Nashville

We arrived in Nashville after about a three hour drive from Memphis.

This was our first experience with staying in an AirBnB property. We had almost written off Nashville as a stay over destination when we found that hotel rooms were well north of $600/night. After a bit of research, we managed to rent a small top floor apartment in a house in the trendy 12th Street South area.

We were minutes walking distance from many shops and restaurants which we took advantage of on our first night there.

The next morning, we used the ride share service Lyft to get to the heart of the city. This is an operation similar to Uber and we were really impressed with how quickly the ride showed up and the quality of the vehicles (think new Lexus vs. smelly Toronto Taxi). We had booked a walking tour of downtown and ended up a bit early so went for lunch in one of the bars on Honky Tonk Row. Most of these bar/restaurants have live entertainment even at 11:30 in the morning!

We met up with our tour guide and ended up doing a two hour walk about the downtown area and got a bit of the history of how the city has evolved from a river based trading centre to the present day when they cannot get enough construction cranes to keep up with the development of hotels and condos.

After our walk, we stopped into one of the quieter bars for a cold beer before heading to 3rd and Lindley, a popular performer's venue for supper and a show. It just happened that tonight's show was a charity benefit for the local "Y" and featured several recognized Country artists.

Another Lyft ride and we were home by 11:00 pm.

The next day, we had a leisurely breakfast in our apartment and then took a Lyft to downtown again to tour "The Ryman", the past home of the Grand Ole Opry (until 1973). This is a fabulous old building that started life as a church and then became a major entertainment centre of the South during the 20's, 30's and 40's before becoming home of the Opry. Amazing how many performers have graced its storied halls.

After the tour, we walked a couple of km to an area called "The Gulch". There are lots of newer restaurants, bars and upscale hotels. We stopped for a late lunch and then took a Lyft back to our apartment just as the sky turned black and it started to rain.

We had tickets for the "new" Grand Ole Opry at Opryland, normally about a 30 minute drive away. We left in plenty of time to get there to pick up our tickets and are glad we did. The bad weather combined with the Friday night traffic turned it into a 1.5 hour drive.

It was an interesting experience and we enjoyed most of the performers. The new facility is twice the size of the old Opry. It is interesting that this is still a live broadcast performance.

We managed to get home before the thunderstorms returned. Overnight we were repeatedly awakened by flashes of lightening and thunder. Quite a storm rolled through dropping about 4 inches of rain. We were glad we got our two days of touring in as Saturday ended up being continued rain as we headed north to home.

Our last overnight stop was Columbus Ohio. The last day on the road was only about 6 hours of driving and we arrived home at around 3:00 pm. We had travelled 5520 km since leaving Indio CA at the beginning of the month.

Memphis

After our overnight stay in Baton Rouge LA we travelled to Memphis TN.

This was an easy drive on Easter Sunday. There were next to no trucks on the highway and very little traffic. The only city we got close to was Jackson Mississippi but we were on the interstate by-pass. The rest of the highway was tree lined and pretty bland as far a scenery was concerned.

We arrived in Memphis at around 3:00 pm and checked into the Downtown Holiday Inn. A good central location about four blocks from Beal Street one way and four blocks from the river the other.

We wandered down to Beal St to check out the action at around 5 pm and it was fairly quiet given it was Easter Sunday but it looked like it had the makings of being another New Orleans on any other weekend night. Lots of blues bars an open alcohol permitted on the street. Buskers and bums but seemed to be under control of a fairly heavy police presence. We only saw one takedown in a side alley on our walk from the hotel.

We managed to grab a sidewalk table at a bar to have a beer and watch the action until it was time for supper. After checking out several restaurants we decided on BB King's and weren't disappointed. Its a bar/restaurant with live entertainment. We had some ribs and brisket and got to enjoy a very good blues band before it was time to walk back to the hotel.

The next morning, we went on a tour of Graceland. Rather than drive we booked a tour package at the hotel which was good. We were transported there and had an informative narrative by our driver on the way. Graceland had just opened a new huge museum on the property across the street from the Graceland Estate. This replaced the older smaller museum and allowed for display of much more memorabilia.

We started with a tour of the Graceland Mansion. It was smaller than I had envisioned but was preserved as so typical of the decor of the 60's and 70's.

There are significant grounds which include the burial grounds of the Presley family.

After touring the mansion, we went through the museum. So much to see!

I enjoyed the display of his cars and motor toys. This is just a small sample...

We finished with touring his aircraft that he only had during the last year of his life.

After a short rest back at our hotel, we crossed the street to the Peabody Hotel to see the ritual of the Duck March. Wow... that was weird. They have ducks living in the fountain in the hotel lobby that get out at 5:00 pm every day and march to the elevator to their rooftop duck penthouse for the evening.

After recovering from that event and a bit of a rest in our room, we headed back to Beal St. for supper at the Itta Bena, a secret restaurant on Beal St. (no kidding). You enter an unmarked door and ascend a steep stairway to the third floor and end up at a great restaurant with blue tinted windows overlooking the street. Well, service was superb, and the food was the best we have had in our four months away (but not the cheapest).

After a good meal, we retreated to our hotel for a good nights rest.

Day two we hopped on the hotel shuttle and took a ride to Sun Studios, the epicentre of Rock 'n Roll and the Blues. This is the recording studio owned by Sam Phillips where Elvis had his first recording cut. A really cool tour.

We walked back to our hotel and had a quick bite for lunch and made our way to the riverfront for a cruise on a tour boat on the Mississippi. It was an entertaining 90 minute cruise along the waterfront.

We had a bit of a rest then down the alley to the Rendezvous for some of the famous dry ribs. It looked a little scary but is a classic Memphis rib joint.

On our departure day, we decided to visit the National Civil Rights Museum which was down the street at the old Lorraine Motel (where Martin Luther Ling Jr was assassinated).

The museum was very well done and presented the struggle of black African Americans from the time they arrived as slaves to the present. Very moving displays and stories.

At noon, we departed Memphis for Nashville.