Road Trip - Memphis Elvis presley mansion

Day 3 - Memphis to Nashville

We stayed at what can only be described as THE worst hotel (unanimous decision, well after NOLA anything was going to be bad) which had a guitar shaped swimming pool...... 'nuff said! The reason for visiting Memphis - Graceland, of course!!! So, a VIP tour of Elvis Presley's mansion, aeroplanes and car museum beckoned.......

The first thing that struck me was how small the house was - I was expecting some 50 room mansion!

Lots of pictures below from the house, museum and aeroplanes and cars.

Above is the front room on the right as you enter the home.

Elvis' mother's bedroom and the dining room.

Another sitting room at the rear of the property and a pool table in the basement (my - that's Cae - favourite room. The walls and ceiling in the pool table room are ruched/pleated material. My God, the amount of material needed but it was exquisite albeit VERY 70's)!!!

Elvis's aeroplanes - very opulent, luxurious velvet, leather, glass tables, tape decks galore AND 24 carat gold seat belts to boot (the larger plane has a lounge, dining room, office and bedroom).

Elvis has left the building!  We piled back into the wagon and headed for Nashville. And, once again we decided to get off the highway and visited another Civil War site, Shiloh.

As we were driving to Shiloh, all along the roadside there were markers indicating a battle had taken place, or a canon, a memorial.  It was a very interesting site, not only because of the inumerable memorials scattered around but there was also a burial site/graveyard, a museum and a bookshop. A thought provoking visit.......
Shiloh done, we headed to Nashville for the night.

Day 4 is Nashville, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge http://nomadicfridays.blogspot.com/2016/07/road-trip-part-3-nashville-to.html

Road Trip Blue Ridge mountains

Day 5 Dollywood water park.

No pictures from this but it was a nice enough water park, typical in the fact there is very little shade and the temperature was high 90's so made it a very warm day.

In the instructions we were given to pick the key ups (and the same for the ziplining) there was
bold and underlined text repeating the nececssity NOT to trust navigation systems...... After a rather bumpy, dusty and dirty off-roading detour we FINALLY (oh, and a not so successful telephone conversation but a successful housecall) got the keys and failsafe instructions to Chocolate Moose cabin - aaaaahhhhhh.... and it was!


Day 6 Ziplining and water fall.

Day 6 we did the zipline (said with our chests puffed out)! This was 2.5 hours riding through the tree tops, and climbing what can only be described as wobbly towers, and was brilliant fun - would definitley recommend it!  Couldn't carry my phone so no pictures and to be honest, we were zipping so fast they'd have all been a bit blurred. But believe me, the scenery was fabulous!! The pictures below are from a local waterfall, Fall Branch Falls - it was a nice walk until I got stung saving Jessica from a hornet (at least that's how I saw it, Jessica thinks I was taking the micky out of her and deserved to get stung)!!

Cooking S'mores at the lodge.

Road Trip part 3 Nashville to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge

Day 4 - Can't even remember what the hotel was like.... After breakfast we headed into Nashville and specifically, to Broadway the main street. Lots of colourful shops, sculptures, people....it was buzzing with music coming from the bars and restaurants even at 11:00 in the morning (and soooo hot)! I was amazed at how cosmopolitan it was, I wasn't expecting highrise glass towers (of which there were loads)......

The final visit in Nashville was the shop for the TV series "American Pickers" who travel the US buying antiques.....

We drove on to Gatlinburg which was the biggest suprise of the trip.  It is home to Dolly Parton's theme park and water park granted (actually just a short trip off the main drag), but what I wasn't expecting was a full on tourist destination at the bottom of the Blue Ridge mountains!  It had 365 days a year christmas shops, crazy/mini golf, restaurants galore, gift shops, ball parks and much more besides. And, we were passing through to the next town of Pigeon Forge, which is exactly the same as Gatlinburg!!!!

Last two pictures are Pigeon Forge and the hotel we stayed in. Pigeon Forge is a real tourist attraction, buzzing, restaurants, bars, shops, cable car, walking to be done etc. etc. and I bet a fab place to be come winter!

Day 5 was spent in Dollywood water park, ALL day in the sun, sweating, burning....... etc., etc. Until it was time to get back in the air-conditioned car (yaaaaaaaay) and set sail for our log cabin in the Blue Ridge mountains. http://nomadicfridays.blogspot.com/2016/07/road-trip-blue-ridge-mountains.html

Road Trip Orlando to New Orleans to Memphis to Nashville to Blue Ridge mountains and home

Finally decided to do the road trip! The eldest daughter, Jessica (with Ryan) flew in on Saturday 18th June and we decided that as they would have jet lag we would make an early start on Sunday 19th.

Day 1 Orlando to New Orleans:
05:30 we hit the road. Pretty boring drive up the Turnpike and the I75 to our first stop which was Cracker Barrell in Tallahassee. Breakfast done, back on the road heading to New Orleans.

Pictures en route to New Orleans:

We arrived at around 15:00.  We chose a great hotel, The Four Points in the French Quarter, - THE best hotel of the trip! http://www.fourpointsfrenchquarter.com/ Checked in, got an upgrade (whoop whoop), tried out the balcony, then set off to explore the area:

Day 2 - New Orleans to Memphis:
This trip was fast and furious..... We decided to hit the road around 09:00 for Memphis - we thought about taking the scenic route but it was going to add several more hours to the already long trek so instead, we decided to break it up by going to the Civil War site at Vicksburg (half the scenic route, which got us off the mind boggling boring highways):

Vicksburg was my first Civil War site. Set in a National Park on entering you drive along a set route, past busts and memorials marking the battles and the leaders on both sides.  Remarkable place and well worth the visit with the USS Cairo gun ship being the center piece just outside the museum.

USS Cairo

USS Cairo

Day 3 Graceland, Memphis TN, Elvis Presley's mansion:
See Part 2:http://nomadicfridays.blogspot.com/2016/07/road-trip-memphis-elvis-presley-mansion.html