2015 April

We moved from Natchez, MS to Tupelo, MS driving 266 miles up the Natchez Trace Parkway.  We never would have imagined that we would drive 266 miles with no stop sign or traffic light in the United States.  The speed limit is 50 miles an hour.  The Trace is a beautiful drive with lots of history along the way. 

 

Arriving in Tupelo we visited Elvis Presley’s Birthplace and Museum along with the Elvis Presley Driving Tour through town.  

The Birthplace and Museum are a depiction of his life from birth through age 13 before the family moved to Memphis.  We went inside the house his father Vernon built in 1934, Elvis was born there in 1935.  Elvis’ childhood church where he received his early musical influence was moved to this site.  The grounds and museum are all very well done.   



 

 

 

 

 



  On the Elvis Presley Driving Tour we visited many of the sites where Elvis spent his childhood.  Johnny’s Drive-In has been in business since 1942 and has the booth Elvis used to sit in.  The Tupelo Hardware Co. is 4^th generation and still has the glass cabinet that Elvis bought his first guitar out of.  There is an Elvis Statue at the site of the Fairgrounds where Elvis did his first performance at age 10. 

 

 

From Tupelo we continued up the Natchez Trace Parkway to Nashville.  The Red Bud, and Dog Wood trees were in full bloom along the trace, what a beautiful site.  There was a lot of pollen, by the time we finished the full 444 miles our trailblazer and Motorhome were covered in a thin green layer.  We have never seen so much pollen in the air.   

We made a few stops, one at the Old Trace where 13 Unknown Confederate soldiers are buried. 

 

 

 

The next stop was the Sunken Trace, an area that would wash out in the rain so there are 3 trails going through.   

 

The last stop was the site where Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark died and was buried.  There is still some suspicion that his death was a suicide. 

 

 

 

Our next stop was Nashville for our nephew’s wedding and sightseeing.  We drove by the Grand Old Opry House, home of the Grand Ole Opry since 1974.  We had lunch at the Aquarium Restaurant next door at Opry Mills Mall.  It has a 200,000 gallon aquarium with awesome sea life. We toured through downtown Nashville to get the lay of the land. 

 

We took a tour of Belle Meade Plantation.  At one time it was a 5,400 acre thoroughbred horse farm.  This was the premier thoroughbred farm in the south that raised a stock of horses that were sold and shipped throughout the country.  Horses like Seabiscuit, Secretariat and every horse to race in the Kentucky Derby since 2003 can trace their bloodlines back to Belle Meade.  Unfortunately we got rained out so did not get good pictures of the grounds and no pictures were allowed inside.  If you ever have the chance it is well worth the visit. 

 

We spent a half a day at The Hermitage, President Andrew Jackson’s home.  We toured his house and farm.  There is a museum dedicated to his heritage and history.  His burial site is in the gardens.

 

We spent a day at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, walking around downtown Nashville and listening to honky tonk music in one of the many watering holes. 

 

 

 

 

The Ryman Theater is where the Grand Ole Opry started in 1943 until 1974 when it moved to the Grand Ole Opry House out by the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. 

 

 

Our nephew Ryan’s wedding was the weekend of April 11th.The whole Shaw family came to town, it was so great to see everyone.  We did some sightseeing and ate at the Loveless Café, in business since 1951 just off the Natchez Trace.  They had the best biscuits ever!!.

 



The wedding was at the Belle Meade Plantation.  The wedding was in the garden with the reception in and around the stables.  It was a beautiful venue.  No pictures were allowed at the wedding ceremony.

 

 

Our next historical site was the Nashville Parthenon, it’s a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens, Greece. It was built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition.  The large statue of Athena Parthenos within is a reconstruction of the long lost original to careful scholarly standards. She is cuirassed and helmeted, carries a shield on her left arm and a small 6 foot (1.8 m) high statue of Nike (Victory) in her right palm, and stands 42 feet (13 m) high, gilt with more than 8 pounds (3.6 kg) of gold leaf.  The bronze doors weigh 7.5 tons each. They are 7 feet wide, 24 feet high, and 1 foot thick. They are considered to be the largest matching set of bronze doors in the world.

 

 

We spent a day in Franklin, TN site of the civil war Battle of Franklin.  The battle took place on Novermber 30, 1864 and was the most destructive of human life, in proportion to the number engaged of any battle in the four years of the Civil War.  In just 5 hours of heavy fighting the Confederate casualties numbered over 7,000 which included those wounded, captured or killed.  The Union lost only 2,500 men.

 

There are 3 historical homes you can tour in the area.  We chose the Lotz House.  The Lotz house served as a hospital for the wounded soldiers on both sides until the following summer. To this day, one can step into the Lotz House and see numerous blood stains, and bullet holes in the rooms. The house itself suffered severe battle damage, but because the structure served as German master woodworker Lotz’s “show house,” he was quick to make repairs. However, some of the battle scars remain. During the battle a solid shot cannon ball crashed through the roof, smashing into the floor of an upstairs bedroom and down to the first floor. The large repaired patch made by Mr. Lotz remains in the second floor. And on the first floor where the cannonball finally came to rest you can clearly see where the hot lead ball first hit, burning the floor as it rolled.

 

 

We made a stop at the Confederate Cemetery located on the Carnton Plantation, another one of the historical battle sites.  This was a very somber site.  The solders were buried as a group by state, each state had a monument with the number of solders buried. 

 

 

We spent another day in downtown Nashville.  We toured The Ryman Theater, original home of the Grand Ole Opry.  It was originally built in 1892 as the Union Gospel Tabernacle, it was renamed the Ryman Auditorium in 1904.  From 1904 until the Grand Ole Opry came in 1943 it was used as the venue for a wide variety of events.  

 

Jerry had a great time on his Segway seeing all the sites around town while Belinda walked off all the calories.

 

 

We went back down on Sunday, April 19, our 35^th wedding anniversary and spent the night in the city at the Hotel Indigo.  We enjoyed several honky tonks with lots of country music and a wonderful Italian dinner.  Jerry had another afternoon on the Segway while Belinda enjoyed the Johnny Cash Museum.  We had a few rain showers come through but that didn’t dampen our fun.

 

We headed further North into Kentucky and stopped for the night to see Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system in the world.  We did the 2 hour Historic tour including some wide open spots and one very narrow spot.  They mined Salt Peter back in the Revolutionary War days to make gun powder. 

 

 

We spent a week in Florence, IN, (southern Indiana on the Ohio River) washing and waxing the rig after 7 ½ months on the road.  We had a nice visit with Sandy & Ron and the newlyweds Ryan & Tiffany.  We met them in Lexington for dinner. 

 

We stopped in Anderson, Indiana to visit the RC Aeromodelers Museum in Muncie Indiana.  This has been on Jerry’s bucket list for a long time.   

From there we worked our way back home stopping in Bridgeport to visit friends and pick up a few RV supplies.  Finally back home to Petoskey after almost 8 months on the road.  We are both ready to keep going but have a list of house maintenance items to take care of this summer and visiting with family and friends.