YEAR VISITED: 2013 and 2020.

FAVORITE CITIES AND EXPERIENCES: Memphis was one of our extended stops on our marathon cross country road trip. One of the cooler moments of our entire trip was rolling into Memphis in the early evening, seeing the Memphis Pyramid, and informing the girls we were staying there.

Their eyes were as big as saucers. The glass pyramid was built in 1991. While it was originally a 20,000 seat basketball arena, it is currently a Bass Pro Stop megastore complete with restaurants, a bowling alley, and a hotel. Our hotel room was unlike anything we had previously experienced. The room was spacious, decorated the way you would imagine a hotel room would be decorated inside a Bass Pro Shop, and we had a deck overlooking the inside of the store below.

We of course took advantage of the fact our hotel had a bowling alley, Uncle Buck’s. Bowling was fun but the lighting, overall ambiance, and aquarium made for a fantastic experience.

We also purchased tickets to the observation deck just below the 32nd floor. The observation deck allowed us to see most of downtown Memphis and the Mississippi River. A portion of the deck was glass. Seeing as I don’t love heights, this freaked me out. However, the girls seemed to love it and took turns standing on the glass and taking pictures of their feet.

Outside of the pyramid we explored Beale Street. We ate at BB King’s BBQ and Blues Club.

While there wasn’t any live music the night we were there, it was easy to see why this is such a popular location. The restaurant spans multiple levels, has a stage on each floor, and offers some of the best southern food I have ever eaten. I ordered BBQ ribs, Jill had the catfish, and we ordered fried dill pickles as an appetizer. We ate well that night.

Our whole trip was extremely interesting as we were traveling during the 2020 COVID pandemic. Many stores were closed, mask mandates were everywhere, and people were scarred of this relatively unknown disease. As a result many famous locations that we visited were virtually deserted. This was definitely the case when we visited Beale Street as there were no more than a handful of people walking this famous street that is typically packed with tourists.

In our minds, this made our whole experience even cooler and definitely a once in a lifetime event. Also in Memphis the whole family toured the Sun Studio recording studio. Artists such as Elvis Presley, BB King, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, and Jerry Lee Lewis all recorded hits in this studio.

This is considered the Birthplace of Rock ‘N’ Roll. We paid for the tour and were able to pose for pictures with the same microphone used by the singing legends listed above. Seeing as the building, inside or out, seemed relatively untouched since the 1950’s the whole tour felt like we were going back in time. In a weird way I kept half expecting Elvis Presley himself to join the tour.

While I admittedly don’t know the entire story behind how the Peabody Hotel came to host ducks, I do know we witnessed the unique tradition in 2020. Everyday since the 1940’s, precisely at 11:00 am, the hotel’s Duckmaster leads the ducks from the penthouse down to the 1st floor fountain. People come from all over the world to witness this famous tradition – there simply is nothing else like it.

The last major Memphis destination we visited was the Lorraine Hotel. Today it is the National Civil Rights Museum. If you find yourself in Memphis and only have time to visit one site, this is it. The hotel is the location of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination in 1968.

We were able to see King’s hotel room from that fateful day as well as his car which has since been donated to the museum.

We toured the museum, where we were able to see a replica bus that Rosa Parks sat on, as well as a bombed out Greyhound bus used during the Freedom Rider demonstrations. This museum definitely was a location that made us stop and think. Out of all the places we visited on our 37 state road trip in 2020, this was one of our family’s top 5 locations.

STADIUMS AND/OR SPORTING EVENTS: The summer following my 8th grade school year, my Snohomish baseball team qualified for a national tournament in Millington, Tennessee. As if traveling half way across the country to play baseball wasn’t exciting enough, doing it with my best friends on the team made that summer one of the most memorable of my childhood.

As a result, in 2020 I took a detour to Millington to show the family the baseball stadium. While it doesn’t appear to be in use any longer, in 1992 it was the USA Olympic Baseball Stadium.

Other then seeing this stadium, we have not attended any sporting events in Tennessee.

ADVENTURE(S): While I’ve only been to Nashville one night, it was memorable enough to make this city #1 on my list of places I want to return to. In 2013, Nashville was a stop on my Civil War bus conference.

Before pulling into our hotel for the evening, Rick and I purchased tickets to the Grand Ol’ Opry.

We barely had time to check into our room and drop off our luggage before hoping a taxi across town. We arrived just in time to see Big & Rich, Darius Rucker, and Thomas Rhett perform.

While I didn’t grow up listening to country music this was an unbelievable experience and one of the cooler concerts I have ever attended. Following the concert we taxied downtown where we were absolutely blown away with the quantity and overall size of the many honky-tonk bars lining Broadway. They seemed to be everywhere. Most had multiple stories, some three of four floors, and there was live music on every floor. The best part was that Rick and I were able to see a former student from Kelso, Cort Carpenter, perform. We had such a good time I don’t believe we returned to the hotel until the wee hours of the morning – just before our bus left in the morning.

Again, it was only one night and I am sure I would not be able to repeat such a fantastic evening of bar hopping, but Nashville is #1 on my list of cities to return to. In 2020 we ventured to Gatlinburg, known as the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It was 4th of July weekend and therefore was exceptionally crowded. As a result we cut our visit short, but not before we did the Skybridge.

This is the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in North America.

It spans nearly 700 feet with a 30 foot section of see through glass. Maddie and I didn’t have the stomach for the glass section, but Bailey and Jill had no problem walking on glass 1,800 feet above sea level.

Following our Gatlinburg experience we briefly headed into the Smoky Mountain National Park.

Unfortunately the afternoon we were there our extensive road trip seemed to catch up to all of us. We were all tired and it started to rain. While we began a hike, we unfortunately cut it short and returned to the car.

Rather we returned to the car and headed to our friends house earlier than originally planned. However, we would love to return as this is the most visited National Park in the United States.

NOTABLE DESTINATIONS & STOPS: Both of my trips to Tennessee involved stops at Civil War battle sites. In 2013 our tour rolled into Shiloh National Military Park. This was one of the largest battles in the western theater of war and today is one of the best preserved civil war battlefields anywhere in the country. We explored Pittsburgh Landing and various other infamous regions of the battlefield before venturing further south to Corinth, Mississippi.

The battle of Shiloh began on the banks of the Tennessee River before evolving into a struggle of control for a railroad junction located in Corinth. We also stopped at and briefly walked the Chickamauga National Battlefield. Sadly, I have very few photos from Chickamauga. Nevertheless it was an instrumental battle and unfortunately (behind Gettysburg) was the 2nd bloodiest battle of the entire Civil War. Also on that trip we ventured to Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain.

It was easy to understand how this Mountain got it’s name. From a strategic viewing location at the top of the mountain it is possible to see seven states; Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.

As a result this is where Confederate troops set up camp in order to see invading Union troops. In 1863 Confederate and Union armies clashed here and it was nicknamed the “Battle Above the Clouds.”

Today the top of the mountain is fairly well preserved smack dap in the middle of a beautiful neighborhood of luxury homes. I enjoyed this location so much that I made sure to bring the family back in 2020. There are few views anywhere in the country that rival Lookout Mountain. While we didn’t buy a ticket, the Incline Railway and Ruby Falls are popular attractions also located on the mountain.

• OUR LIST TO VISIT OR RETURN TO:
• Great Smoky Mountain National Park
• Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage
• Downtown Nashville
• Knoxville
• Country Music Hall of Fame
• Stay at the Peabody Hotel