While we’re here we’ll ignore the incessant drizzle (wrap up
and make do as my mother would say, which makes sense in the English Lake
District but doesn’t feel quite right here) and go for a whistle stop tour of
the sights.
First up is the Mecca of country and western, the Grand Old
Opry. Adorned with banners of Dolly Parton and…I have no idea who any of the
others are…it is sadly too early in the day for it to be open. As it turns out
the Grand Old Opry is actually the new Grand Old Opry…the old Grand Old Opry is
somewhere in town. Yes, I was confused too.
Next up is the Hermitage, home and plantation of President Andrew
Jackson. As far as I can figure out it’s based along the same lines as a
National Trust property in the UK. We pitched up expecting to take a couple of
snaps of the house, but this is out of site, cunningly hidden by the visitors
centre. It’s $19 minimum to get in unless you’re a serving member of the
military which would entitle you to free entry. As we’re all civilians we stare
at the board displaying the admission prices. Peter cracks first and we’re back
in the van.
There then follows a discussion about the origins of the
name. Pronounced “Hermertidge” as
opposed to “Hermitarge” which I know is that humongous museum in St. Petersberg,
Russia. Spending your life rotting away in front of the Discovery Channel can
sometimes make you seam learned and really clever. Apparently, there’s also an
identical museum in Leningrad…Google tells us that the local town is named
after the estate but it turns out no
one appears to know why Andrew Jackson
picked the name.
As I rattle this out in the back of the SUV, pressing random
keys and cursing every time we go over a bump, I’m chewing on one of the myriad
brands of gum you get in the truck stops. The flavour goes in the blink of an
eye and chewing becomes ever more challenging until my jaw is as sore as my
buttocks. Some Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum would be nice, or even some Juicy Fruit
at a pinch.
We park and wander up the main strip which is full of neon
signs, big, bold banners trying to get you to part with your money “buy one
pair of boots, get two pairs free”, “Bettie Page clothing” and so on. A couple of
blocks up is the old Grand Old Opry which is now called The Ryman Auditorium.
They don’t make this easy for you. It was a pleasant way to spend half an hour,
with live music drifting out of some of the bars, I’m sure it’s fun at night. We finish up at the
Johnny Cash Museum and have a cursory look round the shop. We’re then back on
the road and there’s a sign for Clarksville for you Monkees fans out there.
After crossing the Tennessee River we have a break at
Holladay on the I40. Comedy ensues as I go to the toilet (sorry restroom) and
turn on the tap (sorry faucet) which has 2 settings: “off” and “tsunami”. I’m blasted out the door backwards
desperately trying to avoid a large Japanese fishing boat…I swim over to Subway
and have the usual ‘I wish they did a 9”’ conversation with myself and end up,
as usual with a 12”. The problem with 12” is that it’s quite unwieldy; I managed to squash the end putting my seat
belt on, then despite grasping the beast with both hands was unable to stop the
end going all floppy which deposited an entire RDA of light (sorry lite) mayo
down my front. While trying to sort this
out I had an epic crispnado (sorry chipnado) incident in the back of the van
which will take some clearing up when we stop. Never a dull moment.
We continue heading west and we’re into blue sky and warm
sunshine. As we approach Memphis my spirits lift; we’ll soon be back on the
map! We then get stuck in traffic as an 18 wheeler with a burnt out cab is
dragged off the central reservation (sorry median).The plan is to plough on
through Arkansas to Little Rock tonight and on to Texarkana that straddles the
Texas border tomorrow morning. Texarkana also happens to be home town to the
ladies in the middle seats and we plan on visiting their health food store.
This is great as they’ve promised to let me exchange the 3KG of change in my
right pocket for notes which should stop me from walking round in circles. A
quick vanilla latte at Starbucks and we pass through Memphis and into Arkansas,
state number 10 on this epic trip, an amazing figure eclipsing all previous trips combined. No time to pay a visit to Graceland. Blimey, that’s an anvil forming in the distance. We have a storm! No prospect of tornadoes as there’s no shear, but it becomes severe warned so let’s get on with it. We head north to the rather shabby town of Earle then west on US64. There are paddy fields either side of the road; Arkansas is a major producer of rice. We continue west towards…Bald Knob. Bald Knob is, apparently, the strawberry growing capital of the world and in early May they hold the annual HomeFest Festival which has several strawberry orientated events including a Mr Bald Knob competition…The storm fizzles out.
Onward to the Days Inn in Little Rock and a very tasty prawn (sorry shrimp) Cajun meal at the Faded Rose restaurant.
Day 5 – Total Miles: 422
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