Slept in til 8:30, had breakfast and tackled the packing which went better than I thought as I managed to get everything in without any problems. Checked out and, as the weather wasn’t too nice and I wasn’t really keen on doing anything in Atlanta, I returned my car.
Unfortunately, I forgot to check the final mileage but it was definitely over 1,500 for the whole trip.
Then I took the shuttle to the airport and spent time until check-in opened in the arrivals lounge watching a DVD.
As I was watching, sudden applause interrupted my reverie. A plane full of soldiers had arrived and as they were walking through the lounge most people applauding, many even standing. The soldiers didn’t really acknowledge the applause and more than anything, seemed embarrassed. This happened twice more while I was there.
I checked in around 3 and wandered through security relatively swiftly. Put everything back and got dressed again and took the transfer train to Concourse E where I made sure I knew where my gate was. First I didn’t feel hungry but then I figured dinner on the plane wouldn’t be for a while so found a café where I had some gumbo.
The flight left a bit late but more than made up for the delay as we had a strong tail wind and arrived over half an hour earlier than scheduled.
This meant I had longer to wait for my coach back to Cambridge but I managed. I was finally home at around 2pm.
After a hearty Southern breakfast (biscuits, white pepper gravy, scrambled eggs and sausage patties) at Bogue's
Restaurant, I visited Sloss Furnaces, a former steel producing site that’s now a museum and historic site. Quite impressive and nicely preserved.
I then set out on my way to Atlanta, mostly on Highway 78, avoiding the big Interstate. This again meant that I saw a lot more of the landscape and small towns on the way, the main reason I’ve been doing this road trip.
Just around lunchtime, the weather picked up, first it stopped drizzling and then the sun came through and I actually got to see some of Alabama’s famous blue skies.
At one point I got lost as I missed a turn (sometimes turns on smaller roads aren’t signposted early enough and even when the satnav tells you to take a left, it’s sometimes not easy to spot) and had to take a bit of a detour until I could find a spot to turn around. Just after the intersection with a county road, there was a collection of old and slowly rusting machinery from tractors and other farm equipment to pickup trucks, just there, dumped by the side of the road, even partially overgrown but still almost like a museum. A fantastic find and a cool photo opportunity.
The nice weather continued all the way through Georgia and the scenery was mostly lovely, too so a nice end to my road trip.
I arrived
at my motel, unpacked to repack tomorrow morning, went out for Jamaican dinner
(oxtail curry as they had run out of goat) and worked on my diary and photos.
I've managed to roughly reconstruct the second leg of my journey, from Nashville to Atlanta.
Set out later than intended due to the alarm not going off (had overlooked that the time was pm) but still managed to get out just before 10. I first took Highway 61 South to Robinsonville, Mississippi, where all the casinos are and had a look around the Horseshoe. I picked a random slot and sacrificed one dollar for nothing. I was steadfast and didn’t break a ten dollar bill to continue (or was mad enough to insert one into a machine). If at all, I’d have joined a Blackjack table but I would have needed some more time to do that. Still, it was interesting to see and it was quite busy even on a weekday late morning.
The drive through Mississippi was rather boring as the roads were straight and the landscape flat.
I had a late lunch at a place called Buttahatchee Bar-B-Que off the highway near Hamilton. Shame they had run out of brisket but the pork was lovely, too.
Traffic around Birmingham was a bit heavier than before (obviously I had picked rush hour again) but it wasn’t too bad and my Satnav guided me unerringly to Glas’ street. As I was trying to find the number, my host for the evening pulled up, introduced me to his cat and showed me his apartment. The evening consisted of a little tour and history of Birmingham, Mexican dinner and Stardust, the fabulous film adaption of Neil Gaiman’s story and more chats with friends when we got back.
The route:
The rain
continued so exploring Memphis on foot was out of the question (unless
I’d had full rain gear and an umbrella) so I first visited the Stax Museum of
American Soul. It stands on the site of the former Stax studio where such Soul
greats as Otis Redding and Booker T and the MGs recorded their hits. The museum
tells the history of the label and its artists with photographs, film/video
footage, sound bites and props like original instruments (I so want Duck Dunn’s
Fender Precision Bass), costumes and other gear and memorabilia, gold records
and the like.
It’s very
informative but less technologically advanced than the Country Music Hall of
Fame. While in the HoF the music you heard was limited to the exhibit you
were looking at, a lot of tunes overlapped at Stax but it was still good and
very interesting indeed.
Sorry
Elvis, but in terms of custom Cadillacs, Issac Hayes wins. Peacock blue, gold
trim, plush fur interior, TV and so on. This was the true and original pimped ride.
;o) Incidentally, I drove through Hayes' hometown, Covington, the day before, completely
randomly.
Interestingly
enough, Martin Luther King's assassination (in Memphis, no less) was the cause of Stax'
demise as after the event, there was so much discontent and distrust towards
white people that Stax (white owned but a place where there was no racial
prejudice whatsoever) couldn't continue to operate and had to shut down... The
artist roster moved to Atlantic Records.
When I
came out, it was raining hard so I decided to go to Graceland after all. $6 for parking later, I
bought a ticket for the mansion tour, was photographed, grabbed a headset and
boarded the shuttle bus that would take us through the hallowed gates.
The first
room was a living and dining area, followed by his parents’ bedroom. Then the
kitchen, which is actually quite a bit smaller than I expected, considering the
size of the mansion but obviously state of the art then. It still has original
appliances from the early 70s when it was last refurbished. Only to think how
many fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches were prepared there…
The
section I absolutely loved was the “TV room” a huge sitting area, all in yellow
and blue, leather corner sofas and a wall with three huge (for the time and
even now) TVs. There’s a little bar, too. I could live in that.
The Pool
Room with the fabric clad walls and ceiling was weird but not too overwrought,
either, strangely enough.
The “trophy
building” with its Grammies, Gold/Platinum records and other rewards is very impressive
indeed.
The final
section has costumes through his history, both film and stage and the last bit
you see is the memorial garden with his and his family’s graves. It was
absolutely pouring it down then so I didn’t stay long.
In the
hope the rain would abate later, I had a late lunch at the diner (meatloaf) but
it wasn’t to be so I left without being able to get across the road to take a
photo of the gates. It was still worth it, though.
The evening was kind of a letdown as getting to Beale Street would have involved walking (or talking a taxi) again and as I had an early start in the morning, I stayed at the hotel after driving to midtown for dinner (a nice little place called Soul Fish Café). I wrote some postcards, packed and worked out a route for the next day.
Managed to leave reasonably early in the morning and took some back roads towards Memphis. Mostly on Highway 70A/76. Some of it would have been really nice but the weather had turned and in the rain, it wasn’t really that nice. Also a reason why I didn’t really stop to take photos because it was simply too wet. I had a BBQ salad lunch at a random diner called Chow Wagon near Milan and continued on to Memphis where I arrived around 5. I had a great view from my hotel window to the Pyramid and the bridge over the Mississippi.
Unlike Nashville, Memphis seemed rather desolate and run-down to me. There are obviously rich suburbs and the business district in Downtown is lush but the poor areas are right next door.
Walked around a bit, found that Beale Street was in easy walking distance from my hotel, walked back to drop off my camera and headed out again.
Beale Street is rather cool indeed, lots of bars and clubs, many of which offer live music and unlike Bourbon St. in New Orleans it isn’t as touristy and seedy (no strip clubs and the like). I had dinner at B.B. King’s Blues Club and listened to two bands who played a mix of classic Rythmn&Blues and Soul. Very good. The rest of the evening I spent at the Rum Boogie Café where “Blues Healer” played all kinds of Memphis/Chicago and other Blues classics. In the bar next door Dr. “Feelgood” Potts played Howlin’ wolf/John Lee Hooker style classic electric blues. The cool thing is that the two bars have an interconnecting door so you can just switch back and forth. Very groovy.
I was rather tired so called it a night around midnight and walked back which was fine but I didn’t really feel safe because I was accosted several times by panhandlers as they are called here. I just ignored them and I got nothing worse than a few bad words but it’s still a bit disconcerting. Still, nothing happened and I had a good night's sleep.
The route:
View Larger Map
I spent Saturday at a fanclub convention where I met lots of old friends. Details of that will be on my livejournal as it has no place here. I went back there this morning for the closing ceremonies and to say good-bye.
In the afternoon, the weather was so nice that I wanted to go out a bit, picked a scenic route on the map and drove down to Leiper's Fork on Natchez Trace Parkway and back up to Nashville, stopping over for a late lunch at Pucket's Grocery which I had found randomly: a rather nice ("freshly ground and hand patted") burger with fries and trimmings in what would be called a greasy spoon in the UK. Cheap and cheerful.
There lots of bikers and also quite a few cyclists on the road today so something else to see than just boring cars.
Back to the motel for some relaxation and preparation for leaving early in the morning tomorrow.
Cruising town was the order of the day, including the Parthenon, a trip to Hendersonville to visit the graves of Johnny Cash and the rest of the Carter family and then around the Opryland area. Cooter’s was quite neat with its Dukes of Hazzard memorabilia including a variety of original cars (two General Lees, Daisy’s Jeep, the sheriff’s patrol car), original costumes etc. There’s also a Willie Nelson & Friends museum and general store and a Wax Museum of the Stars in the same block.
I then had a look around the Grand Ole Opry and the museum, decided against buying a ticket for Saturday night, wandered around the Opry Mills mall for a while (where you can buy anything from Gibson guitars to powerboats).
On my way
back I spent some time finding a good spot from which to photograph the Nashville
Skyline from and managed to find a reasonable one. There were still too many
power/telephone lines or other obstacles but the light was right so I’m quite
happy.
A quick walk around the Farmer’s Market was next with a few photos of some fantastic looking squashes/gourds. It was a bit too late in the day to be really busy, though and most of the main stalls were already shut.
Back to the hotel for a quick nap and then for a second helping of the Bluebird Café. It was quite packed and I just about managed to get a seat in the pews. The artists tonight were Melissa Cusick, Cliff Goldmacher, Dillon Dixon and David Worby. A bit differently from Wednesday was that they often played as a band rather than just one of them and they often sang each other’s songs. There were some great songs, some really funny, some thoughtful or sad, a very good mix indeed and all for the price of a couple of drinks. Unfortunately no good pictures this time as there were too many people in the way but hey, it was free and I didn’t forget to take some of the outside.
Afterwards, I drove back to the spot where I had taken the skyline shot to take one at night but it was a lot less bright (fewer lights) than in some photos I’ve seen. Briefly pondered to visit Lyrix but decided I’d rather have a late dinner and then relax in my room as I was feeling tired (damn I’m getting old).
Parked my car at the hotel and wandered to the parallel street where I’d seen some restaurants. I didn’t fancy Italian and the Mexican grill looked a bit too shabby for my taste so ended up in mAmbu, more of an upscale place. I had Salmon with black pepper crust with greens and apples (sounds weird but worked really well) on potatoes. The fish was cooked to the point, nice and juicy with crispy skin and the rest of the flavours harmonized wonderfully. A glass of Pinot Grigio and a Chocolate Crème Brulee rounded off the experience for just under 45 bucks, incl. tip.
After some indecison about what to do (it was raining when I got up but by the time I had had breakfast it had cleared up again), I decided to go into town after all so took the bus in. Walked around a bit and then visited the Country Music Hall of Fame. A wonderful collection of exhibits from the history of Country Music, with artifacts ranging from the first hand-built banjos to Elvis’ gold Cadillac and gold piano. The second floor had a temporary special exhibition about Ray Charles, again with outfits and instruments, like the Rhodes he used on tour.
More wandering around past the Ryman Auditorium (where the Grand Ole Opry used to be but now is a standard venue where all the big names not just in Country play).
Bussed back, got into my car and cruised around Music Row a bit where all the record companies are based. Oddly enough, these aren’t shiny highrises but normal houses, family homes.
After relaxing a bit in my room, I headed out for dinner to Rotier's, one of the local institutions. It's a cosy little place with a bar, a row of booths and a number of free standing tables in the back. I went for one of today's specials which was Country Fried Steak with fries, Okra and Zucchini. For those who don't know, it's a steak that's battered or breaded, deep fried and served with gravy (a bit like the German Jägerschnitzel but without the mushrooms). Now, a dish category called "Meat&Three" doesn't sound too bad until you realise that everything is deep fried. It was very tasty but too rich for my taste. I really shouldn't have that chocolate milkshake but the waitress asked so nicely...
My destination for the evening was the Station Inn on 12th Ave South.
Again, a rather derelict looking building in a derelict area (lots of
empty plots and construction work) but cosy inside. At least twice the
size of the Bluebird with loads of tables and mismatched chairs, a bar
and a real stage.
The order of the evening was Bluegrass and tonight's performance was
basically a jam session with a variety of artists taking the stage.
Very cool indeed. I also managed to get a decent number of good photos
as I had a good seat and nobody minded me taking them.
When the show was over, the weather outside was just a little bit awful with driving rain. Good thing my car was parked just around the corner so I didn't get completely soaked. Good thing I didn't walk which had been my first plan...
First item on the agenda was Jack Daniel's Distillery. I joined the very informative tour and know a lot more about how JD is made. It's free, too, so if you're ever in the area, don't miss it. Although Moore County is dry, the distillery have a special license to sell a special bottle of JD. I didn't buy one because I wasn't sure how well it would survive the journey.
Next stop was Shelbyville for breakfast and then I drove pretty much due North to Lebanon, stopping on the way at the Cedars of Lebanon State Park where I did the short walk through parts of the cedar glades. Very pretty.
From Lebanon I carried on West avoiding the Interstate to Nashville where I found my motel and checked in.
Then I decided on a whim to try if I could get into the early evening show at the Bluebird Cafe and indeed I could.
They say you should leave the best for last and I think I've just broken that rule. The Bluebird Cafe was on my high priority list to visit and as the time was just right for the first show and I wanted to eat something, anyway, I drove to Hillsboro. I think if you didn't have exact directions you'd never find it because it's a tiny store front tucked away in a retail park type street next to furniture shops, petrol stations and fast food joints. Not exactly an area where you'd expect the venue for up and coming as well as established songwriters. Many a big name in Nashville played here first, some even used to work there (like Andrew Jackson as a barman). Ever since I'd heard Together at the Bluebird, the fantastic live album by Townes van Zandt, Steve Earle and Guy Clark, it had been my firm intention to go there if I ever ended up in Nashville and I managed it.di
It's really small, I'd say about 80 capacity (seated at tables, the bar or in the back on a couple of church pews) so no wonder the second shows are sold out quickly. The musicians sit in the centre, facing each other. On "In The Round" nights, it's usually four who sing a song each, going round the circle several times, from 6 to 8.
Tonight it was Teresa Wright (all her songs are sung by others on her myspace but she has a wonderful voice, too), Ben West, Todd Caudill and Dar Franz who I couldn't find online, except in reference to tonight. Each had a different style which kept interesting although it was just the artist with an acoustic guitar. Nothing else. The sound system is superb, too, especially considering the size of the place. A wonderful wonderful evening and a perfect start for my time in Nashville.
I put a small collection of photos which might give an idea of how great this place is on flickr.
On my way back I drove through the Centennial Park and took a few photos of the Parthenon. Very strange thing, that. I'm going to have a better look during daytime tomorrow.
Took a variety of nice and scenic back roads, weaving my way West, North through parts of the Cumberland gap and West again until I arrived at Lynchburg around 5:30 (or 4:30? Was there a time zone change? All the clocks here are an hour earlier),
The drive was pleasant, I was just a bit unlucky with the weather as it was rather grey and either rained for a while so there wasn’t much in terms of nice photo opportunities. I was also unlucky in the way that there would have been some things I’d loved to have taken photos of but there was no way of stopping.
There were some seriously bendy roads with a few actual hairpins through the beautiful Cumberland area which would have been cool in a manual car but driving a car that has different ideas of when and how to shift, even when set to lower gears, was a bit disconcerting as I didn’t really feel in control. I’m also used to cars responding to the throttle a lot more quickly, i.e. slow down when you release the throttle and accelerate nicely when you step on it. The kickdown sort of works but still not as well as I’d like. As a result, a car with twice the engine size of mine feels extremely sluggish. On top of that, it guzzles petrol like there’s no tomorrow, I used half a tank getting here. At least petrol is cheaper (a full tank cost me 30 bucks) but it’s still something I rather wouldn’t spend too much money on. Damn this wasteful society!
Was feeling rather tired so stopped at the Lynchburg Country Inn, wandered around a bit and then worked on photos and things.
