NASHVILLE

We arrived at our campground in Dickson, TN and "took the rest of the day off." Dickson is a small town about 45 miles west of Nashville. The campground wasn't even in Dickson. It was a small park about 10 miles south. Half permanent RV residents and almost half permanently parked RV's used as hunting camps. Friendly people and no worries about security after election day.

Wednesday we got up early and went to Loretta Lynn's Ranch. The museum was already closed for the season but the store, grist mill, replica of Loretta's childhood home and her house were open. It's a beautiful valley. Actually the town of Hurricane Mills was - is - located here. When Mooney and Loretta bought the ranch, the town including the Post Office came with it. The Post Office is still open.

It was a delight to tour her home, especially after Graceland. If you didn't know, Loretta built her career as a Down Home Country Girl and the home just shouted, "We are happy, devout country folk." We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the house. But believe me, from the family pictures to the huge collection of Avon bottles, you just knew this was a lady you'd love to get to know.

Just hangin' out on Loretta's front porch.

The replica of the "Butcher Hollow" house.

The grist mill and pond.

Inside the grist mill.

Remaining roots of a weird old tree.

Sorry. We didn't see any chipmunks. This might be why.

Between the  Ranch and the Interstate is a place called, "Loretta's Kitchen." We asked a lady in the general store if we should go there for lunch. she smiled, looked over her shoulder and said quietly, "No. Ms. Lynn is not connected with that place. Mooney sold the use of her name to them years ago. Go to The Log Cabin just off the Interstate. We did. Great food, very reasonable price and more food than we could possibly eat. You know it's gonna be country good when two of the entrees under "Seafood" are catfish. Mississippi catfish" I was assured by the waitress. "There's nothing Chinese on there."

Tomorrow we go into Nashville.

GRACELAND AND SUN STUDIOS

Prelude to blog. Sun Studios comes later but please click on SUN now. You don't have to read it yet, but the Home page will provide the appropriate background for this blog.


I'm not usually one to stay in expensive campgrounds - WAIT for gasps of surprise from my old friends -
But Graceland RV Park is within easy walking distance of Graceland and they provided free shuttles to downtown and Sun Studios.  AND Marlow's, a famous Bar-B-Que place provides transportation to their restaurant as well. I didn't plan to go there because I had a special place I wanted to take Carol. More about that later.

Graceland is a wonderful view into the life of Elvis before his decline.

 My first record purchase was "45 LP" from his first movie, "Love Me Tender."

In spite of reported sightings, we did not see Elvis. This is as close as we got.

Our "Platinum Tour" included the cars, motorcycles and airplanes.

Then it was wait for a bus and go to Sun Studios, the Birthplace of Rock and Roll.

 Andrew and I saw "Million Dollar Quartet" on Broadway and Carol and I just saw it in Las Vegas. For the two or three of  you who don't know the story, on December 4th, 1956 Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis spent an afternoon jamming at Sun Studios. Elvis had already gone to RCA but the others were still under contract to Sun. The owner Sam Phillips was smart enough to leave the tapes running without telling the quartet.

A relatively new addition to the Sun Studios Museum - This is the radio booth of Dewey Phillips (No relation to Sam) who was one of the very first DJ's to play black artists and white artists playing black inspired music. He was the first to play almost all of Sun Studio's releases. Sun employees heard that the building was being torn down so they salvaged the entire booth.

The Cook Family Duet rehearsing in the actual studio where so much history was made. No one offered us a contract. I don't know if Carol was disappointed but as a bass player, I'm used to it. After all, the "Million Dollar QUARTET"  had two more people who remain in obscurity. The drummer, W. S. Holland and bassist, Carl Perkins brother Jay.

I had planned to take Carol to Rendezvous. I remember them having the BEST dry rub ribs in the world. And it would be fun to lead Carol down a back alley to a hole in the wall. 

BUT our only day in town was Monday and they are closed on Monday. THANK YOU Tinkerbell. Latest reviews are that it has gone touristy and lost a lot in quality.

So, back to the campground, call Marlowe's and ask them to come pick us up. A few minutes later they arrived in a pink stretch Cadillac. Didn't get a picture there, but here we are arriving at the restaurant.

AND their mascot is a pink pig Airstream. This was worth it even if the food doesn't live up to our expectations.

But oh my goodness, it did. Here is Carol's pulled pork.

And my rack of ribs with sides "on the side" because there's no room on the platter.

They are famous for their desserts too, so we HAD to go for it.

Maile - yes I spelled it right - was simply the icing on the cake. Friendly, helpful, full of life. The perfect compliment to a perfect day.

The limo was waiting to take us back to the campground where we collapsed in a food coma.

ONE DAY. But what a day.

Next is Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry.

BUDDY HOLLY

Our next planned stop was Waco to visit the "Magnolia Silos". It was a longer drive than we were willing to do. I looked for somewhere midway and Lubbock looked good.

Found a campground on line, made reservations and headed out. It has been a wonderful trip but we were both happy to be pointed East.

The Buddy Holly Museum was a "must".

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside the museum so you will just have to go see for yourselves.

BUT the childhood home of Jerry Allison, the drummer for the Crickets was moved to the Museum and Carol could take pictures inside of it. It is significant because all of the rehearsals and several of their recordings took place here. This is also where they came up with the name "Crickets" after talking about and discarding "Beetles". The Beatles picked their name in homage to Buddy Holly.

Next stop was a short walk to the Lubbock "Walk of Fame." It's an impressive list of names from Lubbock and West Texas.

Click HERE for a complete list of honorees.


Another "in between" was waiting for us. The clerk at the Museum explained that our ticket would get us a discount at the Silent Wings museum just a few miles away in the old terminal at the Lubbock Airport.

The Glider Corps played a major role in several theaters in WWII. The vast majority of pilots were trained in Lubbock. It was a wonderful afternoon for me and Carol was very patient with me. I knew about the program but had no idea how BIG the gliders were. Here is one next to an L-4. That's a Piper Cub to us civilians.

They could carry 2 crew and 26 battle ready troops or a Jeep or a 75mm Howitzer. Their biggest operation was on D-Day when almost 1000 gliders landed behind enemy lines in Normandy.

Here is a link to more information about these brave men.

Our next stop was Waco. This was only the second day of our trip when it rained on a day we had plans to do or see something. We had driven through several days of rain but that was OK - we weren't going to be out in it anyway.

The rain kept us from touring the rest of Waco and we definitely want to go back. It's a beautiful little city with lots of interesting things to see and do. Rain was not going to dampen our spirits at Magnolia Silos though. Chip and Jo weren't there - they were off on a book signing tour. I told Carol we could get our picture taken with them anyway because there were life sized cardboard cutouts of them. Unfortunately they had been stolen some weeks before. The police recovered them but management hadn't decided how to safely display them so they were in a storage area.

Laser cut metal plaque.

Their new book. Both Carol and I highly recommend it.

They are really famous for their bakery.

We indulged but their eating area is outdoors so we took our treats back to the Airstream.

Another wonderful day that had not been in our original travel plan.

God just keeps on being Good.