Atlanta

Friday 1st Oct
Spent the day travelling from Gatlinburg to Atlanta, Georgia. Took the scenic route through the Smoky Mountain National Park, Cherokee Indian Reservation & Chattahoochee National forest.
Found a comfortable motel on the outskirts of Atlanta for the night.  Our flight back home has been delayed by a day so we need to spend an extra day in Atlanta. Will probably find a motel near the airport tomorrow and spend the day there while waiting for our flight on Sunday night

Great Smoky Mountain National Park

Wed 29^th September

Drove into the park today and went to the highest point in the park - Clingman's Dome which is over 6000ft above sea level and gives 360deg views of the Smokies. After lunch went up to the Ober Gatlinburg Ski report and took the cable car down into the town & back. Spent the rest of the day wandering around town with supper at TGI Fridays which is a sports bar/restaurant. Going to spend another day here as we have found out that our flight back to SA is going to be a day later than planned !!  

Gatlinburg

Tues 28th Sept

Arrived in Gatlinburg which is the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountain Park and were in for a bit of a shock !! Had to travel trough a town 5Km before Gatlinburg called Pigeon Forge which is the hometown to Dolly Parton and looks like Las Vegas in the Woods. Completely over the top with a mixture of theme parks, millions of souvenir shops and churches !!!  Gatlinburg is not much better except it is nestled between the mountains and has a ski-resort feel to it, apart from the theme rides & souvenir shops.  In fact, in the winter it is a ski-resort and has a nice 120 person cable car which takes you up to the ski-resort above the town.  Spent the rest of the day exploring the town and shopping for gifts.

Yeehaa - howdy Ya'll from Nashville

Went out to downtown Nashville for some live Country Music tonight and some line-dancing from Michelle !
Had dinner in the Wild Horse Saloon (a renowned Nashville venue) with live music and line-dancing lessons

BTW - I found Elvis begging for tips on the pavement !!

Nashville Scenes

Monday 27th Sept
Spent the day exploring Nashville & the famous downtown music area. Some pics of Nashville below.

There is live music everyday in downtown Nashville in numerous venues from 11am to 11pm

Jack Daniels

Sunday 26th Sept
Left Huntsville in the rain and headed north towards Nashville, TN.
On the way popped into Lynchburg, Tennessee to the home of the Jack Daniels Distillery and took the tour of the famous distillery. Very interesting tour which explained how the unique Tennessee Sour Malt Whisky is made.

Our Tour Group at the Jack Daniels Distillery


After the tour and some lemonade (Lynchburg is in a dry county so no drinking is allowed, especially on a Sunday in Tennessee in the bible-belt of the USA !!) we headed for Nashville which is only an hour away.  Planning to stay in Nashville, Music City USA for 2 nights for Michelle to set her Country Music fix after my stay with the Blues ;-)
Cheers, Dereck

Sweet Home Alabama

Sat 25th Sept
Left Clarksdale early and headed across the cotton fields of Mississippi into Alabama.  Headed for Huntsville, Alabama and visited the US Space & Rocket Centre in Huntsville which is recognized as one of the most comprehensive U.S. manned space flight hardware museums in the world. See - http://www.spacecamp.com/museum/overview
Found a nice motel for the night in Huntsville and had a Mexican dinner in Alabama !!!

Graceland - Elvis has left the building !!

Friday 24th Sept
Picked up our car today and headed back to Graceland but Elvis was nowhere to be found :-)

Then left Memphis behind and headed into Mississippi to Clarksdale - birthplace of the Delta Blues
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarksdale,_Mississippi

Went to visit the Delta Blues Museum and tonight we are heading for the Gound Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale which is owned by actor Morgan Freeman who is a native of Clarksdale along with such Blues greats as Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Ike Turner, 
http://www.groundzerobluesclub.com/home.php
http://www.clarksdaletourism.com/


The Crossroads
This is the intersection of the two great Blues highways (Hwy. 61 and Hwy. 49), alleged by some to be the site where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil for the ability to play music like no other.

Beale Street Blues

Went back to Beale St last night for some good Blues

What a place !!  Darryl, Sven, Mali & Dave would love it here.

More Memphis Magic

Thurs 23rd Sept
Headed downtown today and the 1st stop was the Gibson Factory where Dereck took the tour and Michelle went shopping !!! Unfortunately photos were not allowed in the factory, only the gift shop :-(
This Gibson factory manufactures the hollow body arch-top guitars like the ES-355 made famous by BB King and ES-175. All the solid body electrics like the Les Paul's & SG's are made in Nashville which is definitely going to be a visit when we get to Nashville in a few days time :-)

Had lunch in the Memphis Hard Rock Cafe which has a whole floor dedicated to Elvis

After lunch did some shopping in Beale Street and headed back to the hotel to prepare for another night on Beale Street !!!