Tuesday November 1, 2011
We are leaving Belleville and going south!
Our plan is to go as far as Windsor and spend the night at a Walmart, then cross over to the States in the morning.
Between Trenton and Toronto the 401 has a very nice name...
Crossing Toronto is a charm. A lot easier then Montréal on a good day. The driver of this Canada Post truck waved at us and showed 2 fingers to say he only had 2 years to work and then do like us. Pretty cool!
After Toronto, a short break to stretch our legs.
There is a lot of wind turbine down this way.
The roads are nice, I am not tired of driving. We decide to cross over to the States right now and carry on a little further.
On the left of the photo you can see Detroit. And we are coming up to the American customs.
WOW! Never as it been this fast to cross the border, 3 questions and we are good to go!
I think they want us to spend $$$ down here...
Detroit was pretty easy to get across even if there was some action on the shoulder. And a nice BIG basketball...
The Interstate 75 in Michigan is not a nice stretch of road, 82 km of very bad pavement.
Ohio, here we come.
For those of you who know a little bit of the history of the Jeep. You probably get this photo...
Finally some cheap fuel at about $0.97 per liter for diesel.
I-75 in Ohio is like a carpet, what a nice road. But I am getting tired of driving.
So after a short hop of 760 km, we stop at the Walmart in Lima, Ohio.
Could not resist a shopping spree at this dollar store!
Usually I prefer not to drive such a long distance but the weather was great and the road were almost perfect, why not!
Wednesday November 2, 2011
Less then halfway to Nashville. Beautiful weather to be traveling.
After Ohio, Kentucky.
I need a short break every few hours just to get the blood going, either in the brain or the legs, or both?
Another 50 or 60 klicks and we will be in Nashville.
Our campground, for a week!
After registering, as we are getting back to the motorhome we notice the sound of air escaping. It is the right front tire of the car. It is almost totally deflated. A small piece of metal is sticking out of the tire.
Take the wheel off and replace it with the spare to get the flat tire fixed.
Pretty lucky this did not happen on the interstate at high speed.
Today we traveled 685 km and I am "done". But with roads so nice it is not that hard.
Thursday November 3, 2011
Nashville, here we come!
Today we decided to do a quick tour down town Nashville where the Honky Tonks are.
Honky Tonks are simply small bars where people play country music.
Most bars are narrow and long with bands playing from 1030 am until the early morning.
From Blues to Hillbilly, Jazz and country western, they play it all.
The purple building you see is the Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, a famous bar. It has a long history of having stars drop by for a drink after they perform in Nashville.
Two other famous bar are the "Second Fiddle" and the "Layla's Bluegrass Inn".
We tried both of them, more on that later.
Michèle is having a good time with the camera. She says I am with my friends...
As they say, "today we took the pulse of Nashville".
We only visited a few bars so if we did not mention other it does not mean they are not good.
Friday November 4, 2011
Let's start the day with a free museum. The Cooter's.
If you were watching TV in the 80s, you probably watched "The Dukes of Hazzard".
Cooter was the owner of the gas station in town. He decided to make a museum celebrating the TV show "The Dukes of Hazzard".
General Lee, the famous Dodge Charger 1969 of the Dukes Brothers.
They do not mention how many Chargers they demolished during the shows but this photo gives us a good idea.
With some of the casts.
If you liked the TV show, drop by and it is interesting. It was OK with us.
Right next door from Cooter's is the Willie Nelson and Friends museum. This one is not free but worth it.
A nice museum, we both liked it.
In the afternoon, we took a shuttle to get downtown. This way we can "visit" a few bars and catch the shuttle back later on.
No need to drive.
The first bar we hit, the Second Fiddle. Just like in the movie Coyote Ugly, she sings and dances on the bar. You can see how narrow the place is.
Next, the Layla's Bluegrass Inn. We really like this bar, always lots of people and good music. Even if the Pabst is $2.50 vice a $1.00 during the week.
One place we could not miss, we were told, was the Wild Horse Saloon. It is huge! Good food, even line dancing lessons. We found the place a little "cold" compare to the small bars.
And we have more fun with our "friends"...
An other "can't miss" bar, the Cadillac Ranch. Maybe we were there too early but it did not do it for us.
Now the Big Bang Dueling Pianos. WOW! Super bar. Two pianos with two musicians. They also play drums, guitars and sing! Non stop singing and when they get tired, two other musicians come and replace them. Just incredible the energy in this bar.
We loved it!
Two good days. We really like Nashville so far.
Saturday November 5, 2011
Back on Broadway, to the information center, with the big spear.
OK! Can you see the guitar? The Mike? The lips of the singer?
We are visiting the "Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum".
Poor Americans, they can not take their weapons in, sad!
This is the first time we see this sign in a public place.
A very interesting museum. I would recommend this museum if you like Country Western music. Really good museum.
The Pontiac Bonneville of Webb Pierce. Pierce was very popular back in the 50s.
The photos are a little out of focus because I did not have my tripod and we could not use flash.
Pay attention to the details of the car, like the revolvers, the horse's head for control knobs, etc.
Elvis' 1960 Cadillac. With 24 carats gold trims and 40 coats of clear paint with crushed diamonds in the clear coats.
It even had a TV and a record player inside. What a luxury at the time.
One of the walls with gold and platinum records from all the Country and Western artist.
Some of the suits that was used by singers. Some were pretty flamboyant.
More gold and platinum records and the spiral staircase between the 3rd an 2nd floor.
Really nice museum and I would recommend it to every one who has even a little big of liking to Country Western music.
The "Walk of Fame" of Country Western music.
Notice to the right of Michèle, Elvis?
We ended the day with a stop at our favorite bar in Nashville...
Lots of street musicians. Another view of Broadway street.
We really like Nashville.
Sunday November 6, 2011
We are going to visit a plantation, Belle Meade.
A beautiful rose!
Most of the plantations were lost to economics down turns or by the descendent's mismanagement.
Belle Meade was lost because of the economy.
The first house build by the Harding family. They lived in this house from 1790 to 1807.
Belle Meade as it was in 1853. In the south, you (almost) always have rocking chairs on the front porch.
Our guide for the tour of Belle Meade.
The back side of the house.
The first photo is of the gardener's house and the next photo is a replica of a slave's house. We have learned the vast majority of the slaves stayed to work at the plantation after the liberation of slaves. The slaves were treated fairly well for slaves in those days. One of the best paid employee after the liberation was a former slave. Bell Meade was a plantation for horses. Here they were breeding some of the best racing horses at the time. Most great racing horses of today can trace back their ancestor from this plantation.
More fun with our friends...
Back from our visit, we went to check out the mattress sale at Camping World. Our mattress is old and lumpy. Time to change. Here we are taking the old mattress to the dumpster.
But the new mattress does not fit in the trunk or in the back seat. We have to leave the door open for the drive back to the campground. Only a 100 meters drive.
Our new mattress comes in a box, here it is out of the box.
The final product!
We had a very good visit at the plantation and on top of that, we now have a good mattress.
Monday November 7, 2011
Nashville has a trolley with guides and the pass is valid for 24 hours from the time of purchase. You can get off and on at anytime. Michèle waiting for the trolley.
Of course this is not free. But the price was not bad at all. We even got a percentage off for being in the military.
Our ride... Jason is our driver and guide.
The tour takes about one hour and we have chosen to go around once before we would get off to visit anything.
One of the stops...
Jason recommended this place for lunch. "Very good and cheap" he said and it was very good, cheap and fast.
After lunch we got back on the trolley and stopped at the State Capitol of Tennessee.
Does not matter where you are from, Canada or the States, the political building always have to be big and imposing...
They are like us and are representing us after all?
A short break to read some of the information about the capitol.
Like I said, it is imposing and it had to be build on a hill because "they" look after us after all!
We really liked this visit even if it was self-guided.
From the capitol, looking towards the bi-centennial park, you can see a map of Tennessee. Between the road and the bridge.
On this big map, Michèle is on Nashville and I am on Memphis.
The bi-centennial park has a "history wall" and each column represent important years in time and the wall breaks it down in a more "narrow" time. This is very interesting to read. Notice the mention of French Canadian on the wall.
I think this is a very good idea for a country, province, city or village to do because it forces people to look at the importance of where they come from in time. Maybe understand better where they are going...
From the other end of the centennial park you can see the capitol, well the big "Days Inn" behind the capitol kind of takes it away.
The sound inside of this circle is particular. You can see three stars on the ground. They represent the three part of Tennessee, The east side, the center and the west side. They are on the state flag.
A WWII monument dedicated to all fighting men of Tennessee. A big globe and distance from Tennessee to where they fought. Tennessee's motto is "The Volunteer" state.
On our way back from Nashville. A nice view of the city center.
Close to our campground we have the "new" Grand Ole Opry. A very big entertainment complex and they have some pretty Christmas lights on.
The trees are actually "enveloped" in big net bags and they have lights attached to them. This way they do not have to pick up any dead leaves from the ground. Really pretty.
An other very good day.
Tuesday November 8, 2011
For the centennial of Tennessee in 1897 and the International Exposition, the city build a replica of the Greek Parthenon in Nashville.
Notice on the photo the little "lip" or step on the floor? This is to flood the floor with water with about 3 cm of water so the morning sun coming through the main doors can reflect and illuminate the Statue of Athena.
Pretty cool bronze doors.
The doors have this lion head on them. The nose is polished from all the people touching it.
In the center of the Parthenon we have this big statue of Athena, goddess of war and wisdom (and many more). She is 13 meter tall. In her right hand, she holds Nike, the goddess of victory, she is 1.95 meter tall.
Together they have 3.6 kilogram of gold on them.
The friends we meet last year in Miami are in Nashville at the same time as us. Cool!
Manon, Jean, their daughter Nathalie and Nathalie's daughter, Ophélie. Us in front of Athena.
Athena's shield and a back view of Athena.
A close up of Nike I mentioned before.
Us in front of a statue (Gargoyle).
In the afternoon we visited the Ryman Auditorium. You can see it in the middle of the photo.
For the francophone it may not mean much but for the anglophones, well, probably a lot more.
This is where the original "Grand Ole Opry" started and lasted many many years.
Without getting into to many details. 1892 ended the construction of the "Union Gospel Tabernacle". So much history that I am going to let you read the information at this site.
Back at the campground, we noticed lots of Chrismass lights flashing. Well they are at the campground next to us.
Got to go and check it out. Very pretty.
We really like Nashville and the last four days have been very busy.
Wednesday November 9, 2011
Today we are leaving Nashville behind us to go to Memphis.
Here is the campsite we are leaving behind. OK for a campground if you do mostly visiting.
We are also leaving our friends Jean and Manon. They will be in Memphis in a few days.
Easy day with only 360 km to go on Interstate 40.
Like all interstate, they are fast, lots of trucks and very boring.
Who would live in this town?
Canada in the USA!
We arrived at Graceland RV Park and Campground just after 3 pm. This campground is right next to Graceland.
Nice campground, long sites and a little close to your neiborg but hey!
Lots of big trees on this campground.
Like I said, nice road to get here but very boring.
Thursday November 10, 2011
Sunny day but on the cool side.
We decide to go for a bicycle ride on Mud Island.
A very nice 6 km bicycle ride by the Mississipi river.
Friday November 11, 2011
Our friends Jean, Manon, their daughter Nathalie and their grand-daughter Ophélie got here last evening. Their friends, Christianne and Jacques are with them.
Together, we decided to visit Graceland today.
Elvis, here we come!
This plaque tell us a little bit about Elvis. You can see notes left on the wall by Elvis' fans.
We take the platinum tour for $35 and we even got a discount of $1 for having been in the military.
A small buse takes us from the museum complex to Graceland. From L to R, Manon, Christianne, Jean, Nathalie and Jacques.
Ophélie is sleeping in the stroller.
Now remember that Elvis purchase this place in 1957 and passed away in 1977. At the time this was a very luxurious place.
For the tour, they give you a MP3 type player with head phone and in every room you have the information at your fingers tips. We love this type of tour. For more information on Graceland, click here.
The living room and the music room in the back, notice the 15 foot long sofa.
The billiard room with its ceiling and walls covered with curtains.
Cutting edge kitchen.
In the basement, you also have a media room, complete with three televisions, a turn table with a 8 tracks player Hi-fi system.
The Jungle Room.
A back view of Graceland.
Elvis dad's office. Elvis played this piano, the evening before he died in 1977.
This racketball court was transformed to hold more of his exhibits.
Elvis' jumpsuit, they could weight up to 40 lbs.
Elvis, his father, his mother and grand-mother are buried here in the Meditation Garden.
Back to where we started. We visit the Elvis Automobile Museum.
One of the car is this Ferrari Dino 1975.
Elvis also had 2 airplanes. This one, the Lisa Marie, a Convair 880.
The inside of the Convair... Remember you are in the 1970sh.
And the Hound Dog II, a lockheed JetStar.
We visited the other small Elvis museums.
Dinner at Marlow's.
Marlow's offers to pick you up and drive you back to your hotel or campground for free.
Lets do it!
In a pink Cadillac!
Marlow's is well knowed for his pork ribs. This is why they have a pig in the front...
Everything is about Elvis and Rock & Roll.
Nice place, nice atmosphere, very good food and they even have a lip sync singer giving us Elvis songs.
This guy is a look alike of Sam Phillips. Sam Phillips was the president of Sun Studio and was also the procucer of many Rock & Roll singers including Elvis.
After a very big meal, back in the Cadillac to get home.
A very busy day and it ended with good friends and a good meal.
Saturday November 12, 2011
I am not a fan of football and I have never seen a football game in a stadium before.
The Memphis Tigers are playing against Alabama University this afternoon .
The two worst team in the division... Let go and watch.
The tickes are only $10 each. Pretty good deal. Lots of people tailgating here today. The stadium even tells you where you go to tailgate! WOW. Here is an example of tailgating.
The Liberty Bowl can hold a little over 60,000 people and as you can see, it is pretty empty.
The team mascotte. A real Bangales tiger.
Quite a show was put on before the game.
And they played.
Half time with a score of 21 to 10 for the Tigers.
Both teams bands gave us a nice show at half time.
I liked that.
A very popular snack down south is a B-B-Q turquey leg. Very good, I wonder if it is ever going to catch in Canada.
The game ends with a score of 41 to 35 for Alabama.
I really liked watching a football game live. I think I will do that again.
Sunday November 13, 2011
Our friends Jean, Manon, Nathalie and Ophélie are leaving this morning to go to Florida. Christianne and Jacques will be leaving soon too. Have a safe trip my friends.
One of the many positive things with this lifestyles is the friends you make along the way and then meet a year later, sometimes years later. It was a pleasure to meet you again Jean and Manon. Also a pleasure to meet your daughter Nathalie and her daugther Ophélie. To Christianne and Jacques, we are looking forward to meet you again in our travels.
This morning we are going to church. Rev. Al green church that is.
An ordinary church.
Al green was a very popular singer of Soul and R & B back in the 1970 up until the 90s. But he is also a reverent at the Full Gospel Tabernacle church in Memphis.
Michèle found this place on the internet and it is supposed to be quite a mass. Some even say you come out full of love in your heart. Mass can last for 2 to 2 and half hour.
Off we go!
It was what we expected and more. Just plain beautiful and intertaining. I wish more churches would do this...
The first time we looked at the time was 2 hours into the service and it was not finished. WOW, if you ever come down to Memphis you got to see this. No we did not find God in there but if you beleive even a little bit, it is very neat place and if you don't beleive, go anyway if just for the show.
Monday November 14, 2011
Visiting downtown Memphis today.
We started with the Peabody Hotel and the ducks parade. Ducks come down the elevator at around 9 am and head strait to the water fontain and are taking back up the elevator at 5 pm. Pretty neat to see.
Here we are waiting for the ducks and they showed up...
Here they are in the fontain in the lobby.
Memphis also has a trolley system and we use it to visit the downtown area.
After visiting Nashville, we found Memphis a litttle on the slow side, very few people downtown for a monday.
Next stop is the National Civil Rights Museum.
Why the motel Lorraine? This is where Martin Luther King was assasinated in 1968.
For me, I was only 8 years old and living in Québec, Canada at the time of the shooting. This is a museum that really help put into perspective the struggle of the black people just to be recognised as man. It was not even all that long ago.
The white circle you see on the first floor is where Mr King was shot and killed.
I really recommande this museum.
Back on the trolley.
A stroll on Beale Street. Beale street is the bar street here in Memphis.
Next came the Cotton Museum.
Don't quote me but for over a hundred years this was the Cotton Exchange of all the USA, even for the world...
Nice little museum.
We had to go back to Beale street in the evening. More "life" now but still nothing like Nashville.
Perhap, it is not the best time to come to Memphis but...
Tuesday November 15, 2011
Last day in Memphis, we are visiting the Rock n Soul museum.
The museum is right next to the stadium and they have all those balls but be carefull, they are concret...
We found this museum average. Nice but average. maybe being from up north and from french decent it did not interest us. Soul and R & B is not in our culture like down here.
We would not go out of our way to come in Memphis but it is still a good place to see once in your life.
At least for us...
Until next time, take care...
Life is good!
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