Day Four: Hello, Memphis!

 With our initial mission completed, we spent the night at the bottom left hand corner of Arkansas (Hope. Arkansas), Bill Clinton's hometown.  I liked it there and want to go back to explore it more.  But today, we had to make tracks to the upper right hand corner of Arkansas if we wanted to see some sights in Memphis.  

One of us was more ready than the other, as evidenced by the picture below.  He's tired.

We crossed the Mississippi river again today and rolled into Memphis around 1:00 or so.  We stopped at the welcome center, made sandwiches there, and ate them in the car.  It was close to 98 degrees then and getting muggier by the minute.  

The welcome center sits right on the Mississippi river.  This city reminds me a lot of Richmond.  There's the "bottom" near the river with the train tracks running through town. It has an eclectic mix of old and new buildings alike.  One way streets and blocked-off streets (made for pedestrian traffic) dot the city.  It has a grit to it as well as an air of sophistication.  I could SOOO live in this town.

Elvis is truly larger than life!

B. B. King and Lucille. 

Christian and I each had one thing we wanted to do in Memphis and both of things were historic.

Here's Christian's pick.  If you know your history, then you know the significance of this landmark.  We did not tour the hotel, but took pictures of the outside.  The Civil Rights Museum is housed in the original lobby area of the Lorraine Hotel.  You can tour the upstairs floors (we saw people milling around in there from the outside).  Martin Luther King was assassinated on the balcony of this little motel almost 60 years ago.  Hard to believe that much time has gone by since this event.  I'm amazed that my "youngster" was interested in going to see the spot.  

My choice was Sun Recording Studios.  If you know your rock 'n roll history, you know the role this little place played in shaping the music we ALL listen to today.  Funny thing about this tour today.  Every morning when my first alarm goes off, I usually peruse Face Book to see what articles of interest popup or search something of interest.  Today, I did a search.  The subject, Holiday Inn Hotels.  Why?  Because I had just woken up in my third one this week and the first thing that came to mind was the giant signs that were first used to advertise the hotel.  (the picture below is just from the internet, not mine.)

 As I was researching, I found that the man who came up with the idea for this hotel chain (Kemmons Wilson) was actually from Memphis.  How cool, right?  Well, it turns out that another man from Memphis, Sam Phillips, invested in this hotel idea with Kemmons Wilson.  Sam Phillips was diversifying his portfolio with this investment because his initial business idea was... 

Memphis Recording Services which became...

Sun Recording Studio.  Who knew Holiday Inn would have an Elvis connection?  Crazy.

Sun Recording Studio consists of  three rooms: a reception area, the studio itself, and the control room.  The museum was really cool.  The curators have all done their homework on this landmark and can tell you all kinds of cool stuff about the people behind the music.  One of the best parts of this tour is getting to hear the early recordings of Elvis, Ike Turner, B. B. King, and a group called the Pisonairs.  In 1987, the studio was purchased and re-opened as a museum during the day and a recording studio at night.  It's still used this way today.  

This drum set was left by U2 in 1987.  They've never come back for it.

Our last stop in Memphis was Bass Pro Shops.  This store was pretty cool.  There's so much to see here.  They have an inn (yup, right in the store), some of the biggest fish in a pond I've ever see, an attraction ride (elevator to the top of the glass pyramid), a museum dedicated to Ducks Unlimited memorabilia, and one of the most amazing sights to behold!  Bill Dance in his boat with his fishing rod!  This wax statue of Dance made me laugh out loud.  If you aren't familiar with this man, you need to check out some videos of him and his antics.  He used to have a syndicated show that would come on tv on the weekends.  He would talk about fishing, lures, where to catch certain types of fish, and have special guests come fish with him.  Let's just say Bill has a hard time staying in boat and keeping up with his fishing pole. 

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We've wound up back in Mississippi for the night so we can rest up for our next adventure tomorrow.  Off to Nashville we go!

Day Three: Mission Completed!

Whew! What a DAY this has been.  I was never so glad to get away from a town as I was Meridian, MS.  I'll bet if you look up all the 20/20, Dateline, and Murder in a Small Town episodes, you're bound to find at least 10 that spotlight that town.  It was very sketchy and a little scary to say the least.  I felt safe in the hotel room, but not so much outside it.  

We left there heading west to Texarkana, TX.  We went through Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and touched a toe in Texas. 

The first stop today was in Vicksburg, MS.  Yes, the Vicksburg from the Civil War.  We explored this quaint little town an a whim.  

When you look across the Yazoo river, you see Louisiana.  The state line actually runs down the middle of the river.  

We checked out two museums here.  One was a Civil War museum that was privately owned by a very friendly and smart guy.  This place was LOADED with artifacts from all over the south.

The other museum we checked out was a Coca-Cola museum.  If you know me well, you know I am never too far away from a Diet Coke.  How are Coke and Vicksburg connected?  There was a candy store in Vicksburg that was bottling their own flavors of drinks.  The gentleman who owned it decided to try bottling Coke.  The first bottles were shipped to Atlanta and ended up being ok.  So thanks to this little candy store in Vicksburg, we now enjoy colored sugar water in many flavors in bottles and cans.  Who knew?

This is the operation used to fill those bottles.  It's just so interesting to me how this candy store owner figured this out and created the industry norm.  

From here, we moved on to Louisiana.  We saw pipe lines for what we think may have been natural gas sitting in fields.  We also saw oil well pumps in fields.  I was glad Christian got to see those things actually do exist in the manner we have all seen in cartoons and movies.  

It wouldn't be a Lindsey trip without checking out something very odd and unusual.  So we stopped in Gibsland and checked out the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum.  It was kind of cool, but creepy at the same time.  It felt strange to be there looking at embalming pictures of these two notorious robbers and murderers.  The town is nothing more than a couple of buildings in the middle of nowhere, but they hang onto the famous take-down.  They let everyone know that this is for educational purposes and not truly for celebration.  We also drove down to the historical marker that marks the spot (about 30 feet away) where they were ambushed.

The marker was made with "bullet holes" in it.

Finally, we rolled into Texarkana!  It's a lot like Bristol in that there is a historical section and then two blocks over there is nothing but run-down houses and apartments and destitute people.  We stood in two places at once!  

Tomorrow we are "East bound and down/ Loaded up and trucking". 

Day Two: The Day of Side Quests

 Our morning started off with breakfast at the hotel.  Not much to write home about, but filled our bellies. Leaving Alpharetta, GA proved to be the most difficult thing I did today.  We started off ok, on 285, but that quickly turned "south" (pun totally intended). I sat in traffic for 15 minutes and decided to ditch the interstate. This was really a bad idea.  It took about 1 and 1/2 hours to get out of Alpharetta and on route 20.  However, the route took us though this AMAZING neighborhood full of million-dollar mansions (old and new). That was quite a treat. 

One problem I had today was trying to figure out why my Garmin's arrival time was showing us making 100 miles in 30 minutes.  It too me almost two hours to figure out we were moving through a different time zone (duh).  The car's clock is still in VA time, but my phone and Garmin are now in the correct time zone.  

Our fist side quest... TALLADEGA SPEEDWAY!  This place is so cool!  We just took a quick pic and moved on.

Lunch you ask?  BUC-EE'S in Leeds, AL.  Christian was SO excited to be going to Buc-ee's.  The one in Leeds is small, but still busy and overwhelming.  Pulled pork won the day (sorry, Keri). And, of course, we had to get pictures with Buc-ee. 

Christian bought a hat.  Silly boy. 

The third and final quest for today was unexpected., Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum.  This place had over 1,000 motorcycles on display.  They were from every make, model, and year.  There were formula 1 racers there, too (even one on top of the elevator).  I took over 100 pictures, so the ones here will give you an idea of what it was like.  Oh, they also have a track where you can have a driving experience pushing a Porsche to its limits (or as fast as you want to go).  Beautiful complex, friendly staff, and all sorts of bikes a cars.  

We ended our day in Meridian, Mississippi.  Our hotel looked a little sketchy at first, but then the parking lor filled up, making me feel better.  We're hanging out here tonight and getting ready to do it all over again tomorrow.

Day One: Four States in 12 hours.

 So, what do you do when your boy graduates from high school, turns 18 two weeks later, and is slated to ship off with the US Army in less than two months?  You plan a trip for just the two of you, that's what you do.  You also base the trip on one of your favorite shared movies, Smokey and the Bandit.  We left home this morning around 8 AM looking all fresh-faced and smiling, and landed in Alpharetta, GA tired and road weary.  

Here we go!

We stopped a few times along the way.  The first one was in Charlotte, NC, home of the Panthers!  No pictures of the stadium to share here, but we stopped at Johnson and Wales University and had a great lunch from the "chuck box".  Sandwiches, fruit, and no-bake cookies.  Beautiful day to eat outside.  Sun was gorgeous and the breeze was perfect!

Go WILDCATS!

After stopping for lunch in North Carolina, we traveled on southward and drove through South Carolina.  We made two stops there.  One was to capture the grandeur of this giant peach water tower in Gaffney, SC.  It looks like a giant butt!  I couldn't stop laughing about it.  We made some truly off-color jokes about it and laughed a good bit at the peach's expense.  

Look a the GIANT BUTT! 

Once we snapped these few pics, we moved onto a place called Strawberry Fields.  It was a bit like our Country Basket orchard stand back home, mixed with The Creamery (but on a smaller scale.)  We bought really good milk shakes and Christian bought the biggest peach I had ever seen (bigger than his fist).  He said it was good.  He ate it in the car on the way.

We sat in traffic for about an hour in Greenville, SC due to an accident on BOTH sides of the highway.  Once we started up a good clip and made it about 30 miles, we slowed down again.  This time it was on our side of the highway.  Someone decided to drive his truck on top of the Jersey wall.  When we passed by it, we could easily see his spare tire, dive shaft, and rear axle because they were elevated (like he was on a lift).  His truck was just kind of dangling on the wall, perfectly balanced.  By the time we got to it, the emergency crew had gotten there and strapped it to a lift to start extricating it from its perch.  

As we drove farther and further down 85 south, I thought we'd never make it to our destination for tonight.  Every time I looked at the Garmin, it seemed that time kept getting longer and longer.  Once we turned off the interstate, the Garmin said our hotel was 30 minutes away.  After driving through a few gated communities, past a golf course, and several office parks, we finally found our place to stay.  We dropped our stuff and then went to find dinner.  

Mediterranean for the win! 

Of course, teenagers can't stay away from their electronics for too long. 

All-in-all, it's been a pretty good first day out.  The weather was perfect, no really bad situations, and we enjoyed a few laughs and good food.  Can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.