Post 28 Tennessee

Tennessee March 30-April 10

Our entry into Tennessee saw a shift from Civil Rights to music and Memphis was the perfect starting point.

Elvis and BB King greeted us at the Visitor Center, where we found lots of information for our journey through the state.

We made our way to Beale St. where our first stop was the Rock and Soul Museum. The museum provided a great overview of the history of jazz, soul, blues and rock music and how it all came together here in Memphis. This was place where it was common to find white and black musicians in the same studio playing together and producing the distinct Memphis sound. Recording studios sprang up all over the city. The demand for studio time came from a wide variety of musical genres. Aretha Franklin went to Memphis to record R-e-s-p-e-c-t in order to capture that sound in the musical background. When one of the staff insulted her, she walked out and returned to NY, refusing to work with that studio again. Her agent hired the whole studio band, flew them to NY and produced what would become a gold record. The museum included the history of all black radio shows, rising country stars and, of course, Elvis.

We decided we needed to try some Tennessee BBQ so we "put some south in our mouth" at the Blues City Cafe. Yummmy! Also on our list to taste while we were in Tennessee - Moon Pies and GooGoo Clusters. Moon Pies were just OK. We're addicted to GooGoo Clusters! You can even make your own GooGoo Cluster in one of the shops off Beale Street!

Twice each day the Peabody Hotel conducts their Duck March. They have several mallards that hang out all day in the lobby fountain. They live up on the roof of the hotel and every morning are ushered down by the Duck Master to the fountain via the elevator. It's an elaborate ritual that draws a large crowd. In the evening the ritual is reversed to send the ducks back up to their beds on the roof. We made it there for the evening march. So cute! Quack, Quack!!

We wanted to see more of the city than just around Beale St, so we hopped on a bus tour complete with our own singing tour guide. Any time we came to a place that someone famous lived or got their start, he would sing one of their songs. We passed a lot of the old studios and the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was assassinated.

Memphis is named after, and is a sister city, to Memphis, Egypt. To honor that relationship they built a 20,000 seat sports arena in the shape of a pyramid. After the FedEx Forum was built, the Pyramid fell into disuse for 10 years until it was bought by Bass Pro Shops. The 32 story pyramid was transformed into an "outdoor paradise" that includes Bass's largest store, the 100 room Big Cypress Lodge hotel, a cypress swamp complete with alligators and a glass floor observation deck. It was a cool place. We bought stuff...

Next stop, Nashville.

We spent our first day at The Hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson. We toured his house and learned about Andrew Jackson's life in Tennessee and his presidency. After the Civil War, one of his former slaves, Alfred, remained on the property and lived in a cabin just behind the house. He worked for the family and became the first tour guide for the Hermitage. He's buried in grave next to Jackson and his wife.

Our friends, Daiva and Tracey, suggested we make a stop at Tailgate Brewery. Great advice! Thanks, D&T!

The next day we took the train into Nashville proper. The train runs early so we missed breakfast at the campground. We found the Sun Record Company Diner where we had a delicious breakfast sandwich, great coffee and wonderful service.

When we stepped back out onto Broadway at 9:30am the city had come alive. Pretty much every storefront on Broadway is a bar or club and music was pouring out of all of them. The bars were already filling up and people were having a rowdy good time. We decided we're too old for this city, best to leave it to the youngsters!

We made our way over to Country Music Hall of Fame, via the Ryman Auditorium which was the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974. The new, quite opulent Grand Ole Opry House is at Opryland.

We were at the CMHF much longer than we thought we might be! Elvis's Cadillac, Taylor Swift's Aris Tour outfits, famous guitars, of course, a full room Dolly tribute and much more were on display. We had fun at the Museum and realized that we knew a bit more about country music than we thought.

Our next stop was Chattanooga. On our way we made a short detour to the Jack Daniel distillery. We had a great tour of the facility and a whiskey tasting at the end. Some mighty fine spirits there! Honey whiskey? Yes, please.

Chattanooga is home to the steepest incline railroad in the world so, of course, we had to take a ride on it. Even Anne with her fear of heights thought is was a pretty awesome ride.

There's a whole village at the top of the mountain so we walked for a bit and stumbled across the Chattanooga National Military Park. The park hilltop and hillside was an important location during the Civil War. The visitor center provided displays that started our education about Tennessee's Civil War history.

Of course a trip to Chattanooga wouldn't be complete without a stop at the Chattanooga Choo Choo station, made famous in the song by the Glen Miller orchestra.

We walked around the city, landing at the aquarium where they have a beautiful water memorial called "The Passage" honoring the Cherokee history and the Trail of Tears.

A stop for a craft brew (at another Tailgate location) and we were on our way to Gatlinburg. Did you know that Anne has been collecting brewery stickers all along our adventure. She's got some unique ones!

On our way we passed through Sevierville/Pigeon Forge, childhood home of Dolly Parton and now home to Dollywood theme park. We both expected a little town that happened to have Dollywood as part of it. Oh, no. This place is literally a mini Las Vegas strip complete with themed attractions like the Eiffel Tower, Rainforest and Hollywood Wax Museum. There are multiple crazy looking buildings owned by Ripley's Believe it or Not.

Gatlinburg itself is one road with shopping, restaurants and outdoor adventure attractions. At the far end of town is the entrance to Great Smoky Mountains NP and one of the park's Visitor Centers.

We spent some time walking Main St, stocking up on GooGoos and hanging with the locals. We were surprised to see not one, but two stores in town selling all kinds of Trump paraphernalia- you could even have your picture taken beside a cardboard cutout. Happy to report that neither store had any customers.

You can't come to Tennessee and not sample the moonshine. We took advantage of a couple of the Tasting Rooms on Main St to sample both moonshine, yes, moonshine and local hard cider. BTW, plain ol' moonshine will put hair on your chest, so it comes in many flavors - Apple Pie, Salty Caramel, Cookies & Cream, Mint Chocolate, Blackberry and Hunch Punch Lightin', just to name a few! There's also Moonshine Peaches, Cherries, Dill Pickles......We liked all of them!

We did some hiking along a lovely river in the National Park that took us to a waterfall and an old cabin. We can't understand why assholes are still needing to carve their initials into historic buildings. What's up with that? There was literally a sign near the cabin asking people to please not do this. Grrrrrr!

One of the highlights of Gatlinburg, that we were told not to miss, was the Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum. We know, big yawn, right? For a mere $3, you can view the collection of over 20,000 sets of shakers. It was actually pretty interesting.