Arkansas to Tennessee ,(The Music State !) 15th June to 8th of July

This next part of the travelling was something I personally was really excited about, ie  'The music' but before we visited Memphis and Nashville we decided we were going to have a little rest, as cities and the heat do take its toll on you. The temperatures on our Texan trip reached 90 degrees most of   the time, by the end of the site seeing we felt really exhausted. We had not done any of the state parks so far whilst in America, so it was a must to check them out.  Also a nice change away from the hustle and bustle of the city life. What we could not believe is how many State parks there were..

Our first destination was  North to a place called Texarcana which is situated right in between the Texas and Arkansas state border. We saw a  big difference whilst driving north  as   the country side got a lot  greener, with lots of rice fields.  We were also pleased  that  the traffic was not a busy as what we  had experienced whilst in Texas.

Before reaching the first  park we did a couple of one night stop overs , the first journey  was approximatley 200 miles. We did not stop in Texarcana itself just a little motel outside it. What we were quite glad about was that we had  just popped into the bar next door for something to eat    called the Shooters Bar, we ended up having a really good night.We danced most of the night it was hard not to as the music was great being a mixture of country and rock and roll .It was really good to see where all the locals went for their night out.

The following day we went to Arkadelphia via Camden on the first of many civil war trails, the first one was called the 'Trail of Tears' .

The next stop we ended up staying Arkadelphia for one night as Steve had enough of driving as it had been yet another 300 miles. We keep getting reminded that America is massive.

Our next destination was Crawley's National Park, which was a fantastic site,a fairly large park but only had 6 cabins, situated a fair distance from each other so it was fairly private. We enjoyed it so much we stayed 5 nights just relaxing in the peace and quiet in the middle of the woods. There were many walking trails and a large lake where Steve managed to fit in a bit of fishing again.

Crawley's National Park

Crawley's National Park

Crawley's National Park

Cabin at Chickasaw National State Park

We then left and  drove through Missouri and crossed the Mississippi entering Tennessee and found another great park called Chickasaw, 70 miles east of Memphis. We stayed there for one  week, once again it had walking trails, a massive lake, a swimming lake with lifeguards and a small beach.  Our bonus was it also had tennis courts so we managed to get a game in every day. There was no difficulty getting on the courts as we were the only 'mad dogs in the sun' playing tennis in the scorching heat.  It was still 80 degrees early evening we could not get away from  it.

Whilst we were staying at the park we ventured on different days out, the first was Corinth.Corinth  was an occupied town during the Civil War  and there had been  two famous battles there.

One of the other days we went to Tupelo Mississippi ,which was where Elvis Presley was born. He only lived at Tupelo until he was three years old   but this was a really interesting rags to riches story as the house was built by Elvis' father and family, but ended up getting repossesed as they could not afford to live there. After that they moved to Memphis in various rented homes. Later on in life when Elvis became famous he went back to the place where he was born and decided to buy the land with the house on it and make it a tourist attraction for the community.

All picture below are Elvis's House Typelo, Mississipi

Steve on the swing chair outside Elvis's house where hewas born-Tupelo

Steve got really excited on one of the dayss when he realised we were only half an hour away from Shiloh, National Historic Monument, where the biggest battle  fought in the south during the civil war. The State Park was enormous and the battlefield ws set out just as it was in 1861, with groups of cannons scattered and laid out in their original positons. It was suppose to be driven around,  but Bailey's Tours had not realised and managed to walk around half of it ! It was a really humbling experience also, walking around the beautifully kept grounds where the over two days  20000 losses and casualties from the 100000 soldiers taking part from both sides .(More casualties than the Americans suffered on D Day in 1944)

Cornith Battle field

Finally we arrived in Memphis  on the Friday as we wanted to visit it during a long weekend. We stayed from Friday to Sunday. Memphis lived up to all my expectations. The three main attractions to visit were Graceland, Beale street, and Sun Studios.

Graceland- Everybody we spoke to said it is so touristy, yes it was but in a really nice way. It was very organised, it cost $46 for the premier ticket. This is where you get to see Elvis' house as it stood just before he died, his numerous gold record rewards, his private jet and custom interior designed aeroplane. It also included an entrance to the museum where his impressive collection of cars, motorbikes he owned were kept. It was absolutely amazing. It was quite an informative audio tour and was emotional especially when you saw his resting place where he was buried in his garden with his twin brother, his mum, dad and granny were also buried there. He had designed this place while he was alive as somewhere to go when he wanted piece and quiet.

Graceland

 Graceland-Living room

 Graceland-Dinning area

 Graceland-Kitchen

Billiard room

Graceland, Gold record room

Elvis practice room

Elvis gold record award room, (just one of them)

Elvis's grave,

Meditation area- Graceland

Elvis Museum

Elvis private plane, Lisa Marie

Dinning area on Elvis's Privte plane.
The plane also had a living area, bathrooms with gold taps, walk in wardrobe, bedroom

Sun Studios- This was also a good tour, We stood on the cross marked on the floor where Elvis stood when recording his first record at the age of 18 years old. My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin' a double ascetate costing him $3.98. Apparently he was really nervous, but did not become famous until he as 19 years old. The most amazing thing about this tour was we were able to hold the microphone that Elvis used and stand on the same spot in the studio which is still the same original flooring. I thought that was cool anyway!

Sun Studios

Sun Studios- Standing on the same spot a Elvis and using his original  microphone

Beale Street, A bar area with live music, situated in the downtown area of Memphis, luckily we managed to find a hotel just around the corner so it was pretty central.

 

Bele  Street

The area covered approximately 200 yards long with barriers at both ends of the road,with police guarding each end. It was fascinating really , with local youths doing somersaults down the street and every bar had a live band on or singer, they mostly played blue grass music. The famous BB kings bar was on the corner of Beale Street where you can go for good music and decent food (It had a small charge on the door to get in) You could also buy drinks on the street where performances take place, the atmosphere was electric. Three nights in Memphis covered most of what we wanted to see, we were glad that we went for the long weekend, Sunday night was a bit quieter, but still busy enough for a good atmosphere.

Memphis

Memphis

 

This Baseball Park - Nashville was outside our motel

BB Kings bar- Bele Street

Memphis is in a nice area, lots of green areas, nice houses, we went through one rough area on our way to Graceland, ( A bit bleek as they woud say) but most of the streets were linned with trees and looked  Another good trip we enjoyed ws the Mississippi boat trip where we cruised on a paddle boat on the river whilst the guide told us all about Memphis.

We then headed for another State park called Natrass Trace, near Lexington 90 miles west of Nashville. We wanted to also hit Nashville at its peak time  during the weekend so it was ideal for us to chill out in the woods again amongst the deer and the wildlife. Once again Natrass Trace State Park was  very pretty, with all the amenities like the other parks we had previously visited but much, much bigger. The cabin we stayed in  overlooked the lake, the park had a variety of walks and it also had a swimming lake which we really enjoyed too.

Natrass Trace swimming Lake

Natrass Trace swimming Lake

We then hit Nashville after a 90 mile drive, we decided to go on the Thursday night so we could get our bearings before the weekend started. The bar area was downtown Broadway, where there were lots of bars once again lots and lots of live music. This time mostly country music. We saw some excellent artists, they play in the bars for tips only. I suppose it is there chance to be noticed in the country music business. There were also buskers on the street. Once again a great atmosphere, but this time not so many people on the street walking about they were mainly in the bars.

Women country band on Broadway

 

Duet called Nial Hay

Broadway- Nashville

Broadway- Nashville

The Stage- Broadway Nashville

On the Friday night we decided to try out the Grand Ole Opry, which is situated 12 miles outside Downtown Nashville. It had a good variety of music, various artists played 2 records each, a very entertaining night, good value for the money as some of the famous stars played there.

Grand Ole Opry,

The skyline was quite impressive in Nashville, it was also  an easy city to get around, we did most of it on foot. I think what impressed us both was no matter what time you went to the Broadway area there were live bands playing all day and night. On our last day we visited the Country Hall of fame, it was OK. It ticked a box but that was about it with this museum, it was in all the guide books as a must do.. Other than the bands and the Grand Ole Opry there was not a lot else to see, but the live music was well worth it.  It turned out to be one of  my favourites places for the nightlife as we loved the music. We both said we would certainly go back there one day.

Nashville Skyline

We are now nearly at the final part of our trip and plan to head North towards New York with a view of visiting quite a few more places on the way. One month exactly to go. We are starting to feel sad already.

　

Bailey's Tours do Texas 1st -15th June

As we mentioned on the last blog, the journey from Dallas to Houston was a bit of a nightmare, a four hour journey turned into 7 hours. The difficulty was we were meeting our friends Pam and Jeff from the airport at 9pm and time was of the essence. When we arrived at the hotel there were road blocks, police everywhere, crowds of people, this was all we needed when we were running late. Obviously we were wondering what all the commotion was about. We found out that a space shuttle had just been sent across the Gulf Coast from Florida and was getting ready to be moved into Houston Space Centre, which was situated near the hotel. We could see the shuttle from our hotel bedroom. Because of this we made it just in time to meet Jeff and Pam at the airport. After a few gin and tonics in the bar that night, it was great catching up with each other.

Houston skyline

First night Houston, Hilton Hotel

Space ship that had just been delivered from Florida

The following day we visited the Houston Space Centre, it was pretty impressive which was well worth a visit as it does give you a good incite into space history. There were a lot of replicas and Apollo lunar modules that were on display. You would never actual appreciate how big they were until you were close by them, photographs do not do them justice.

Houston Space Centre

Houston Space Centre (The bottom of Saturn 5)

Later on in the day we went to Kemah Boardwalk located 2 miles away from our hotel on Clearwater . It was a buzzing little place with lots of people, fabulous waterfront restaurants, amusements and retail stores.

Kemmah Boardwalk- People dancing in the water sprinklers.

It looked like there had been some sort of regatta as there were so many sailing boats on the water. It was an ideal place to dine out.

Keemah Boardwalk

Our first Sunday started off with a quick visit to see USN Battlehip Texas a very impresive ship that took part in the D Day landings over 60 years ago. It was right next to the San Jincanto State monument. Here Jeff and Steve spent alot of time up the statue, learning about how Texas won their independence from Mexico in 1835 in the final battle of the war. (Pam and I thought there must have been a bar right at the top !)

Before going to the Kennedy space centre we purchased a 5 day Houston City pass which gives you choice of 5 top attractions including the space centre, Zoo, Aquarium, Natural Science Museum and a Fine Arts Museum. The difference between the prices for each attraction cost $26 or you could do all 5 attractions for $36. As we did not have much time in Houston we only chose to go to one more museum which was the National Science Museum, it was quite informative but we were pleased that we had bought the 5 day pass, for $36. I did not think it would have been worth a further $26.

The best entertainment was Steve deciding to get in a cage that turns 360 degrees spinning upside down, I thought he had enough when he had been on the bull in Orlando, as it took him weeks to get over all his cuts and bruises!

We left the Natural Science Museum and were advised that while we were in the area to look the glitzy Monrose area, it was just like a clean urban area of Houston. The Montrose area didn't take long to get around, so we decided to head of to Galveston Island which is located on the coastline of Texas just 50 miles south of Houston. The information about the Island seemed very attractive quoting that "it has more fun and attractions than one can fit into an entire summer". It mentions towering glass pyramids, an array of shops and cafes, first-rate restaurants, 32 miles of beaches and an abundance of leisure activities with something to do for everyone.

We were all fairly surprised when we arrived there when we saw a typical pier full of amusements being the main attractin We all  laughed when Jeff said "Redcar 2 Galveston 1". It was a really sort of strange seaside town, the water looked really brown, not the sort of water that would invite us for a swim even though it was a really hot day. Some of the  Victorian architecture in old Galverston, by the bay  was interesting and worth looking around though. We stayed for dinner before the drive home.

The following day our next destination was to head to San Antonio. In order to break up the journey we made a couple of stops, the first was Schullenberg, which is famous for its colourful churches designed by the Germans and Czechs. The second stop we headed for Shiner, the oldest brewery in Texas. We were in luck as there was a tour about to start at 1-30 which was supposed to take 30-45 minutes, however they let us do some beer tasting first, where we could taste four free samples. So you can imagine by the time of the tour we had got what we wanted and disappeared back to the car by 1-25pm, who needs a tour when we have already tasted the beer?. However after that we realised Pam had taking to this Shinerbock beer making it her main choice of beer to drink during the trip, so the beer tasting was worth it after all.

We had already pre-booked the motel for four nights in San Antonio, which was not that cheap but when arriving the motel got a new name by Jeff called "El Dumpo". The motel had one thing in its favour, it was really close to the famous Alamo and the River walk known for its bars and restaurants and shops.

Shopping Centre on the River Walk.

Steve and Jeff in 'Mad Dogs' ,the British Pub on the river walk on Jubilee Day.

        Part of the River Walk.

 The river flowed in the middle of the city for an extensive 15 miles long to the outskirts , it was really pretty with at least one mile and a half of bars and restaurants on either side. You could also tour the river by tourboat, which was pretty reasonable in price.

Outside the 'Alamo'

750 feet up in The Americas Tower- Happy Hour!

                                               
Our highlights of San Antonio was of course " The Alamo", happy hour (cocktails) in "Americas Tower" (standing 750 feet above San Antonio) The Menger historic hotel and the restaurants on the River walk.

The Menger Hotel;where Teddy Roosevelt hired his 'Rough Riders'

  We also experienced the bus city hopper which gave us a fairly educated history and site seeing tour of San Antonio that also had some really  interesting areas ,(Especially the three other Missions .) We all felt that two-three days was enough time to discover San Antonio as  we were searching for things to do on the fourth day,but we went for a car ride out towards the mexican border and ended up in Uvelde- a very, very quiet town .

The next day we went to a pre- arranged surprise package for Jeff and Pam, 'The Mayan Dude Range' in Banderas, 70 miles north west of San Antonio. The literature was exactly what we expected we had not even got to the ranch when we we saw 20 horses all saddled up wondering around the Coral. The ranch was situated in 350 acers of land . The organisation has been run by the Hicks family for 60 years.

Steve outside the Bailey ranch

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  Steve relaxing on the swing bench outside our ranch

                                    

    Pam lasooing in the Cowboy Olimpics

                                         

Resting by the Dude Ranch pool

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Pam and Jeff outside their Ranch.

                                                    

This was an all inclusive deal with a very structured itinerary with options of course. Our first horse riding session was booked within an hour after we arrived, so straight in to it. Each couple had a beautiful two bedroomed cottage, all detached within the woods, very peaceful, however they were still close enough to all the amenities, pool, tennis courts etc. Our highlight of the day was the cowboy Olympics which involved shooting golf, lassooing a metal bull, horseshoe throwing and many more. Steve won the golf round for the men and the lasooing  and by some luck I won the women's golf. Pam was our ambassador within our group for the shooting, scoring two out of three while we all scored zero. The first evening finished with live country music, barbecue and fireworks and obviously as much alcohol and  food as much you wanted.

The following day was cowboy breakfast and a country singer which was very relaxing, followed by a hay ride back to the ranch. We did a little bit more horse riding on the morning and relaxed by the pool on the afternoon. That evening the whole Hicks family did a show whilst we were having dinner which was excellent. There were alot of good singers within the family. We would recommend the place for families  and especially children who love horseriding. We also found out while we were there, that people have been going back every year for the last 10-20 years.

Hay ride.

                                                                             

We left the following day and headed towards Austin the state capital via Fredericksberg, again local knowledge told us to get to Fredricksberg by one o' clock to see a pacific war display. Some display it was, it was like being in the middle of the film set, ducking hand grenades, heavy machine guns and bullets everywhere. We were surprised when tanks jeeps and troop carriers came on the scene. The whole display was very realistic and well acted, however it was very noisy. The odds were a bit uneven though they had more Americans than Japanese. The best part was when the flame thrower came out, we felt we were on fire. We now understand why we were given ear plugs at the entrance and the front seats were the only ones left that were free. For us this was a really exciting display and a very new experience however this would never have been passed in the Uk. Fredrickberg is a beautiful litlle town, a very strong German influence with lots of character.

Showing the firepower of a Thompson machine gun

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Two hours later we arrived in Austin, where we stayed near the centre which was still a taxi ride from the bars. As we only had a duration of two nights we went to the supposedly 6th Street which had a fantastic write  up about all the bars and restaurants. It was the roughest place we have seen since we have been to America. The police were on pedal bikes. We had a quick walk down 6th street after passing many rough bars and found an Irish bar where we felt pretty safe. We really struggled to find a decent restaurant and walked quite a long way to find one. We didn't seem to have much luck they all seemed to close early so we went back to the Irish Bar.

The following day on the morning we visited their  Capitol Building  which is where the Texan government is  based. This is very impressive building, higher than Washington State Capital Building.

The Capitol

The Main Hotel on 6th Street

The Biggest Texas Star in the world

                                                    

On the afternoon we did the 'Duck Tour' which is a bus that converts into boat. When we were on the lake the guide pointed Andy Roddick's ( famous tennis player) house. The tour overall was pretty informative, with a very enthusiastic guide who was very proud of the City. The evening finished back in the Irish bar, once again two days were enough to get a good insight  into Austin.

  On the Duck

                                                             

We thought this was funny Waco Police

Our next destination was Fort Worth which was recommended by people we had met on our travels , this journey was approximately 200 miles however we did have to stop for a while.Firstly for lunch in Waco.We didn't bother checking out what Waco  has become world famous for ie the mass religious suicide but on our way to Fort Worth we did pass loads of Baptist churches. (In places they were lined up next to each other, similar to a parade of shops!) Secondly the weather changed from a glorious summers day to  thunderstorms and torrential rain. In the end we took a detour away from the motor way so the journey was a bit longer than anticipated. (That day hailstones were reported and shown on TV the size of tennis balls!) 

The next day we went to the stockyards, where there was a cattle drive down the main street, approximatley18 Long Horn Cattle followed the cowboys on horses, apparently they do this everyday at 11am and 4pm to demonstrate to tourists the importance of cattle in  the history of Fort Worth. The stockyard area was a home to cowboys with some excellent venues for live country music. Some were dance halls, Billy Bobs was the largest of them all biggest holding 5000 people at one time. The shops were quaint and most of them sold cowboy style goods varying from clothes, furniture, small gifts and a vast amount of hats and cowboy boots. We enjoyed the stockyards tour and could not believe how big it was, once again we had a very enthusiastic tour guide who was very proud of his routes. We liked this area for the restaurants the first night we had a Tex Mex and the following night a grill/ Steak house was recommended to us, both restaurants were busy and buzzing with people.

We also spent a bit of time around Sundance Square which is the centre of Fort Worth where the infamous Sundance Kid used to hang out, hence the name. This was an interesting area with lots of nice old Victorian buildings, however the square was still under reconstruction so we could not see the full potential at the time.

We all decided to stay an extra day in Fort Worth as Dallas City was only 20 miles away, we decided to make it a full day visit instead, instead of up routing again.

We parked in the centre and spent the whole morning in the Kennedy museum, learning about the details of assassination in 1963. It was an informative audio tour and was quite moving. We then went to the second top attraction in Dallas which was sculptures of approximately 60 bronze long horn bulls stampeding through a river. This was a very impressive piece of sculpture for the city. It was a clean city but lacked shops and restaurants in the centre. Their westend area, which was highlighted in the guide book famous for restaurants and bars only consisted of about 6 restaurants.

Bronze sculptures- Long Horn cattle- Dallas

Departure day ; A ride back to Dallas and the Bailey's Tours Texas road trip was over! We all had a fantastic time and were very proud of oursleves to manage so many cities in temperatures soaring around 95 degrees the whole time. We managed to once again cover alot of miles 1500 miles in total since picking the car up from Dallas on the 1st June. We feel we have learned a lot about Texas, love the Texans  and their  southern accent is brilliant. We did not realise how much they use the work Ya'll !

That's all from Bailey's Tours for now. Our next trip is a bit of a dog leg again - north to Arkansas, then east to Tennessee. I'm really looking forward to this part of our trip to get my music 'fix' in Memphis and then Nashville. Steve is really looking forward to getting back to nature again, in the woods, walking and lots of fishing .(Plus he's just informed me of the many Civil War battlefields in Tennessee ,so it looks as though our tour of the Mid South will prove interesting and educational too ! )

Pam and I on  ourlast night in the Stockyards in Fort Worth -celebrating surviving Bailey's Tours of Texas, June 1st -15th 2012!