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

Savannah GA

We decided to take a trip to Savanah as our friends Rob and Caron are in Atlanta and agree to drive down to meet us.

We drive up on the Friday evening so that we have all day Saturday and Sunday morning before making the trip (3-4 hours) back to Orlando.

Saturday morning we took a walk abbout waiting for Rob and Caron to arrive.

Rob - "I hear that ships come into this port" Steve - "Really let me see if I can spot one"

We took a bus ride around the town but for some reason I have no photo's from that must have been so interesting I forgot to take them!

History: During the civil war the Union army camped out in the Colonial Park cemetary, it was not ruined but gravestones where moved or written on, the wall at the back are stones that where moved and the grave site is no longer known, so they put them on wall.

Saturday night and we go to a nice restaurant in the old market - Seafood and Steak. http://www.belfordssavannah.com/. Worth a visit if in the area.

Below to the left is Rob re-enacting the scene from Forest Gump that was filmed in Savannah. "Life is like a box of chocolates", Darcy finding it all very amusing!

After the restaurant and a few beers, Rob decides its time to talk to the Police!

Sunday morning up bright and early and we drive down to Tybee Island for a walk along the beach.

Visit to Savanah done time to drive home, looking forward to our next meeting with Rob and Caron!! - Make it soon.

Road trip 2016

We are looking at doing a road trip this year and I am currently looking at this as an Agenda:

Day 1 Drive from Florida to New Orleans - looking at staying in the French Quarter for the afternoon and night, then looking to leave some time the following day.

Day 2 Drive from New Orleans to Graceland Memphis, stay over night.

Day 3 Take a trip around Graceland in the morning and in the afternoon head over to Nashville.

Day 4 Walk around Nashville.  I have these ideas for the day:

• Grand ole Oprey
• Lane Motor Museum
• The Johnny Cash Museum
• Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
• Willie Nelson and Friends Museum and General Store

In the evening drive to Gatlinburg.

Day 5 Visit Dollywood for the day and in the evening drive off to Blue Ridge Mountains and stay in a cabin.

Day 6 Visit a zipline, maybe Canopy Tours. Still staying in a log cabin.

Day 7 Drive back to Florida



Let me know of any ideas!!

Florida for Christmas 2014

We decided that we wanted to go to Florida for Christmas so decided on making this a road trip, it is 1166 miles to get to Orlando from where we live and the trip passes through, Texas, Louisianna, Missisippi, Alabama and Florida.

We departed December 19th at 14:00, we aimed to try and get to Pensacola for the first stop, but a traffic jam at Beaumont delayed us by two hours and in the end we only got as far as Baton Rouge, we stayed in a Hilton garden motel for night arriving at midnight.

Next morning we got up early and hit the road, on the journey we kept ourselves amuzed by looking for state line signs, tried to take photo's but where not very successfull, The Central Time/Eastern Time sign is in Florida and we managed to get a picture of that.

There really isn't much to see on the journey, especially the first day as most the driving was done in the dark, second day was a little better but once you hit Florida pan handle it gets pretty boring, up and down hill with trees either side!

 We finally arrived at the villa which we booked through Florida villa rentals. It was a 3 bedroom villa with a heated pool, which was a good choice as the water can be chilly in the winter, we even took our own christmas tree!

Lightening storm Austin

October 2nd and we had a quick lightening storm, pictures below: