It was around 19 F this morning with light snow falling. At least we didn’t have ice to contend with on the windshield. I really enjoyed getting snow on me and my coat and having snow blow into the car every time we opened a door. OK, call me weird but this is so different from what I am used to at home that it really is fun.
Today we drove to from Bardstown, KY to Memphis, TN, which is about a 6 hour drive. Many parts of the highway were cut through rocky hills and the sides of the highway were just covered with icicles -- it was really pretty. Interestingly, the color of the highway pavement is brown in Tennessee -- at least along the Tennessee Music Highway. Along the way we passed by London, Paris, and Cuba, and I just have to mention the town of Bucksnort, which gave us the giggles. Oh, and I certainly don’t want to forget that we passed up the opportunity to visit the Grinders Switch Winery (remember Minnie Pearl? She was from Grinders Switch), the Loretta Lynn Dude Ranch, Dinosaur Land (I don’t know how we managed to steel ourselves to drive by that attraction), Fort Pillow (now I ask you, could that really have been a very effective fort with a name like that?), and the Corvette museum (that was especially difficult to drive by). We even drove past Nashville because we just didn’t have time to stop -- guess I have to save that for another trip. As a side note, we noticed quite a few “adult” stores (some of them were “super adult” stores and some of them were in big buildings!). I guess they are on the highway to get them out of town so nobody knows when you go shopping there.
I have to mention here that throughout our trip, the one sad thing is that we have not found any good coffee. So this morning we stopped at a Starbucks in Bowling Green. We each took a sip of our coffee, looked at each other, grinned, and then let out a big ahhhhh. What is it about high-end restaurants not being able to make good coffee? If I ran the world, I’d make good coffee the law!
We finally arrived in Memphis and checked into the Heartbreak Hotel, across the street from the Graceland mansion (need I say that Graceland was Elvis Presley’s home?). Whimsical, 1970s kitschy furniture in the lobby, Elvis movies playing on the 1970s TV set in the lobby, and Elvis photos everywhere. We booked a normal room, nothing fancy, and we certainly got a room that was just that -- nothing fancy. But it is adequate.
After settling in for a few minutes, we went right back out and toured Graceland mansion. It really was very interesting even though I’m not a rabid Elvis fan. Definitely worth going at least once (and yes, Paul Simon’s song Graceland keeps whirling around in my head). When looking at his costumes, I was surprised to see that he was not a big man -- I guess I kind of expected such a big star to be physically larger.
For dinner, we went to the lobby, picked up a table-top phone that had a base covered in pink fake fur and a handset encrusted in rhinestones -- the phone goes directly to Marlowe’s, a highly recommended BBQ restaurant nearby and decorated liberally with Elvis photos. In ten minutes their stretch pink Cadillac arrived to pick us up and take us to the restaurant -- no charge. The first thing I have to say is that the portions are enough to feed three to four people and the food is good. We started with deep fried corn fritters (heaven!) and then I had BBQ spaghetti (pulled pork with BBQ sauce on a bed of spaghetti -- hey, when in Rome and all that) with macaroni and cheese (not as good as in other places on this trip but still very good) and coleslaw (a girl has to have something that looks like a vegetable once in awhile). And I finished off with a mound of banana pudding that was eye-popping in size. And of course, our pink Cadillac limo took us back to the hotel. I can now say that I feel fully Elvisized, rolled, dipped, and covered in all things Elvis. And that’s enough for me. As I am writing this, the Tennessee Jamboree is on the TV (all kinds of country dancing, banjo playing, and fiddling) -- I love it!
And this just about brings the trip to an end. We drive back to Dallas tomorrow and fly home the day after. Thank you for following my blog.
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