2014 Day Two: Memphis, Little Rock, Texas

Monday, June 30th 2014

Just about 3 hours west of Nashville is Memphis, situated right on the Mississippi River, just across from Arkansas.  The city's surrounding area was pretty quiet.  After all our fun in Nashville, our stomachs were crying for nourishment every few hours, so by now we were starving.  Welcome to downtown Memphis around Beale street - the main strip of attraction.  We actually didn't eat on Beale, but a few blocks outside at Gus' famous fried chicken.  Doesn't look like much from the outside, but it was a full house inside, with a line to get seated.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the place at the moment.

After lunch we walked up an empty commercial district, Main Street.  Most stores and restaurants here were closed on Mondays, and therefore were closed on our Monday visit.  That's OK, we were headed to the National Civil Rights museum. 

The museum is situated at the site of the old Lorraine Motel, now defunct as a hotel, but a historic site and the interior is part of the Museum.

Why you might ask? This is the site where Martin Luther King JR was assassinated.  He had been staying here in Memphis planning his next protest.  He was occupying rooms 306 and 307 with some of his partners, and was standing on the balcony of Room 306 when he was shot.  The rooms seen below:

The shot came from across the street in a boarding home, now also part of the museum.  This part of the museum focused on the investigation behind his assassination.  Unfortunately we had to only briefly pass through this section as we were already behind schedule from spending so much time here.  It was a beautiful museum, obviously well funded and loved by many, and a great enriching experience.

We then walked back up to Beale, which we only walked the length of without doing much.  We had already eaten and had to get back on the road.  It's unfortunate, this place looks like a lot of fun.  Much like Nashville, but the theme surrounds more Rock and Soul music - being the home of Soul, and the named birthplace of Rock and Roll.  

So very loud and exciting at 2 in the afternoon! Music everywhere.  The place was largely empty... since it was a Monday at 2 PM.  I really would have loved to be here at night.  But, we had our fun in Nashville, so we were OK with moving on.  One final stop at the riverfront, facing Arkansas, and we were back on the highway.

Welcome to Arkansas!  What I can tell you already is that they take their speed limits very seriously.  Plenty of threatening signage, as well as threatening highway patrol cars everywhere.

It was a long, truck filled and mostly boring ride into Little Rock.  When we arrived, we realized the attractions were few.  Our first stop was to the Central High School museum, which was about the integration of schools in the 60s, and specifically about the Little Rock 9 - the 9 african american students that were the first to attend Central High School.  We had already learned a lot about this historic site and the events around it on our trip last year, when we stopped at the Brown vs. Board of Education site in Topeka, Kansas.  We were interested to learn more.  We arrived right at closing time for the Museum, and thankfully the staff let us stay for about 20 minutes past that time.  It wasn't a big place, but there was a lot to see.  What a struggle to endure.  So much history, and it was really interesting to hear the stories - recordings of interviews of some of the Little Rock 9 students.

Hopefully this is all legible.  Anyone who knows me is familiar with my stance on equality and racism.  In case it can't be read, the lady in the right side of this photo is holding a handwritten sign that says "We like you, we just don't want you in our school."

I wonder where she is today, and how she feels that her ignorance is on display in museums.  There is no argument to justify this feeling, I'm sorry.

The High school was just around the corner from the Museum.  It's HUGE! I wish I could have captured it all in one shot, but it's impossible.  The school appears to be 4 stories tall at the center, and it has wings wrapping around to the left and the right of this photo.  You may notice there is a pond in the center right in front of the green.  It's a beautiful building.  We were leaving right as Summer School was getting out.

We took a short driving tour, most of the streets around the school were poor and run down.  Not much going on.  Perhaps a mile away was a much different story, a wide road atop a hill had small well landscaped mansions on both sides.  Lots of nice architecture.  We had to stop for Arkansas' best BBQ place.

That's right, Whole Hog Cafe.  We were informed there is one other location.. and oddly enough it is in Cherry Hill, NJ.  Of course we had to find the one Arkansas joint whose CEO lives in Cherry Hill.  Delicious anyway! We took a bottle of their barbecue sauce with us.  Purchased, not stolen...

We are significantly behind schedule at this point, so we're on route now into Dallas.

I really never thought I would have driven to Texas, but now I have, and here I am.  Speed limit just raised to 75, so we're just trying to bang this out as fast as possible.  We're spending tonight and all of tomorrow in Dallas, at which point I hope to update again.  Also, we just had a major exciting itinerary change.  Details to come!

2014 Day One: Tennessee

Saturday, June 28th 2014

Back on the road!  This trip begins a little differently than last time.  First stop, North Carolina, a bit of a familiar place.  

Well.. it was a 9 hour detour to our trip.  Since we are one member larger than we were last year, we made arrangements for our Half Pint to stay at a boarding place in North Carolina recommended by Gary, our friend.  A big thank you to Gary for getting him there on this morning, getting us on the road as quickly as possible.

Now.. onward.

Sunday, June 29th

Right in the middle of climbing the Appalachian Mountains on I-40, we found the state line.  Tennessee, the volunteer state, a state that I still can't spell properly without double-checking.  The nickname comes from the war of 1812, when so many soldiers from Tennessee volunteered for battle.  You can thank google for that little tidbit.

My initial impression is the humidity... and then the raging lightning storm that lasted 5 minutes.  Once again we are at the mercy of nature as we trek across the country.  An east-moving storm vs. a west-moving vehicle comes on fast and hard and then it's over.  At least it cools the near 90 degree heat down for a bit.

Our first stop today is Knoxville.  On the map it seems a large city, in person it's a bit of a sleeper, with one "busy" commercial district somewhat hidden.  If we hadn't intended to have lunch here, we might not have found it.  A common theme with these middle-america cities is definitely not to find the upper class living right outside of them, I'll leave it at that.  But here it is, beautiful downtown Knoxville, pretty much in a nutshell:

 A bit hard to see, but below that large tree is a monumnet for Womens Suffrage.

So, as per our intent, we had lunch.  A good one! Our first stop in Tennessee was a bit of a taste of southern hospitality.  We ate at Tupelo's Honey Company, brazenly abbreviated "THC" as printed on the front of their staff shirts.  Pretty delicious, and my first time having a side of Fried Okra and Succotash.  This was definitely the best meal of the day.

Anyways... out we were after that.  Destination Nashville, with a quick detour in Cookeville.  A review of the area said that where the Coffee shop that we stopped at was is the only "hip" part of town.  Truth.  This place really was an example of small town America, but they just happened to have an amazing coffee shop.  Please excuse my travel companion caught at the mercy of my camera.

Grabbed our cups and back on the road.  Not much longer (although I did fall asleep) and we were in Nashville.  We like to exit the highway early so we can get an idea of the area before getting downtown, but again another example of not the best place to be before getting to the city.  

Nashville, however, is a fantastic place to visit.  I've been labeling it the Country version of Times Square.  Even on our Sunday night this place was vibrant.

This is Broadway, where most of Nashville's action is.  Just bar after bar, after gift shop, after bar.  Every bar, and I mean that with maybe only one or two exceptions, had live music.  Some great, some just OK, but everywhere was a good time.  Bushwackers, anyone?  Let's just say Milkshake meets Whiskey.  Good stuff.  Lots of open-air places, rooftops, fresh air and loud music.  Anywhere on this strip was loud and exciting.  Forgive the repeating photos or overlapping photos, I had to capture everything and that was a tough feat.

Tennessee Titan's stadium, taken from a rooftop obviously from behind someone... Sorry, a lot of bars means a lot of drinks after a while..

We walked onto, but not across, a pedestrian bridge that crosses the river.  Some good views of the city at night.  The AT&T building is huge.  Not so many tall buildings around here, so it seemed even bigger.  The kind of big that looking at it can make you dizzy.

Oh, and our hotel was right around the corner from the Country Music Hall of Fame.  No, we didn't go.  We wouldn't have been able to appreciate it, not knowing much about Country.  We actually met some people at a bar that seemed quite offended that we were in Nashville and didn't know the name of the band or song that they were about to be appearing in said music video for...  Forgot the name already.  Told them we'd youtube it but, looks like that's not going to happen. (Oh well).

What a fun night, really.  Great fun place to visit.  I hate to compare the trip to last year's adventure, but I wish the drive was more scenic.  But I'd recommend taking the travel for a weekend if the opportunity presented.

Monday, June 30th

Today we have quite the itinerary.  First stop is Memphis.  After that we'll be going into Arkansas and planning a stop in Little Rock.  Final destination will be Dallas Texas.  It's about to be a long day.  More later.