Day 13 - Memphis to Nashville

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Woke up to a really cold morning with temp at minus 3 degrees. In the morning we headed away from Memphis and headed for Nashville the home of country music. The drive took around 3.5 hours and we arrived around 1.30PM.

The drive was different than what we had experienced so far with a few more hills and lots of trees / forests around although most had no leaves as we are in middle of winter. Very clear sunny day but still very cool. State Troopers everywhere on the drive to Nashville ( I reckon we must have passed at least 20 on the drive with half of them booking someone and the others trying to catch someone speeding. They should all be back in Memphis !

Had lunch at a diner next to out Hotel when we arrived which was very basic food. Kerry & I had chicken soup in a polystyrene cup (how cheap is that ?).

We are staying at Embassy Suites which is part of the Hilton chain and it is located in the Vanderbilt area on Broadway. It’s about 2 miles west of downtown so we took the Hotel shuttle down to Broadway & 5th for dinner. Easily the most expensive place we’ve stayed at so far and not even in downtown. Car Parking is extra $15-00 per day, and no free Wi-Fi either. We only stayed here because we needed 2 bedroom configuration.

We looked at a few honky tonk bars but most did not allow children in so we went to Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. This place had only opened about a month ago. I had a good meal with some Fried Chicken followed by delicious Key Lime Pie (albeit a bit too rich). I also had a couple of shark lager beers to wash it all down which is a local brew.

They had a cowboy playing his guitar doing some Country songs and he had a great voice. I asked him if he could play some Johnny Cash, John Denver or Glenn Campbell and he played all 3 in a row so I asked Elise to give him $10-00 as a tip and he played another 3 for us. The kids enjoyed his version of Ring Of Fire.

After dinner we checked out a couple of shops that were selling Boots (by the hundreds) and belts with huge buckles. A lot of the belts were over $100-00, and they had some unreal leather jackets for around $750-00 if you were a rock star !

Caught a Taxi back to the Hotel around 8.00PM, and they had the Harlem Globe Trotters Show playing on TV which the kids had not seen before and they really enjoyed it. I saw them years ago in Sydney and I wondered when they are going to visit us again ?

We’ve now got two full days ahead of us in Nashville so we’ve arranged to do a city sightseeing tour tomorrow starting at 9AM.

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Photos

Magic Shot of Nashville Colours
Actually bad photography but turned out cool eh !!

Dessert at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville
What do they say about American serving sizes ?