Memphis

We got on the road singing along to the Paul Simon song that goes something like this...."Graceland, Graceland, Memphis Tennessee, I'm going to Graceland......".  We were both well rested and excited about the day ahead of us.  The 90 miles to Memphis seemed to go by very quickly, we pulled into town around 11 am and decided to get a bite to eat before going to Graceland.  We stopped at Huey's, a restaurant known for its world famous burgers.  Can you find Julie and Rainy in the photo of the bar?  Julie ordered the World Famous Burger with cheddar cheese and a side of onion rings.  Rainy ordered the burger served on texas toast with onion strings.  There is nothing like a fabulous $5 burger!  Rainy has taken to ordering sweet tea which seems to be the drink of choice in the south while Julie sticks with her tea unsweetened.  When ordering tea, you better specify unsweet or you are naturally served the sweetened variety!

Now we were off to Graceland!  The complex was very large.  After paying for parking, we walked into the ticket pavilion to get tickets which included touring the mansion, the airport museum, the car museum, the '68 special and the Fashion King.  We began with the highlight of the tour, Graceland itself!  The mansion was amazing due to the fact that everything remained untouched from the day Elvis died, none of the furnishings had been changed, it was like stepping back into the early 1970's.  Of course Rainy and I LOVED the furnishings!  We heard comments about how tacky it was, but we didn't think so.

The living room featured a long white sofa.  The accent colors were all in blue, Elvis' favorite color. There was white furniture with gold trim, just like I had when I was growing up.  The dining room was just off the living room, and the china cabinet was filled with sterling silver serving dishes.  There was a beautiful chandelier hanging above the table that was set for six.

The next room we toured was the kitchen.  It had been remodeled in the mid 70's and the decor certainly reflected the era.  The kitchen was done in shades of gold with a gold refrigerator.  The indoor-outdoor carpeting had shades of gold, orange, and brown.  Everything on the counter was left exactly as it was when Elvis died.

We walked down the stairs which were lined with mirrors.

The next room was more like a multi-purpose room with a seating area, a string of TV's, stereo equipment, and a bar.  This room was done in shades of yellow and blue.

Next was the billiard room.  The walls & ceiling were completed covered with pleated paisley fabric.  I loved this treatment!

Then we were in the jungle room, a room upholstered in faux fur & heavily carved furniture.  This was Rainy's favorite room!

We walked outside, through the carport where Elvis kept his cars and motorcycles, and past the swing set.

We passed by Vernon's office (Elvis' manager).

Then we walked by Elvis' shooting range.

Now we were outside again, walking around the back of the house.

We re-entered the house into the room where Elvis was playing the Piano shortly before he died.

The last room we viewed displayed Elvis mementos including awards and gold records.

In the meditation garden, we walked past Elvis' grave.

The tour was over & we had looped back around to the front of the house where we caught the shuttle bus that took us back to the main pavilion.

After cooling off in the gift shops and getting a drink of cold water, we decided we should tour Elvis' two airplanes.  The largest, the Lisa Marie, contained seating, two dining areas, a guest bed, and Elvis' bedroom (done in blue of course).  All of the seat buckles were plated in 24 karat gold.  Did you know that FFA regulations required a seat belt for the bed as well?

The smaller jet was upholstered in yellow and green, which I thought looked like a party jet without the elegance of the Lisa Marie.

By now we had seen enough of Elvis, we got in our car and drove along the Mississippi River.  It was much too hot and humid to get out and go for a walk.  We did decide to explore famous Beale Street downtown.  We stopped in BB King's Blues Club for an ice cold beer!  Rainy had a Blue Moon and Julie ordered a New Castle Brown Ale in the souvenier glass.

For dinner we went to the Beauty Shop.  The restaurant is in a converted beauty shop, the one where it is said that Pricilla Presley used to get her hair done.  We shared the Goat Cheese Dumplings for an appetizer.  Rainy ordered the Crispy Duck and Julie ordered the Cobb Salad with Grilled Shrimp.  For desert we shared Creme Brulee with a cotton candy sugar topping and the Red Velvet Cake. The food, service, and the setting were all fabulous.  It was a wonderful ending to our day in Memphis!

We left Memphis, driving west to Little Rock, and arrived at the historical hotel The Legacy around 10 pm.  Once again, we were tired after another wonderful day!

Nashville

We hadn't done any laundry since we were in New York City and clean clothes were becoming hard to find.  Since they had a washer and dryer at the hostel, we decided that now was as good of a time as any.  The only drawback was that the dryer took a long time to dry the clothes.  We had 2 loads which I started at 10:30, they weren't finished until 1:00 pm and even then the clothes were still a little damp.  Never mind the dampness, we were itching to explore Nashville.

Our main destination was the Country Music Hall of Fame.  We spent the entire afternoon there, walking through the exhibits which were set up as a time line depicting the start and growth of country music.  The exhibitions were interesting and often included video clips and music.  One of the things I liked the most was looking at the clothing worn by many of the different musicians being portrayed.  Once rhinestones were included, the outfits became much more elaborate and intricate.  The Boots!  Usually custom made with the artist's name or initials on the boots.  No representation of a musician would be complete without a couple of automobiles.  The acoustics were amazing; you could be listening to a song and three feet away you couldn't hear a thing, this allowed for many different things to be going on all at the same time.  The finale was the rotunda where they have a plaque representing each of the musicians that have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

When we left the Hall of Fame, we walked to Jake's to enjoy some Bar-B-Que.  This was a very casual restaurant, you ordered and picked up your food at the serving counter.  Rainy and I shared the rib platter; for sides we shared cucumber salad, mac and cheese, green beans, coleslaw, potato salad, and of course, cornbread.  They had 6 different bar-b-que sauces and we tried them all.  Julie's favorite sauce was described as sweet and spicy.  Rainy's favorite was the Carolina's, a mustard based sauce.  For dessert we shared the chess pie and the chocolate pie. 

Next on our agenda was the Grand Ole Opry!  When we bought our tickets we had to buy two single seats so we would not be sitting together, that was okay, at least we were going to the opry!  The show was at the Ryman theater, the original location of the Grand Ole Opry.  There were 8 performers scheduled, each playing for 15 minutes or so.  The show began with Riders in the Sky.

Next came Chris Young, Jimmy C. Newman, Mark Chestnutt, Jeannie Seely, Montgomery Gentry, and Jimmy Dickens.

The finale was the Charlie Daniels Band!

The show ended at 9:30 and we were off to Memphis.  Rainy was driving and Julie was sleeping!  We got as far as Jackson, Tennessee, which was about 90 miles from Memphis and decided it was time to look for a motel as it was after midnight and Rainy was getting tired.  We pulled off the interstate and found the Casey Jones Motel tucked in between all of the chain motels that you would expect to find.  Our room was air conditioned and actually fairly decent.  We were settled in for the night.

4 Days on the Blue Ridge Parkway

On Friday, July 9th, we went to visit Jetta one last time before leaving Fredericksburg. We arrived at Wilburn Place just after Jetta had finished having lunch we sat with her for a couple of hours, looking at a stash of old photos she had with her. Most of the ones we looked through were of Rainy when she was just a little girl. Jetta seemed to enjoy the pictures and could grasp who was in the picture, but couldn't necessarily relate them to the young woman who was sitting by her side. We left when Jetta was tired and ready for a nap.

We left Fredericksburg, driving west, to pick up the Blue Ridge Parkway at Rockfish Gap near Waynsboro, Virginia, the very northern end of the parkway.  The Blue Ridge Parkway extends 469 miles along the crests of the southern Appalachians and links two national parks - Shenandoah and Great Smokey Mountains.  As we drove, late in the afternoon, it started to rain, the rain was much heavier than what we experience in Arizona, but it is quickly absorbed into the ground.  There was a bit of runoff next to the roads, but none of the flash floods we would expect in the desert after this kind of drenching. The rain lightened up and we set up camp at Otter Creek.  Otter Creek tumbles for 10 miles down the Blue Ridge into the James RiverIt was a quiet campground without many visitore, so we were able to find a secluded campsite tucked into the forest.  We set up our tent, but the surrounding wood was too wet to start a fire.  Rainy read a short story by Barbara Kingfish until it started to rain again.  We scrambled into the tent for the night.

We awoke to a beautifully sunny day!  Traveling along the parkway is a beautiful experience.  The winding roads have a 45 mph speed limit, no one is in a hurry, and there roadside overlooks are plentiful.  We took a detour off the Parkway to see the Natural Bridge, one of the seven natural wonders of the world.  Just past the natural bridge is a replication of an indian village with interpreters, a bit further down the trail was Lace Falls.                                   

  

We continued our journey along the parkway, stopping frequently to enjoy the overlooks and the hiking trails.  Rainy looked up swimming holes  and found a great place for us to detour slightly off the parkway for a swim.  The swimming hole was deep enough that we could jump off the rocks at the edge, plus there was a built-in water slide!  The cold water felt refreshing on this warm day.  Of course we had to walk along the creek for a bit.  Rainy lifted rocks searching for water creatures and found a salamander.  She also captured a couple of crawdads!  We took another detour, this time into Roanoke, Virginia for an early dinner at Thelma's Chicken & Waffles.  Rainy and I both ordered the fried chicken, which was outstanding.  On the side we shared grits, green beans, sweet peas, and of course, a waffle.  Back on the parkway, we camped at Rocky Knob, a much drier location without the fire flies that were prevalant the previous night.  There were way too many spiders at this campsite, so we quickly went into the tent, zipping up all possible spider entry places.  It was a warmer campsite, bit it did cool off quite a bit during the night.

 

Our first stop the next morning was Mabry Mill, which was run by E.B. Mabry from 1910 to 1935. We took the trail that lead to the gristmill, sawmill, blacksmith shop, distillery, and other exhibits.  The exhibits were all fascinating, set up to recreate what the area would have looked like when Mabry ran the mill.  There was a restaurant nearby which featured pancakes made from grains ground at the mill as well as ham.  On the menu there was city ham and country ham.  I made the mistake of asking the waitress what the difference was, she replied "City ham comes from city hogs and country ham comes from hogs raised in the country".  Actually, city ham is baked while country ham is salt cured and then fried, of course I ordered the country ham.  Along with my ham I had the cornmeal pancakes.  Rainy ordered the combo plate which came with a cornmeal, buckwheat, and pumpkin pancake.   She also had a side of sausage patties which were fabulous.

Our next stop along the Blue Ridge Parkway was the Blue Ridge Music Center which celebrates Blue Ridge Music and Musicians, a significant strand of American musical culture alive and thriving in the region.  Lucky for us, there was a group of musicians playing on this wonderful Sunday afternoon.

We continued our journey, with our next stop being the original Brinegar Cabin which was built by Martin Brinegar about 1880 and lived in until the 1930's when the homestead was purchased from his widow for the parkway.  The cabin had two rooms, the main room filled dominantly with a large loom and a spinning wheel.  The loom is in working condition and is used for demonstrations to park visitors.  There was also a smaller cabin used for food storage.  There was a wonderful garden filled with sorghum, flax, corn, gourds, pumpkins, beans, and so on.  The garden must have been at least 4 times the size of the cabin!

Our goal was to reach Price Lake, set up camp, and have time to do some fishing.  We managed to find a camp site that was right along the lake but still secluded from other campers.  I told Rainy to start fishing as I was setting up the tent.  She had a few bites, was tortured by a fish that was stealing her worm.  She finally managed to catch the fish, a small perch!  Once camp was set up, we headed out to hike the 3 miles around the lake, fishing as we went.  I have to admit, the fishing was disappointing to say the least!  Rainy caught one more tiny perch, and that was it.  The highlight of our walk around the lake was that we came upon a beaver on shore that scurried into the water when we approached!

It began to get dark, so we picked up the pace as we continued our hike around the lake, stopping less frequently to fish, still we hiked the last 15 minutes in the dark, gently feeling our way through the giant rhodadendrum tunnels.  Back at camp we enjoyed a campfire (we had bought some wood) and had s'mores.  It was almost midnight when we crawled into our sleeping bags.

It had rained during the night, and we woke up to some pretty dense fog.  The driving was a bit slower but the views were fascinating with the fog creeping in and out.  When we reached Linville Falls, we left the Blue Ridge Parkway to head west to Nashville.

It was a 5 hour drive to Nashville.  We got into some pretty heavy rain again which forced us to travel at a reduced speed.  The drive was beautiful, but it wasn't the parkway.  We arranged for a private room at the Music City Hostel.  We got checked in and headed out to dinner at a restaurant called the Loveless Cafe.  The cafe has been in existence since the 1950's, originally as part of a motel.  Recently the cafe was expanded and the motel converted into shops.  Before the meal was served we enjoyed freshly baked biscuits with peach, strawberry, and blackberry preserves.  Rainy ordered Fried catfish, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes with gravy, and green beans.  I had the barbequed pulled pork with cucumber and onion salad and hash brown casserole.  For dessert we shared a blackberry cobbler with ice cream.  I think we left with take-out boxes showing that we ate less than we were taking with us.  The food was the best but the servings were huge!  After dinner we went to the popular Blue Bird Cafe to listen to music.  Monday night is open mic for singers and song writers.  It was wonderful to listen to the musicians, the youngest which was 13.  Some were really good, some were okay, some should have stayed home.  We stayed afterwards to listen to a country rock band that was playing.  They too were very good and their music was fun.  It was getting late and we were tired, so it was back to the hostel for a good nights sleep and a much needed shower.

Virginia to DC and Back

Rainy and I got up early this morning as we had arranged to meet Jerry at 7:30, drive to the train station in downtown Fredericksburg, and catch the 7:50 VRE train into Washington DC.  Jerry works for the US Environmental Protection Agency under the Energy Star program and has an office in DC which he travels to once or twice a week.  It worked out wonderfully to have Jerry as a guide in catching the train, he told us about the different things that we could see out the train window on the 1 hour and 15 minute ride into DC.  We passed a tall Masonic Temple, passed over the Patomic River a number of times, and could even see some of the monuments in DC as our train was pulling into Union Station.  Jerry left us at Union Station, we agreed to meet back there at 5 pm to catch the 5:15 VRE train back to Fredericksburg at 5:15.

We bought two tickets to ride the Old Town Trolley, this way we could get a tour of the city while hopping on and off the trolley as we pleased.  It was 9:30 am and already sweltering outside.  The trolley was not air conditioned so se sat by an open window to catch the breeze.  The trolley took us past many of the federal buildings, the U.S. Capital, many of the Smithsonian Museums including the American Indian Museum and the Air & Space Museum.  We rode past the Smithsonian Castle and the Holocaust Memorial Museum.  From the trolley we could see the Washington Monument, The Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and the World War II Memorial.

  

We got off the trolley at the Museum of Natural History.  We thought we would be able to see a few of the Smithsonian museums, but we ended up spending our entire time here.  We started in the Dinosaur Hall, moved into the Life of the Ancient Seas hall and then into the Early Life Hall.  We took a break to have hot dogs in the cafe.  Rainy ordered the State Fair Dog which was topped with BBQ pork and coleslaw.  It was excellent.  Julie had the bratwurst with sour kraut and grilled onions which had too many onions and not enough sour kraut.   After lunch we saw an IMAX film on Dinosaurs of the Patagonia, a region in Argentina which holds an abundance of dinosaur fossils.

Once we were satisfied, we went into the Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals where we saw the Hope Diamond as well as other gem stones that were both mounted into beautiful settings and in their raw state, or polished yet unmounted.  We also viewed the extensive meteorite collection.  

Next we went into the Bones Hall, The Hall of Western Culture, the O. Orkin Insect Zoo, the Forensic Anthropology Hall, and the Mammal Hall.  By now it was 4:00 pm, time to catch the trolley back to Union Station.  We met up with Jerry with plenty of time to catch the 5:15 VRE train back to Fredericksburg.  It was nice to have the time on the train with Jerry, we talked the entire time finding out more about each others lives over the past 20 some years.  

Once back in Fredericksburg, we parted ways.  Rainy and I were checking into a new Inn closer to downtown.  We didn't have to drive very far to get to the Inn at the Olde Silk Mill.  It is a larger Inn with all the rooms on the second floor.  You enter through the lobby and climb a winding staircase.  The bed in our room is a very beautiful, huge, 4 poster bed.  For dinner we went to Tru Luv's American Bistro with a dining room overlooking the Rappahannock River.  For starters, we shared a very hearty bowl of French Onion Soup and a Garden Salad.  Rainy ordered the Shrimp and Sausage over Grits which was absolutely fabulous.  I ordered the July special of Fish and Chips.  The fish was battered and fried, a bit overdone and much too greasy; that was okay, I helped Rainy eat some of her dinner and went away full.  Back at the Inn, we got into our lovely 4 poster bed and immediately a slat under the bed broke and our mattress and box springs fell to the floor!  We managed to prop the bed up on the frame and gently got back into bed, trying not to move very much so that the bed wouldn't fall off the frame.  It worked and we went to sleep.