The State of Tennessee, USA
Part of a year long trip from Sept ’94 - Sept ’95 through 36
USA States and 2 Canadian Provinces by Jean and Graham Beven in ‘Serendipity’ their
30 foot Winnebago Chieftain.
Tennessee - Round Trip USA
We were 8 days in the state of Tennessee, USA as there were a few things
on our must see list of places to visit.
There are seven National Wildlife Refuges, seven National Parks and
---- State Parks in the state of Tennessee.
The State Tourist Office for the state of Tennessee, USA is: Tennessee
Dept. of Tourism - PO Box 23170, Nashville TN 37202
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We crossed from Arkansas into
Tennessee heading towards Memphis, Tennessee . There are no Coast
to Coast Resorts around so looking for somewhere else to camp, we found T.
O.
Fuller State Park on the banks of McKellar Lake , part of the Mississippi
River. At $12 a night, not too bad. This is the first time since we
set off that we have had a chance to do any laundry and to celebrate
Jean managed to wash a $100 traveller’s
cheque (beyond redemption!). Ouch! The duty Park Ranger was a collector
of Triumph motorcycles and was the proud owner of the Silver Jubilee
model.
One of the incidents of the day, besides kangarooing on to the hard shoulder
a couple of times was that we witnessed our first traffic accident.
At 16:10 a car pulled out of a side street right into the path of a motorcyclist,
directly in front of us. The motorcyclist’s bike was badly damaged.
It looked bad for the motorcyclist. The police arrived quite quickly.
We gave or names and our Whitney, TX. Contact address and were allowed to
leave.
The
following day, Wednesday 5th October 1994, went down in our diary as
one of the most memorable of our trip. We visited Elvis Presley’s ‘Graceland’ in
the morning. What a place! The mansion was beautiful. You
entered the front door and immediately to your left you enter a very
elegant dining room
Picture of Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee.
(blue); to the right was a lounge with cream furniture
and carpet. This led you to a music room with a baby grand piano and
mirrors everywhere. From there we were taken back into the foyer and
straight ahead through a doorway leading to a short flight of stairs,
with mirrored ceiling and walls, taking us down into a bar, TV and
pool room. The walls and ceiling of the pool room were covered in a heavy
pleated material, very unusual. The upper floor was closed to visitors at
the request of Marie Presley. We came back to the ground floor and arrived
in Elvis’s
den. A very comfy looking room nicknamed ‘the jungle room’. There
was a fountain in this room.
In the Grounds there are the family graves which include Elvis and his
parents. There is also a memorial to Elvis’s stillborn twin brother.
There were floral tributes from around the world.
Elvis's swimming pool, - which is railed off and out of bounds to fans,and
extensive gardens.
The Graceland ’s complex also houses an ‘Elvis motor museum’,
showing motors and cycles owned or used in films by Elvis.
Elvis’s
complete collection of gold and platinum records is housed in another building
along with his costumes and other memorabilia. The tour also included a 20
minute movie tribute to Elvis’s life.
In the afternoon we parked on Riverside Drive just down from Mud Island
and took a Mississippi river boat ride on the Memphis Queen II. The
boat was supposed to represent one of the old paddle steamers, except
it was diesel. It did have a paddle at the back but that was not what
powered it. The trip was ½ an
hour down the Mississippi river and back up.
Picture of the Mississippi River at Memphis, Tennessee.
An
enjoyable but slightly industrial view of Memphis.
We crossed over
to Mud Island on the footbridge as Jean couldn’t
bear the thought of the suspended monorail railway.
We stayed overnight at T. O. Fuller State Park again.
We were having problems still with the rust coming through from the fuel
tank. We called into ‘Jim Reed’ Chevy dealership. We had confirmation
that there was very little we could do except keep filtering the fuel.
Graham had placed two inline filters in an accessible part of the fuel
system just ahead of the rear axle. We decided to find someone some
time soon that would flush the tank out! We were off to Wal-Mart again
as well as buying stuff for ‘Dippy’ we were starting to boost
our clothing as we didn’t
want to spend too much time doing small batches of laundry.
6th am. Visited Chucalissa a Native American historic site and museum. Described
as “C. H. Nash Archaeological Museum and Reconstructed Indian Village
, Memphis, Tennessee” You can visit a virtual
village here .
We were surprised that they didn’t live in Tepees! In the reconstructed
village on the Indian mounds and plaza we saw: The Chief's temple, Shaman's
house and a family dwelling. In the museum we were shown prehistoric
items of the mid-south, stone tools, pottery and a preserved archaeological
excavation trench. There was also an interesting slide show. 
Picture
of Chucalissa Snakes at Native American Historic Site.
Later drove to Nashville, Tennessee – Overnight on Camping World
car park.
7th pm Went to Music City, Nashville, Tennessee. Saw the Country Music,
Hall of Fame. Later drove to the Ryman Auditorium – where a jobsworth
security guard (car park attendant really!) tried to stop us parking
our 30’ motor home in the coach parking area , insisting we weren’t
a coach. When Graham pointed out we weren’t a car either – where
were we going to park? He just walked away. leaving the entrance blocked
with plastic cones. Graham reversed out and drove round the block – returning
a few minutes later and just drove over the cones getting into the
coach park! After the guard ranted and raved a bit on his walkie talkie,
Graham asked to speak to the manager! The manager was very nice and
let us stay where we were and invited us to return anytime! The 'Grand
Ole Opry' era was from 1943 to '74 which established the Ryman as
the world stage for country music with its explosive popularity. 'Always...Patsy
Cline', the Patsy Cline story was the production running while we were
there. The Ryman was built in 1892 by Captain Thomas Ryman for religious
revivals.
8th Drove to Lebanon, Tennessee. Camped at Timberline RV Park. Met a
really nice couple from Oklahoma (and their dog ‘Peaches’) The
lady gave Jean a ‘Chickashaw Squaw’ doll (We still have today)
9th Rested at Timberline.
10th Headed off again. To Chattanooga, Tennessee, to see the Choo-Choo!
(Also saw a couple of youths carrying – and playing with – what
appeared to be real guns!)
Overnight at Chester Forest State Park,
not far from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
11th A rest day - Doing domestic stuff and chillin'.
12th To Waynesville, North
Carolina.
MORE PICTURES OF TENNESSEE
