Month: June 2008

We started the vacation on the extremely ominous Friday, June 13th, but everything went well. I got up early, went to the store for some last minute items, mowed and cleaned up the yard before leaving. We got on the road around 11:00 a.m. and were headed for Memphis.

Here’s Sweet Sweet.

Here’s me, realizing that I look a little bald and proving to myself that it’s just the short haircut.

Sweet Sweet wanted some pictures of some pigs that were on the road and I complied.

We are actually staying in West Memphis, which was much cheaper than staying in Memphis and here we are about to cross the Mississippi River to grab some dinner.

We had dinner at Neely’s BBQ.

And this was my pulled pork plate, absolutely delicious.

And this was the sun setting outside of Neely’s when we left.

We headed to Beale Street and other than seeing Disco Felix, it wasn’t too exciting and it smelled pretty bad.

Here’s Beale Street at night:

And here’s Sweet Sweet and myself having a few drinks:

We were then on our way to Nashville the next morning. It rained almost the entire drive to Nashville and so we were getting a little depressed about the thought of it raining on our vacation, again. Our first stop was the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Here’s a car from some famous country music singer, complete with weapons:

Here’s Sweet Sweet next to Elvis’ car, complete with television:

Here’s Sweet Sweet about to rip off her pants as she stands next to George Strait’s jacket:

Although I am not a country music expert, I had to wonder why Big and Rich had an exhibit, complete with a box for the crazy top-hat.

After the CMHOF (it stopped raining), we grabbed some lunch at a bar and grill off of the Cumberland River right next door to where the Titans play.

There was also a bicycle race happening.

This is along the waterfront of the Cumberland River.

Next, we stop in at the Ryman Auditorium, which was the birthplace of the Grand Ole Opry.

Sweet Sweet and myself, rocking out.

More Ryman Auditorium.

Outside the Ryman.

We then drive to Tennessee’s Parthenon, which is a replica of the Parthenon over in Greece. Very big and very impressive.

We’re pretty exhausted, so we check into our room and the plan is to go to Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack for dinner. Typically, I would take pictures and video of the food, but this was not the type of place that you do this. For a more detailed account of Prince’s, go here. I will say that it was the best damn fried chicken I’ve ever had. Hands down. We had the mild and we were sweating. It gave my insides hell for days, but it was great fried chicken.

Our last stop for the day is the new Grand Ole Opry and we saw quite a few older acts, but the one’s that stood out was Little Jimmy Dickens.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops were incredible and Sweet Sweet liked Ashley Monroe.

Up next, Big South Fork.