We’ve spent much of the last few days travelling as we started our journey back towards Chicago ready to return home. We left Memphis in the most torrential rain, but thankfully by the time we arrived in Louisville on Sunday evening it had eased.

On Monday morning there was no sign of the rain so we hopped on a bus to the downtown area. Sadly it seems that Louisville closes down from Oct 31st, as everything we wanted to see was already closed up. We had a walk around and discovered that it’s a city that combines old and new in a fantastic way. There are obviously new buildings right next to the old ones and they just work together. We saw some steam paddle boats on the river, sadly the one that’s still running is out of Cincinnati so we weren’t able to have a ride on one. We found a lovely sports bar near to out hotel and had a fantastic dinner…I even found a pizza that was better than in Chicago!

We were due to stay in Louisville until Wednesday, but as there wasn’t really much more to do, we have decided that we would prefer to check out on Tuesday and stop halfway to Chicago for the night, in Lafayette, Indiana which would mean far shorter drive times before the long day of travel to get home. I think we are both feeling ready to be back now. H x

After a night of very stormy weather, and many tornado warnings in most of the areas we have been over the last 2 weeks, we set off from Louisville in sunshine although with a definite dip in temperature. We had booked a motel room for the night in Lafayette…although when I typed the address into the sat nav I discovered I’d actually booked it for Lafayette, Louisiana rather than Indiana!! A quick WiFi hook up and the problem was soon sorted and off we went.

Things were going smoothly until we reached Colombus. There was some construction work happening in the central reservation of the Interstate and all the trucks were using the left lane. We were driving on the right, doing the speed limit of 60, and keeping pace with the surrounding traffic. At the end of the construction work a sign instructed the lorries to move to the right again and unfortunately one driver decided to pull over at the same time as he indicated rather than wait and give time for anyone in his blind spot (ie me!) to have time to pull back or go ahead. The next few seconds are a bit of a blur, but he hit us and we skidded into the crash barrier at the edge of the carriageway, bounced off it and back into his lorry. Thankfully neither of us were injured, apart from a cut finger, ĺ

The driver of the lorry got out and initially tried to say I was deliberately undertaking him. He wanted photos of my drivers license and insurance, but not being sure of procedures over here I asked him to call 911 and get some police assistance. Within about 10 minutes of being called a lovely officer called Chris was with us. He listened to our side of what had happened, took all my documents then talked to the truck driver. I have no idea what was said, but after half an hour or so the driver was off having been told by Chris he did not need a picture of my license or any of my details, and we were waiting with Chris for a tow truck. He was incredible, he arranged everything so that we would be able to continue our journey, filled in whatever reports he needed to do, made sure I had all the report numbers, his details, the department phone number etc so if we needed any more help we could get hold of him. He drove us in his patrol car to the nearest car hire place, which thankfully was an Avis desk, which is where our car had come from, and stayed with us until he knew we had a vehicle. At one point it looked like we might have to get to Indianapolis to pick a car up, and even though he only had an hour of his shift left, he told us he would drive us there if he had to. Despite Mum being naturally upset and in shock, I was somehow much calmer and able to deal with everything to get us back in the road, I think she was quite taken with Officer Chris!! She managed to sneak several hugs out of him and a roadside selfie 😂 On the way to the rental desk he asked me if I have children and when I said I do, he gave me a police patch. Apparently kids over here often collect them so officers offer carry them to hand over. Needless to say Mum has commandeered that as a souvenir!

We took a bit of break before starting off again in our new Chrysler minivan and decided that neither of us really wanted to finish the drive then have to do it again on Wednesday just to get to Chicago so we cancelled our Lafayette motel and booked another night in the Chicago hotel we were already heading to on Wednesday. Officer Chris had come pack and seen our new car had not yet moved so he was waiting by it for us to make sure we were alright!

It was a very long and tiring drive. We made a coffee stop and then the sat nav unfortunately didn’t recognise the address we were meant to be going to so took us right into downtown Chicago and to the Navy Pier we visited on our first day here, through road works and rush hour traffic. By the time we made it to the hotel we were both exhausted and ready for some food, a hot shower and bed! Thankfully the hotel has a number of places who deliver to your room so we didn’t need to go out again. Ideal after we had set out at about 11am and not arrived here until nearly 8pm, plus crossed another time zone which jumped us back another hour…I am so confused about time right now, I have absolutely no idea how long we were on the road yesterday.

I don’t think Mum slept too well, but I slept like a log until the coldness of our room woke me early this morning. We are spending today watching movies, eating M&M’s and popcorn and getting sorted ready to come home tomorrow. I’m also hoping that I have done everything I need to in regards to the car. What a 24 hours. This morning we are a little achy, the tops of my arms and shoulders especially, I think from where I braced against the steering wheel then was obviously a lot more tense that I realised for the rest of the drive, but I think we’re OK. I’m very sad about poor Miss Maybelle, the minivan is nowhere near as much fun to drive.

I guess this will be my last blog entry, but I’ll get Mum to do a final overview of the whole trip when we are at O’Hare airport tomorrow. I’m sure this won’t be last visit to the USA, but for now, it’s have a great day from me. H xx

What a busy few days we’ve had again! We drove from Pigeon Forge to Memphis, which I think, took about 6 hours, however, we went through another time zone again and with the couple of stops along the way, it’s hard to be sure exactly how long we were on the road. For the first half of the journey we were driving through very heavy rain, but that eased the further west we got.

We arrived at the Guesthouse at Graceland, me in need of some movement and Mum in need of sleep, so after getting ourselves organised I headed to the gym and left Mum in our lovely room. The hotel is owned by the Graceland estate, so Lisa Marie Presley, I guess and is very decadents, as you’d expect. Between 10 and 11 every evening they put out a station for you to make a snack and have a hot chocolate…trays of bread, peanut butter, jam, marshmallows, whipped cream, bananas, chocolate chips and mini M&M’s along with a vat of hot chocolate or cartons of cold chocolate milk, you just join the (very long) queue and help yourself!

After breakfast in our room on Friday morning we caught the shuttle bus from the hotel to go across the road to Graceland itself. We opted for the VIP tour so we were whisked straight across to the mansion and ahead of the line waiting to get in. I visited Elvis’s house in 1997, but it was just as incredible to see again. There have been changes to the area surrounding the mansion which I’m not too keen on, it’s become a lot more commercialised in the last 20 years, and I think, has lost the ‘Elvis has been here’ feeling in every part except the mansion, which is such a shame. With all the new exhibitions and each corresponding gift shop, along with the sweet shop, diner and BBQ restaurant, we were there for most of the day though. Standing at Elvis’s grave was an emotional experience too and hearing some of Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley’s personal memories of life at Graceland with Elvis was pretty special.

Elvis’s own keys to Graceland

Later in the evening we walked along Elvis Presley Boulevard and past the famous gates to find somewhere to get some food before heading back to our very spacious room. The only thing I’m not completely happy with here is the lack of water pressure meaning the shower is little more than a drizzle.

This morning we caught a bus to Union Avenue then walked along it to Sun Studio. The ride and the walk both highlighted to us some stark differences between Memphis and the other places we have visited so far. It seems much more run down here, although there is plenty of work going on in parts,so hopefully Memphis will soon be more profitable for everyone living here.

Sun Studio was interesting, and it’s incredible to think that we have stood in the very place where the famous jam session between Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins (the Million Dollar Quartet) took place in December 1956! Unfortunately our tour guide spoilt things a little for us, rather than just tell us about the place and its history, we got the feeling she was doing a permanent audition for some sort of show. Both Mum and I said we enjoyed the RCA studio tour in Nashville, where the guide was passionate about the music and history rather than herself.

We took a walk along Beale Street, the original birthplace of Blues music and enjoyed some gorgeous food in Miss Polly’s Soul City Cafe before going back to the hotel. We have a very long drive again tomorrow to Louisville, the last town we are visiting, so although we may enjoy some of the live music downstairs later, I don’t think we will be doing much more in Memphis. It’s been an interesting place, but neither of us feel it’s somewhere we will be in a hurry to come back to as it stands. ☹️

Before I sign off I need to wish my husband a happy 18th wedding anniversary…he’s back home in the UK while I am here in the US. I’m missing him (and our 3 children) very much and it’s weird not to be going out for dinner or away for the weekend with him today! Have a great couple of days everyone, and we will be back again in Louisville. H xx

Since we arrived in Pigeon Forge, more and more Christmas decorations have appeared every day. Hallowe’en is the start of the holiday season here, with Thanksgiving a few weeks after then Christmas and New Year shortly after that. Last night we took a walk around before we had dinner to get a look at things all lit up. Sadly not all of the lights have actually been turned on yet but it was lovely seeing those that have.

We woke up this morning to a slightly cloudy start but as we had only planned to walk along the very long road that our hotel is on and do a little present buying we weren’t too worried. Within an hour of being out though, the temperature had hit 25°! 🌞 We must have walked at least a mile and a half until we found a general store I had read about, where there are live bears. These bears have been living at the store for over 25 years after being rescued from a kill farm. You can go through to the viewing areas around their large enclosures and even buy a pot of fruit and biscuits to feed them. They were so beautiful, and very smart, they definitely knew where to stand to wait for the food. We may not have seen mountain bears in the wild yesterday but this was a pretty good second option. It was a very long hot walk back though afterwards.

This evening has been somewhat surreal…we have been singing Christmas songs and seen a live Nativity which featured real camels carrying the 3 Wise Men. Our hotel room overlooks Dolly Parton’s Stampede, which we discovered when we first arrived here, is a show and dinner venue. Tonight was opening night for the Christmas show, so we felt we couldn’t really miss it.

The food was lovely, although eating soup and biscuits (a cross between a warm scone and bread), a whole roast chicken, a pork chop, baked potatoes, corn on the cob and apple turnovers with no cutlery was an experience, to say the least! Our ‘elf’ kept our drinking jars full the whole time too. The show itself was such good fun, lots of horses and amazing riders, kid’s chasing chickens, racing pigs, tricks and songs. Lots of audience interaction too which went down better with some than others. It even snowed in the arena, and of course we saw Father Christmas. Mum found herself a handsome cowboy to sing to her as well, but sadly we had to leave him behind because he had another show to host after ours 🤠🤠🤠

We have a long drive ahead of us tomorrow, nearly 400 miles, as we are Memphis bound to stay at Graceland so I’ll say good night and Merry Christmas for now!! H xx

After a not very good night’s sleep, thanks to a generator running all night at the Stampede dinner show opposite our hotel, we jumped on a trolley bus on Monday morning for the very short ride to the mill town part of Pigeon Forge. It cost us the whole sum of 50¢ each and that’s pretty much the same for any of the trolley fares here. It’s very old fashioned, the drivers don’t take the money, you just put it into a big jar as you get on board, so if you don’t have the right money it’s tough!

We had a good look around the small shops, including one that was basically someone’s house and sold anything and everything cat related…there were at least 6 cats wandering around. We also had a coffee sat in a wooden front porch rocking chair, just like something out of the Walton’s. After that we jumped onto another trolley and headed to Dollywood.

If you haven’t heard of it, Dollywood is a theme park that is owned by Dolly Parton. She wanted to give something back to the small town she grew up in if she ever made it big, she now employs over 3000 people with her attractions in the area. There are several very big roller coasters and rides, but even if you’re not adventurous enough for that it’s still worth a visit. Mum and I spent the whole day walking round the park and I’m still not convinced we saw all of it. At the momentum it’s all decked out for the Halloween celebrations, so there were amazing pumpkins everywhere, as well as a constant stream of amazing shows, singers, musicians etc everywhere. We saw Dolly’s old tour bus, and went on a steam train right up into the mountains. The sun shone all day and I even managed to get mum on a roller coaster! Well…I say that, I pushed her up the ramp, forced her onto a car and made her ride a kid’s roller coaster!! 😂 The man running it thought we were crazy, by the time we got off I had laughed so hard my face and sides hurt and Mum was NOT happy with me.

Crazy Cat house

The old mill in Pigeon Forge

Mirror selfie on Dolly’s tour bus

On the steam train

This morning we decided to head in the opposite direction to Dollywood, so we jumped on another trolley (75¢ this time!😯) and went to the next town along, Gatlinburg. This little town is known as the gateway to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park and although it feels very much like a purpose built tourist attraction, thanks to almost the whole town being destroyed in a fire in 2016, it was definitely worth a visit. There is a gorgeous creek running right through it and you can get a cable car up to the top of the mountains. After yesterday and the roller coaster I didn’t think I’d have a hope of getting Mum up there so I didn’t even mention it, but she knew I’d want to do it so she said she would be brave. There were a handful of closed cars rather than open chairs so we chose to wait and go in one of those, and it was a good job we did. Mum was absolutely terrified!!! She had her eyes closed the whole way up, was shaking and crying and gripping my hand so hard I lost all feeling by the time we were half way up. The other 4 people in the carriage must have wondered who this horrible English girl was to put her Mumma through that 😀 The views at the top were worth it though, and I bought her the biggest ice cream you’ve ever seen to make up for it!

Even the Smokey Mountain sky saluted us with a St George cross!

We’ve extended our stay here for another 2 nights rather than moving on this afternoon as originally planned, so we are heading out for dinner soon and to have a look at all the Christmas lights that are already up around the town. We even saw Father Christmas go by in his sleigh yesterday!!!

This place is even more Christmas crazy than me, I love it! H xx

Sunday 28th October

After an incredible 5 days in Nashville we are taking away memories that will stay with us forever. I’m hoping that it won’t be the last time I get to visit this truly wonderful place, but it was time to move on this morning.

We drove for a little over 3 hours, East from Nashville, and into the Smokey Mountains. What a beautiful time of year to do that drive, the colours are something to see. We arrived at our next hotel, the Lodge at Mill Creek, Pigeon Forge to discover that we had crossed into another time zone…that was a bit of a head spinner…when we had dinner last night in Nashville, the UK was 6 hours ahead of us, when we had breakfast in Nashville this morning, the UK was 5 hours because the clocks there had gone back and then when we arrived here, the UK was just 4 hours ahead!! I am literally the new Dr Who 😂😂😂

Initially we had planned to spend just a couple of nights here then move on to Atlanta, but it’s so beautiful and totally different to the cities we have visited so far, we have changed our minds and are now staying here until Thursday when we head towards Memphis. Sorry Atlanta, another time.

For now, I’ll say good night. H x

A few more pictures from the first half of the trip

Catching up in person for the first time since 1997!

Under the Chicago jellybean

Views from above, by day and night

Fall and Halloween decorations

The Burberry building and others around Chicago

Breakfast waffles and Skyscraper cocktails

Dinner in the Rainforest, making friends and eating volcanoes

Coffee stop on the way to Nashville

Jaclyn Brown

Marye Amanda

The Belles

Guitarist from the TV show Nashville!!

The incredible Maggie Renfroe

Silver, gold and platinum at the Country Music Hall of Fame

Smokey and the Bandit

Swapping flip flops for cowboy boots

Studio B…where the music still lives.

Making new friends on the streets of Nashville

Ryman stage

Members plaques at the Opry

Dressing room signage on the floor

Teeny tiny dress as worn in series 1 of Nashville by Hayden Pannettiere

More series 1 memorabilia

Stage selfie 😁

Guitar and cowboy boots… I’m fitting right on in!

First in line for the show

Mirror selfie…has to be done when my spiritual Mama, Miss Dolly Parton has used this mirror!

Opry green room and snacks

Seconds before curtain up

Opry square dancers

Opry legend Miss Connie Smith

County pumpkins

Hello everyone..my turn again (Di). Hope you’re all enjoying the trip so far?

So, yesterday, oh my, the day I’ve been so looking forward to. We went to The Grand Old Opry!!! I had goosebumps just walking up to the entrance to the grounds, so you can imagine the thrill at actually going through the doors to tour the building. It’s so hard to describe!

We were taken and shown where the stars, past and present, enter the building…obviously not the same entrance as us mere mortals, throughout the whole place beautiful photos line the walls of the most famous country and western stars imaginable. Artists who have been invited to be Opry members even have a post office where they have mail boxes and when they visit they actually collect their mail from fans. You really can write to any Opry member and address it to them at The Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, Tennessee and they will get it! I’m going to be writing to Dolly Parton when I get home. We got to see the dressing rooms that are used before every show, all decorated to a different theme, and just beautiful. Only two of them have bathrooms so even the famous people have to go down the corridor to use the loo…no doubt posh loos though, I wouldn’t know as they are not for use by the public. After the dressing rooms we were taken out on the stage of The Grand Old Opry!! It was the most incredible feeling. We got to stand on the Unbroken Circle, a circle of wood that came from the original home of the Opry, The Ryman, so that all performers continue to stand in the same spot that the original Country music artists used from the very first days of Country music, to have our photo taken. We actually stood on the same spot as all those stars have done since 1943 in the Ryman and then moved to the Opry house in 1974. It was such an emotional moment!

(continues after pictures)

We had some time to sit and enjoy being in the auditorium after that, then of course, we had to look around the gift shop. 😁

As well as the tour, we also had tickets for the 7pm show which is also the live radio broadcast that goes out every week. As this is such a once in a lifetime trip, and a long time dream, we also had tickets to do the VIP Behind the Opry Curtain experience, so at 6.30pm we were backstage again. This time we got to see some of the performers in their dressing rooms chatting and getting ready for the evening show before we were led out onto the wings of the stage to witness curtain going up and the start of the show! As the first performance ended we were escorted to our seats for a truly wonderful performance by some amazing singers and musicians and, top of the bill, Little Big Town! Top that!!!A magical time that I will cherish forever. A dream come true…

Hi everyone, Di here, sorry it’s been a few days but we have packed so much in, by time get back to hotel I’m practically asleep standing up!!!! What an amazing city Nashville is…the buildings, the people, the sights and sounds, the streets, the shops, the fabulous smell of waffles, doughnuts, cookies (to name a few) and most importantly the music; every bar has fantastic bands playing all day and night. It’s totally awesome!!

Yesterday we went to The Ryman Auditorium, a very historical and magical building, which, when it was first built was a preachers tabernacle, later to become the place for musicals and shows and where the Grand Ole Opry grew to become known worldwide. Many stars have played there over the years.

In the afternoon we went on The Nash Trash Tour. This is a pink painted American school bus that drives around the city. The tour guides are the Jugg sisters, and they tell stories and sing songs about the city and some of it’s more well known visitors. It’s one of the funniest shows ever, you hardly even notice you’re moving around the city until they point something out to you! It was absolutely hysterical and fantastic fun. Another fab day…

Today it’s been a bit wet again so we changed our plans from going to a plantation and the Centennial park to see the Parthenon and we’ve been to Opry Mills instead. It is the most amazing Mall…cheaper end to designer, coffee shops, bars, every kind of eaterie you can imagine and the multi Cinema complex all under one roof! We went to see the film A Star is Born, this afternoon, Helen wasn’t really impressed by it but I loved it but then I love anything that involves great music and a soppy love story. Tomorrow we are heading back that way for a tour of The Grand Ole Opry and later a show….soooooooo excited.

Catch up again soon. Lot’s of love Di.

Howdy y’all!!! So Mum was meant to be doing this installment, but she has written all about the last 24 hours several times, in her own journal as well as emails back home and is now sound asleep…I think I’ve worn her out already.

So we arrived here yesterday afternoon and after checking in to the Sleep Inn just a little way out of downtown, we got ourselves showered and headed out to work out how the bus routes work, so we could get ourselves to the world famous Bluebird Café. For those who don’t know, this little place is where some of the most incredible artists have been discovered, to play there is an honour, to get tickets to watch people play there a rarity. They go on sale just 7 days beforehand at 8am local time. This worked well for me because it was 2pm UK time so I managed to secure some on my first time of trying.

The Bluebird is very modest, from the outside it’s easy to miss, just a small shop front with an awning, no flashy lights or huge signs. If it hadn’t been for the people outside we might have walked right past it. We joined the reservations queue to one side of the door, on the other is where people without tickets wait and see if they are going to be lucky enough to get in. Every show is like this and often people are turned away. For us to be inside was just incredible, a total dream come true, especially as we both loved the TV series, Nashville, and so much of that was centred around the Bluebird. We saw 3 fantastic female solo artists and a mother/daughter combo. Mum won a t-shirt in the raffle and then we got to mingle a little and talk to the artists too.

The plan was then to find some WiFi to either check the bus times or order a cab if it wasn’t going to cost too much. The problem was that by the time we came out everywhere around had closed and there was no WiFi to be found. We discovered that we could get a bus back to the main terminal if we waited 30 mins but there would be no connection to get us back to our hotel until after 5am!!! We walked a little way down the road and found a small doughnut shop that was still open, and with the idea of asking them to help us with ordering a cab we went in. The mother/daughter combo from the Bluebird was in there with a couple of their fans who had travelled from Nebraska to watch them. We explained the situation and unbelievably not only did they offer to order a ride for us, but insisted on paying for it too. We couldn’t believe it. Ladies from The Belles, if you ever read this, not only are you super talented, but amazingly kind and generous too. We still can’t get over what you did for us 😘

Our late night meant we slept in a bit this morning and almost missed breakfast. Once we’d eaten and sorted ourselves out we jumped back on the bus for the 10/15 mins ride into downtown. We walked the short distance to the Country Music Hall of Fame and spent the next couple of hours seeing some amazing stage costumes, instruments, awards, gold and platinum records belonging to some of the biggest names in country music from the original artists through the years up to the likes of Taylor Swift, Kacey Musgraves, Little Big Town and Shania Twain of today. We even saw a gold plated Cadillac that belonged to Elvis Presley.

At 2pm we hopped on a tour bus and went a couple of miles out to the RCA studio B tour. We got to experience what it was like in the studio where some of the most iconic and memorable records have been made by some of the most famous artists who have ever lived. Elvis’s favourite piano is still there, has been since 1943 or something like that. You could feel a magic sort of energy in there, almost like the music has sunk into the walls and left something of itself there. To think that we have stood on the same spot where the likes of Elvis have recorded!

By the time we’d done that we were ready to have a coffee break. We passed the Bridgestone Stadium on our way to find something to eat, where the sound check for Elton John playing tonight was happening. Once refuelled we chose to venture along Broadway. This strip of shops and bars is like nowhere else I’ve ever seen. From the moment they open (if they even close to begin with) every one of these bars has live country or rock and roll music playing. We decided to go into Nudies Honky Tonk bar, which is known for having the longest bar in Nashville (100 foot long and covered in silver dollars). We stayed for a drink and listened to an all male band playing, then moved on. We may have stumbled upon a shop selling cowboy boots on a buy one pair, get two pairs free deal (still not quite sure how that works) and possibly, by accident, may have ended up buying ourselves some boots.😄 We did a little souvenir shopping, listened to a lot more music and once I’d managed to get the photos I wanted of the street lit up after dark, we headed back to the bus terminal and then the hotel.

Hopefully I’ll manage to keep Mum awake long enough tomorrow evening for her to tell you all about our activities tomorrow, but we have another busy day lined up, so who knows?!? So far Nashville is living up to everything I had hoped it would. I can’t wait for another day exploring tomorrow so I’d better get my head down now too. Night night, H xx