a "rustic" cabin for places to stay. We are searching out where we can find the music of the region and several good possibilities have come up.

We have also had a little additional time to tie things up here before we take off. The yards have to be mowed, mail has to be stopped, house watchers lined up, vegetable pickers invited to harvest, etc., etc., etc.

If the painter turns the last corner today, we will probably make it to the start line before the weekend. Otherwise, surely, I will be blogging about Graceland the first of next week!

Painting the House