Graceland Road Trip: June 18-24, 2011

Road trips seem like a good idea... no airline ticket to purchase, amazing amount of scenery and attractions you can visit, but then as the trip starts to approach I start to calculate how much time I will be stuck in a car and I get a bit anxious! I don't like to sit still. But I gotta say, with all the breaks and sites we saw, the time passed quickly! I am already thinking about planning another. I think it is time to see more of the west coast... but focus... this blog is about my fabulous trip to Graceland!

Saturday, June 18th: St Louis
After spending 10 hours in the car, St Louis seemed like a good stopping point! We arrived in St Louis late afternoon and the sky was blue and bright, so it seemed like one should really travel 630 ft in the air to experience it! The Gateway Arch was really a site to see. The 4 minute ride up to the top was fun... and cozy, they cram 5 people in these little cars designed in the 60s - so you learn to make friends quick! It was unfortunate that once on top, the viewing windows were dirty and small, which diminished the view, but it was still one of my favorite stops!

Now it was time for dinner! We had read an article that listed some of the best pizzas in the country and St Louis had a listing: Pi Pizzeria. We decided to go to the Central West End cuz it was 2 miles closer to us than the other location and we were starved. I had no idea that Central West End was that adorable. Super trendy and cute. The pie was pretty decent, but I think they are known for their deep dish, which we didn't get.

Sunday, June 19th: Drive to Nashville
We woke up the next morning, ready to drive to Nashville. Along the way we made a stop at Land Between the Lakes. It is a section of land that is sandwiched between 2 lakes, with walking trails and historic locations. I was happy to get out and walk around a bit, too bad the weather didn't want me to. So hot, so humid and a bit rainy. So we got back in the car to visit the bison prairie, excited to see some roaming bison! Um, the bison didn't want me to see them. They were not feeding or roaming, they were hidden somewhere among the trees, so that was a bust.








Our Nashville hotel had a shuttle to Opryland Resort, which was great cuz parking over there is $18! The resort is grandiose and over the top, at a constructed corporate level that I don't appreciate, but I made the most of it! I road the boat that wound through the courtyard (that is how big the hotel is) and enjoyed the fountain show and had dinner at one of the hotel's restaurants: Jack Daniel's. There was a band playing at Jack's which was fun to watch, great cover band and I even picked up their CD of original songs. It was a fun night!









Monday, June 20th: Nashville, drive to Memphis
Back on the hotel shuttle in the morning, so we could tour the Grand Ole Opry. It was super lavish, all the dressing rooms and the green room were a site to see. The thing that really got me was the circle on the stage. The current location of the Grand Ole Opry is pretty recent, the "real" location was the Ryman Auditorium. So in order to keep a piece of that history, they cut out a section of the Ryman stage and installed it into the current Opry stage. After hearing all the Opry history, we had to tour the Ryman Auditorium also! Between the two, this one was the most interesting for me. The history of the building is fascinating and the talent and legends that sang on that stage gives you the "chill bumps".


Our time at Nashville was at an end (bummer) and it was time to get to Memphis! But with one stop along the way... Grinder's Switch Winery. We all know the special place that MN wineries hold in my heart, so I was excited to visit a TN winery! This winery is in a super charming log cabin, in the middle of what seemed nowhere. The owner is super friendly and pours some great and unique wines. Quite a few sweet ones (just like MN), but some real treasures too. The Chardonnay was one of my favorites, which is rare, those are not usually my favorite!









Tuesday, June 21st: Memphis
It's time, time for the whole purpose of this trip: Graceland. Before arriving, we had read somewhere that you can expect to spend about 2 1/2 hours touring the property. We spent 7 1/2 hours. HA! Ok, so we did take a shuttle over to Sun Studio for a tour and come back to finish the Graceland experience. But Sun Studio is so closely tied to Elvis that it seemed like all part of the Graceland experience. And it was all so great. How to even write about it? Graceland, the house, is much smaller than I expected and we could only tour the first level (lame), but it does have a lot of other building on the property to poke around in. To have a house like that frozen in the 70s era of decorating, well, that is pretty eye opening! I want a jungle room. Sun Studio was also a great tour. Heard some old and original tracks and really got that feeling of history.

Dinner that evening was at BB Kings on Beale St where we were entertained by the house band and I got some good mac and cheese! Beale St is pretty touristy so we thought a good way to view the city would be a Trolley ride. They restored their vintage car so it was a charming 45 minute ride around the city as the sun disappeared for the night.

Wednesday: June 22nd: Memphis
I was absolutely giddy to watch the Peabody Ducks make their daily trek to the fountain and who knew you had to get there an hour early to watch this! Good thing we showed up so early. The elevator doors finally opened and the 4 ducks came running out - they bee-lined for that fountain! Just so cute. We then visited the top of the hotel to see their "palace" at night and some great views of Memphis.

Time for lunch! We ordered sensibly so we could binge on dessert (at lunch! I never get dessert at lunch, but considering the South considers mac and cheese a vegetable side, it seemed right). Rumor had it that McEwen's on Monroe had some fabulous banana cream pie, and I have to agree!

When we at BB Kings the prior evening, the waitress recommended the Gibson Factory Tour. So after licking the dessert plates clean, we headed to the Gibson factory. Interesting tour, learned stuff about the guitar making process that I had no idea about!

I usually seem to end up at a cemetery on my vacations and this was no exception. Elmwood Cemetery is a Memphis cemetery that was started in 1852. And I think this was the most amazing and largest one I have been to at 80 acres. So many awe-inspiring headstones and crypts. I could have spent hours here, but it was too hot to wander and it was closing time soon, which meant dinner...

Every site you read to research Memphis tells you to eat at Rendezvous Restaurant, so we thought we better! The entrance is in an alley, the wait is long, and you find your own table after the hostess points you in the general direction. It is simple and good! A place to visit for sure!

Thursday, June 23rd: Memphis, drive to Branson
Well, that was it, time to start our return home. But not before we made one last overnight stop at Branson! We were going to make a stop to tour some caves in Arkansas, but before we got there, we saw all these signs advertising the Natural Bridge. Our curiosity was peaked, we had to stop. The drive down to the starting point was kind of crazy! We actually had to put the Prius in a low gear and weave our way down and hope we didn't run into another car! Safely made it and we walked the short trail, taking in the beauty of the land and seeing the bridge. Wish we could have walked on the bridge. Ah well.








Once at Mystic Caverns, there were 2 caves on the property that could be toured. The first one, just 1 week earlier was flooded tens of feet, so glad we showed up a week later! The second cave was bigger and had a small pond/wishing well. The pennies that are thrown in there are eaten away in about 2 weeks by the chemicals in the water! It was real pretty there and nice and cool.







Um, so wow. Wow. I don't even know where to start to describe Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede dinner show. Maybe just the name is enough? :) It wasn't until I was buying tickets that I realized that we had to pick a side: North or South. And they meant North or South in the Mason-Dixon kind of way. The whole evening, the audience was pitted against each other in all sorts of crazy competitions, some performed by audience members, some by professional horse riders. There were some fun horse riding tricks and baby pigs plus mini-ponies stole the show, but still sometimes I was kind of wide-eyed, trying to wrap my head around what I was a part of that evening.

Friday, June 24th: Branson, drive home
We really only made one stop on the 10 hour drive home, so I have to mention Osceola Cheese Shop! It was a good stop. I sampled a bunch of cheese, found my MO souvenir mug (I earned 2 new state mugs on this trip!) and then was ready for that final push home! Final mileage count: 2149.9 miles!