Eagle's Nest, McDonalds, Great Grandmother

This was a fun day to hang out with Paige, Kyla, Caleb and Hannah. As we often do, Paige and Kyla start out with a brainstorming list, followed by discussion and negotiation. They got excited about Eagle's Nest, if Caleb and Hannah could go, too. Katie said it would be ok so we picked them up.

Eagles Nest is a great play center located in the Family Service Center in New Brighton.

The Brainstorming List


Eagle's Nest



Paige described the play area as a McDonalds play area times 20.


Caleb

Kyla

Paige

Hannah video clip

Hannah


After Eagle's nest we decided we needed to get something to eat at McDonalds.

Since we were close to Great Grandma Irene's nursing home, we stopped by.

Such a fun day with wonderful kids. All of whom are growing up fast.

Road Trip 2009 - Day 7 - Mile 2740 - Back Home

As we concluded our visit to Memphis we decided we had seen the major sites. We decided to head home on Saturday, and go west of Memphis across northern Arkansas into Oklahoma and north to Missouri, spending a night in Nevada, Missouri. We went west into Kansas and north to Kansas City and eventually over to Interstate 35 to bring us through Iowa and into Minnesota.

The highlights of the trip were clearly Memphis and Nashville. We also enjoyed the sights along the way; Kentucky, Great Smokey Mountain National Park, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and the other states mentioned.

The day we were in Nashville I wore a Minnesota T-shirt and must have been stopped 5 times only because folks wanted to talk about Bret Farve. He is clearly a very popular person and I'm hopeful he'll be able to help the Vikings.

Everytime we go on a road trip, we are reminded about the great things to see and do in this country. We really have to pick and choose the most important ones to visit because we can't see them all.

Bob & Sue

Road Trip 2009 - Day 6 - Mile 2150 - On the road again

This will be a short blog. We left Memphis this morning and headed east across Arkansas through Little Rock and Fort Smith. We moved on into Oklahoma to Muskogee and drove north to Missouri. We drove north through Joplin and stopped for the night here at Nevada, Missouri. We are about 100 miles south of Kansas City.



We are about 550 miles from home. We could end up getting home tomorrow unless we come upon something we would like to stop for.



Hope you all are well.



Bob & Sue

Road Trip 2008 - Day 5 - Mile 1610 - Downtown Memphis

Well, we only drove from the outskirts of Memphis to downtown memphis. We decided to stay downtown and actually found the Holiday Inn to have a very nice room and a nice rate. It is close to everything we wanted to see.



Bottom line, we had a great day as I'll explain in the following:





The Rendesvous

Probably the most famous rib joint in Memphis. This was on our list of musts for Memphis. You can only get to it through this alley. The food section is located in the basement and the upper floor is a wait area where they will serve drinks while you wait. The ribs were excellent. Ribs are either wet or dry and this joint is known for its dry ribs.




Here's the meal... big enough for us to split.






The Peabody Hotel
An old and elegant hotel that is known for its ducks. The duck story is a fairly long one but basically started from a couple of hunters having too many drinks and in those days they could hunt with live decoys. Somehow the decoys spent the night in this pool and the rest is history. The ducks are brought down in the morning at 11:00 a.m. and are marched back to their penthouse (or is it penhouse?) at 5:00 p.m.



Before the ducks come out of the elevator, the red carpet is rolled out.



This is the Duck Master. He seemed to really get into his work without quacking up. . .

The ducks race out of the elevator, down the red carpet, up the two carpeted steps and into the pool and by the way there are tons of people falling over themselves watching the process and snapping pictures.

Beale Street

Only about three blocks long but towards evening becomes a happening place. This was about three blocks from our hotel. This picture was taken fairly early in the evening. Although we were back in hotel by 10:00, the noise from Beale street lasted until about 3:00 a.m. this morning.

This is BB Kings on Beale Street. We heard the entertainment was really good here so we went here for dinner. Yes, we had ribs again. This time we had wet ribs which were also super.

We had dessert at the Rum Boogie

This was Will from the Will Tucker band at BB Kings. He's 15 and sounded a lot like Kid Johnny Lang.

This is another picture of another group. There must have been 15-20 different groups playing on beal street.

So today . . . Since I'm writing this Saturday morning, we are going to get ready for the day, go down for breakfast (probably won't have ribs) and head out. We aren't exactly sure where we'll go . . . maybe we will figure this out at breakfast and you will know from our next blog.

Road Trip 2009 - Day 4 - Mile 1590 - Going to Memphis

Yup, we covered 460 miles today. We started in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, through Gatlinburg, Great Smokey Mountain National Park, on to Chatanooga, dipped into Georgia, across northern Alabama and Mississippi on route 72 and into the outskirts of Memphis this evening.

These first set of pictures are from Great Smokey Mountain National Park.



We may have mentioned it another time, but we like using the Tom-tom. In this case within the national park. Even in the mountains it does a good job keeping us on track.



Since the highest peak in this national park is about 6000 feet, the whole area is green and beautiful. Probably a lazy way to take pictures; poking the camera out the roof of the car.


Beautifully tall trees

Lots of streams at the side of the road

This last picture is from the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

So now we are on the outskirts of Memphis. Tomorrow we plan to spend the day and evening in downtown Memphis. We aren't sure of Saturday's plan. We'll let you know in tomorrow's blog.

Road Trip 2009 - Day 3 - Mile 1130 - Nashville, Pigeon River

Another busy day. One of our goals today was to walk around the downtown area of Nashville. We did this this morning and left for Knoxville about 1:00 p.m. We actually passed through Knoxville and about 10 miles east we turned south towards Pigeon River. We had supper at a great restaurant, The Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant and settled in at the Pigeon River Inn. Since the kids have already started back to school, the motels have slashed prices so tonight we are staying for $39. This includes the basics, nice room, free wifi, breakfast in the morning.

Tomorrow we are going through Gatlinsburg and onto Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We are not sure what else we might do but we do expect to be heading towards Memphis sometime tomorrow.

This was the second Opry House that was replaced in 1974. As we said in an earlier post, this is still active venue for entertainment.





One of the street corners on Broadway, a happening street in downtown Nashville. It would be much more fun if we came here at night.



Also on Broadway with Sue by one of her all time favorites, Elvis. BTW this is "Dead Elvis Week" in Memphis.



This is at the end of Broadway, on the River

Just to the left of the previous picture. This is the stadium where the Tennessee Titans play. Today I wore a Minnesota shirt and several times was stopped to talk about Bret Farve. Everyone was excited that he was going to continue to play football, even the couple from Wisconsin.

The Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant. At the visitor centor when we talked about finding a place to eat, she basically said the best place she would go is this place. She was right. It is part of an actual apple orchard and farm. We ate in what was the original farmhouse. The food was great and the portions huge. I think we would come back just for this.

Here's a picture of the Pigeon River from the balcony of our $39 room.

Not sure what all we will have to blog about tomorrow, but we're sure we will have more pictures and experiences.

Road Trip 2009 - Day 2 - Mile 905 - Paducah, Nashville

It's Wednesday morning. We are at the Gaylord Opryland's huge Convention Center which includes five hotels in addition to the convention center. It is a short walk to the Grand Old Opry.

Day 2 was busy. We started the day walking the riverfront in Paducah as well as downtown. Our primary mission was to tour the National Quilt Museum. It is really an amazing place displaying the skills and creativity of folks from all over the world. As we see you, we can share with you some of the details of the museum. Unfortunately, they wouldn't allow any cameras.

Here are some pictures:

This is the bridge over the Ohio River connecting Illinois to Kentucky.


This is a picture to show some of the river traffic and also how wide the river is

Nashville is about 150 miles from Paducah. Once we got here we found the ticket office to get tickets for Tuesday's performance. Next we got a room in the Cascades hotel portion of the Gaylord convention center.

This Grand Ole Opry has been in this location since 1974. They still use the building downtown.

This is the program from last night. They seem to create the program as it proceeds. It was, however, an exceptional program with remarkable entertainers and musicians.

A few of the entertainers

John Conlee

Riders in the Sky

Little Jimmy Dickens - Celebrating 61 years as a member of the Grand Old Opry

What a fun day!

Today we plan to stroll around downtown Nashville and head out. We'll decide over breakfast where we will go. Since it's Wednesday already and we plan to be in Memphis Friday or Saturday we need to sort of plan Wednesday through Friday.