Nashville to Memphis

Our first target on Thursday morning was to visit the Grand Ole Opry at its "new" site (been there for more than 40 years now). We had booked tickets online for the 10.45 am show and we just made it after trailing around the area for about 20 minutes:

We went for a short walk after we did the Grand Ole Opry tour - we had been recommended to look at the adjacent hotel, which was abolutely fabulous with its own indoor gardens and even boat rides along the internal waterway. The nearest thing we'd ever seen to it was the Venetian in Las Vegas - but this even surpassed that. Here's just a brief glimpse:

We then went back to our hotel to dump our car and use Lyft's excellent service again to take us on the short ride downtown. First stop was a tour of the Ryman Auditorium, home to the Grand Ole Opry until the mid 70's. The place is steeped in history and although the Opry don't use it every week nowadays, there are lots of gigs there - all the top rock and country stars have appeared there, desperate to experience its history and wonderful acoustics. The "Mother Church" as it is affectionately known:

It was then a question of hitting the bars and listening to some music.

Our brief Nashville trip was now over and we headed off the following morning (Friday) for Memphis, crossing another time zone in to USA Central Time on the way. We had one brief stop on the road - at a Civil War site at Parker's Crossroads:

Our hotel in Memphis - Springhill Suites (not Springfield as I said in an earlier post) - had an excellent location. We had a view of the Mississippi and one of the bridges from our room and we were able to walk along the riverbank to lively Beale Street:

We arrived at Elvis' statue:

Followed by BB King's bench right outside his store:

Then WC Handy, the "Father of the Blues":

We had dinner, listened to some music, then off to bed.

The plan the following morning was to walk round to Sun Studios. According to the rough map on their web site, it was only just round the corner from our hotel:

The "2-3 minutes from Beale St" that they refer to above was obviously in a fast car, not walking. I had compounded the felony by misreading the address as 106 Union Avenue, when it was, in fact, 706 Union Avenue. We got there eventually - 15 hot and sweaty minutes later.

The tour was great - it really did feel magic being in the room where rock 'n' roll history was made. They still keep the original microphone that Elvis - and many others - used back in the 50's and I tried to throw an Elvis shape:

Failed. Maybe I'd do better on Jerry Lee Lewis' piano:

Perhaps Jo could do better on the vintage drums, recently used by U2:

Now time for the outside photo:

That's enough for now - I'll finish off our Memphis trip in the next post.

Dollywood

It was the longest drive of our road trip - from Hilton Head Island, SC through North Carolina to Pigeon Forge, TN, but we did it in 3 legs - a 3 hour drive followed by two 2 hour spells. We arrived at the Dreammore Resort mid/late afternoon, in time to take in the surroundings, have a drink and dinner (buffet) and a relax by the fire pit.

Tuesday was the day we planned to "do" Dollywood. It's a theme park, but there was no way I was going to get Jo to go on any of the rides, so we planned our day on doing all the shows instead - and there were plenty of them. We made a prompt start and were in the park before 10 am, only to find that there was virtually nothing open at that time - thankfully with the exception of the Grist Mill, where they bake the apparently "famous" cinnamon bread - so we had to have one.

Our first show was a gospel one - the Kingdom Heirs (https://www.kingdomheirs.com/). The band were good and the 4 vocalists excellent - especially the bass singer - Johnny Cash eat your heart out. I was a bit fearful that it might get a bit "preachy" - and there was some of that, but thankfully not too much. I got picked on by the compere/drummer - "where are you from"? He couldn't understand my answer at first. We were in the front row, sitting next to a couple of locals who had seen the group many times before. He kept yelling "yeah, yeay" all the time and he seemed to take a shine to me, even swapping seats with his wife so he could sit right next to me and tell me some stories about the group. Creepy. Notably, not a black face to be seen - the complete opposite of our experience in Atlanta at the Juke Joint.

The Smoky Mountain String Band gave us some bluegrass and we got all of Dolly's hits at My People, which featured Dolly's brother and other members of her family. Country Crossroads was good - like Country's greatest hits all condensed in to an active half hour show:

We heard the GemTones, a street corner acapella group featuring mostly 50's music and we did the self guided tours of The Dolly Parton Story and the Southern Gospel Museum and Hall of Fame. We even squeezed in a ride on the steam train, the Dollywood Express - a misnomer if ever there was one. We had a burger and shake at Red's Drive-In. Soon it was time to return to Dreammore:

We toyed with having a swim in the evening, but the pool was busy so we opted for a simple relax and read until the nightly fireworks show, which we viewed from the lobby area:

We enjoyed Dollywood - a little twee in places, but the day went quickly and I just love the sound of banjos!

On Wednesday we travelled across Tennessee to Nashville. It looked like a two and a half hour journey, but we overlooked the change to Central Time, so it took an hour more, but we were still at our hotel by lunchtime. We took a taxi downtown - short ride - and walked up and down Broadway. There were bands playing in every bar - no wonder it's dubbed the Music Capital. We managed a couple of brewpubs in the Gulch area but the best place to go - no music - is the rooftop bar at the Acme (http://theacmenashville.com/) overlooking the Cumberland River. It's on a corner site and you can see all the way up Broadway:

By sheer coincidence - and luck - James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt were playing that evening and we managed to get tickets.

Hilton Head - day 4

It was our 3rd - and last - day with the bikes so we rode out to South Beach and found a spot with a little shade (not much) to sit and read for a while:

We couldn't quite settle there so we rode on to the Sea Pines Beach Club - a much better option. It was now lunchtime and the bar looked tempting so we stopped for a while for some nibbles and beer:

We then moved over to the beach where we hired a couple of deckchairs and a parasol for a very relaxing afternoon:

The sea was warmer than the pool at our hotel - and way warmer than any sea we'd experienced before, incluing Newport Coast, CA.

That was about it for Saturday. We had no more bottled beer left in our apartment so we crossed the road and had a couple of draft beers at Harbourside Burgers and Beer, listening to some live music, to while away the time until 6 pm when the workers stopped at our resort and we could safely return to a more peaceful environment.

It was a case of leftover pizza, pasta and ice cream for our meal tonight. Our last full day here is tomorrow (Sunday) and our plan is to get a relatively early start on Monday morning for the six and a half hour drive to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Dollywood!

Hilton Head - Days 2 & 3

On Thursday morning, we took the plunge, and, like almost every other holidaymaker on this island it seems, we hired bikes. It's as flat as a pancake here - no hills at all - and the bikes are all the same - no gears and no brakes - just pedal back a bit to slow down and/or stop.

It is hot, however - and very humid, so any outdoor activity is draining. We might have been a little adventurous on our first outing - especially given that this was Jo's first time on a bike since her disastrous falls last year in Oregon. She freaked out a bit at the start - the bike lanes were very busy here and she was concerned about crashing in to someone. To be fair, the bikes aren't that easy to handle either, but, eventually, Jo got the hang of things and relaxed a bit.

We cycled up to the main shopping mall 4 miles away and stopped for a coffee and a bite. Suitably refreshed and strengthened, we headed to the South Beach through the Forest Preserve. From there, we made it out all the way to the South Beach marina for more much-needed refreshments:

The journey back to our apartment wasn't too far and soon we were both down by the pool at our resort - although we didn't last long there - partly due to the fact that it was pretty busy, but mostly through the noise of all the machines repairing the hurricane damage. I'm now in touch with Marriott about the amount of work going on here - it's way more than usual maintenance and I believe they should have closed the resort to guests until the work is completed.

Our apartment is lovely and the resort would be too, if there wasn't so much work going on. It would normally be a nice tranquil spot overlooking the water:

Today, we took another short ride on our bikes - out to see the Stoney-Baynard ruins:

In the afternoon, we went on a short Dolphin cruise, which, to our surprise, was hugely successful. We must have seen 30 - 40 dolphins and on so many occasions - hundreds - and so close to our boat. It was fascinating - I swear they were playing with us. I also spotted a shark leaping completely out of the sea. We had a nice time:

Independence Day and beyond

We celebrated July 4th by setting out on a series of walks round Savannah, taking in as many of the lovely little squares as we could. In the morning, we headed towards the river and walked along the shore line as far as we could before returning to our hotel to shower again - and, in my case, have a quick dip in the pool.

We found a nearby coffee shop for lunch and then headed in the opposite direction towards the largest patch of greenery that the city has - Forsyth Park. Then back to the hotel, shower again and then hang around for a while before heading out for the evening, when we headed towards the river again - albeit by a different route, taking in more of the squares. Geometrically, of course, some of them are oblong, some circular, oval etc. (That one was for the pedants out there). We reckon we did about 15 of them, but probably missed another 9 or 10 - all of them within a short walking distance.

By the time of our evening walk, I figured I might be well enough to face a beer again - and it was July 4th, so it would have been rude not to. We tried a couple of pubs - one brewpub, Moon River Brewing, and adjacent Churchill's, which had a nice rooftop bar outside.

We'd had enough beer by now and it was time to eat before the fireworks began at 9:30 pm. We tried a couple of place along River St but the waiting times were pretty long, so we ended up in the Hyatt, where we had a lovely meal and a fine rooftop view of the fireworks.

So, time for some photos then - here's a few that didn't appear on Facebook:

This is the square where Forrest Gump sat waiting for the bus

So that was Savannah - a very pretty city indeed. Just a pity I wasn't feeling too great when we were there, but it was now time to move on to our next destination - Hilton Head Island - just an hour's drive north east across the state line in to South Carolina. We arrived there about noon - way too early for our room to be ready, of course, but we parked our car and then walked out for a bite of lunch at Harbourside Burgers and Beer at the yacht marina, adjacent to the lighthouse.

It was hot and steamy so we bought ice creams and sat on the shore front under the shade of a tree before taking a short walk along the shore. There were shells everywhere - oysters, razor clams, mussels, scallops.

When we got back to our resort, our apartment was ready so we took in our luggage and then drove off to the grocery store to stock up for our 5 nights here. It's like a building site as they rush to repair the damage from the October hurricane before the next hurricane season. Thankfully, the workers knocked off at 6 pm and didn't start again this morning until 9 am, so we had a peaceful evening on our balcony looking out towards the ocean, albeit through some trees.

The staff tried to make light of the building work with a gift for us:

Jo bemoans the quantity left in the bottle:

USA 2017

Greetings from Savannah, Georgia on the eve of Independence Day. I'm sitting in our room, feeling a bit sorry for myself as I've got a bit of a dicky throat, which I initially thought was just a reaction to the air conditioning in our room in Atlanta and/or the flight over here, but I now think it's some kind of bug I've picked up. I'm dosing it with throat sprays and lozenges and hopefully it'll disappear soon - like the red marks on my legs from the bites I've had. Anithistamines, paracetomols and my usual array of drugs - I'm a walking chemical factory.

A feature of our visit to the south west has been the afternoon rain - some of it pretty heavy, with the worst yesterday - we had to take shelter in a multi-storey car park as the lightning and thunder crashed round about us and the water poured everywhere with the storm drains backing up, unable to cope with the huge deluge.

Anyway, in chronological order, here's the story so far. Flight over a little delayed, but otherwise OK. The seats in World Traveller Plus were fine for a daytime flight, but I'm not sure about the return overnight trip. Slow immigration clearance, but the taxi ride to our hotel was short and quick and we checked in, dumped our bags and went for a quick beer before bed.

Friday morning was a short stroll through the Olympic Centennial Park to Coca-Cola World, which was much more entertaining than it sounds. We managed to spend virtually the whole morning there without getting bored. Atlanta was the birthplace of the product and the locals are very proud of that fact. Jo said here best bit was the sampling of all the different Coke products from all round the world - each continent had a feature of maybe a dozen different drinks. I liked watching the old adverts - including probably the most famous I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing from 1971.

We had lunch at the Hard Rock on Peachtree - some translation problems - the waiter thought Jo said Red Bull when what she wanted was Rebel (IPA).
In the afternoon we went to the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, which was a bit of a harrowing experience, especially the bit where you sit at the lunch counter, shut your eyes and put the headphones on and hear - and feel - the sort of abuse that "coloreds" used to have to undergo in the South - in our lifetimes too. Martin Luther King was shot in Memphis, but, as a native of Atlanta, his funeral was held there and there are many memorials around the city.

We had dinner at a nice brewpub - Max Lager's - in the evening. The plan on Saturday was to stretch our legs and walk to Piedmont Park and the Botanical Garden. It should have been about 3 miles there and the same back, but we couldn't find the Botanical Garden at first and must have walked at least 7 or 8 miles in the steamy heat. At least we had a nice brunch at the street market first of all:

Dinner on Saturday night was at the Juke Joint, just around the corner from our hotel. We were one of the few caucasians there. We had a good seat and Jo enjoyed the "fashion parade" as the customers filed past us.

On Sunday morning, we packed and took a cab back to the airport to pick up our hire car to take us on the 4-5 hour drive to Savannah. Fairly uneventful and not a lot to see - just miles and miles of tree-lined dual carriageways. We stopped at Subway somewhere to grab a sandwich lunch and also stopped at a place called Metter to use the facilities:

It was Sunday and it was a holiday weekend, so even the visitor centers/centres were closed.

We have a nice room at Springfield Suites and it seems everywhere in Savannah is walkable. Once yesterday's storm abated, we had a couple of beers - one at a Scottish pub (awful), and another couple at World of Beers, where we got chatting to a nice couple - Kyle and Kelly, I think? He was a "soccer" fan who follows Man Utd and, would you believe, Glasgow Rangers! We then walked down to River Street and chose a seafood restaurant for dinner.

This afternoon and evening have been a write off, spent in our room, but we went on one of the historical trolley tours this morning., taking in a short stroll along River St, where the paddle steamer was loading up:

Hope I'm feeling better for tomorrow's big celebrations.

The week just past

We had a nice trip down to the Central Belt on Sunday/Monday. We stopped off at Dawn's new flat to have a look around - very nice - and then drove over to Foxbar Drive from where Barry, Helen, Dawn, Jo and I made our way to Scotstounhill train station for the one stop hop to Jordanhill, adjacent to the Three Craws, where lunch for 16 was scheduled:

l-r: Me, Jo, sister Dawn, Helen (hidden behind Dawn), Barry (hidden behind cousin Sheila), cousin Lesley, Aunt Nancy, Kirsty (Lesley's daughter), Cameron (at front - Sheila's son), Lucy (Lesley's daughter), Lauren (Dawn's daughter), Malcolm (Lauren's husband), Kieran (Dawn's son), Mara (Kieran's daughter) and Julie (Kieran's wife)

Afterwards, we all looked on as Aunt Nancy got on to her "bike":

Finally, all set to go:

We stayed at Barry and Helen's on Sunday night. When Dawn moved house she had to get rid of a lot of stuff she had, one of them being my Children's Encyclopaedia collection, which my Mum and Dad bought me when we lived in Corby, Northants back in the 1950's:

Inside - self printed:

I remember typesetting the letters and stamping the books, which have seen better days, with a number of the spines damaged beyond reasonable repair. It was nice to look through them again, but they are definitely outdated and superceded by the modern power of the internet, and Barry is now arranging to dispose of them - to any charity shop that might take them.

On Monday morning, we drove over to Houston and met up with Brian and Mary. Brian and I played a quick 12 holes of golf, then we all had a quick lunch before Jo and I drove over to Edinburgh to pay a quick visit to see Ross. Just as we were leaving, one by one, Sam, Tom and Julie appeared to say hi to us.

Ross met us at the Cumberland Bar, which had a nice sunken beer garden and we had a drink and a bite with him there:

Ross had a scheduled meeting with his boss the following day which turned out pretty well for him as he got a pay rise!

It was a pretty slow crawl out of Edinburgh after that - at least until we got across the bridge - but we got back to Banchory just in time for me to head to the Legion for another live show on River Dee Radio.

It was another 3 consecutive days of golf for me after that - Edzell on Tuesday, Banchory on Wednesday, then Balmoral on Thursday. On Friday, I had a funeral to attend at Dyce - a former work colleague who died suddenly at the age of just 70. I went straight home afterwards - just in time to catch the bus down to Ballater for our scheduled hill-walk.

Just a few days now until we head to the States, so we need to get our packing etc organised. Hoping to get 2 more games of golf in before then - on Monday and Wednesday.

To close, Gary and Luca came over on Saturday evening to deliver my Father's Day gift, and cards - one pre-printed, the other drawn by Luca's fair hand:

Friday frustration

Well, I was supposed to be golfing at Blairgowrie today but ended up stuck at home all day. I finally got a response yesterday from the fitter who was to install our replacement shower, cubicle etc in our en suite - he could come tomorrow (today - Friday)! Blow me, what a day to choose, but I couldn't put him off as I didn't know when next he could do it - or we were available - and our USA holiday is less than 2 weeks away now.

He and his mate finished the job not long after 4 pm, but there was a pile of debris to shift - mostly cardboard and polystyrene - and the recycle centre closes at 5 pm, so I had to load the car quickly and dash up there. It's all done now, so we look forward to using our new shower once it's settled.

I whiled away a chunk of the morning giving the old garden seat that sits in the back a lick of paint. One more should do it and then we'll put it out in the elements again.

Yesterday (Thursday), Jo and I took a trip up to Douneside House (http://www.dounesidehouse.co.uk/) in Tarland. They had a promotion on at their health club, offering free entry to newcomers, so we went for a swim/sauna/steam room etc and followed it with lunch in the main house, which they've just spent 3 years refurbishing:

Nice grounds and gardens too - well worth a visit:

On the way home, we stopped at Tomnaveerie Stone Circle, where Jo posed on the one recumbent stone, with Morven in the background:

Last night we broadcast another live show on River Dee Radio - our next one comes up next Monday and I might manage one more before we go to USA.

Tomorrow there's a CAMRA branch meeting in Stonehaven and then on Sunday, we're heading down to Glasgow for a family lunch, picking up Dawn at her new flat on the way. On Monday, we're paying a quick visit over to see Brian and Mary at Julie's. Then it's golf for me on Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday afternoon, Thursday evening, then a hill-walk on Friday. Definitely going to need a holiday after all that!

Good to hear Scott's recovering - albeit slowly - he'll be off work for 3 months and is stuck in his neck brace for 6 weeks at least.

Still on the medical theme, Jo got her exercise schedule from the physiotherapist on Wednesday, so she knows exactly what to do - and what not to do - now.

Midweek update

Well, I'm home safely from my 3 days of golf at Dalmahoy and, although a little tired, I'm very pleased to say that, despite my prior fears, my knee is not feeling too bad. In fact, I'm going to play again this afternoon. I've also got golf on Friday at Blairgowrie and I'm hoping for another game on Monday with brother-in-law Brian as we're heading over to Elderslie and Houston after spending Sunday night at Barry and Helen's - we've got the big family dinner on Sunday at the Three Craws again.

June is always the busiest month for golf - and I missed it last year as we went to USA a bit earlier than usual - and it's a question of cramming them in before we go away on the 29th - just over 2 weeks now. Next week, as well as golf with Brian on Monday, I've got golf at Edzell on Tuesday, hopefully Banchory on Wednesday and then our annual trip to Balmoral on Thursday evening.

With all this golf, there's no room for cycling, particularly when I'm also trying to keep up a regular series of hill-walks. We did Glen Dye last Friday (check http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.co.uk/ for photos) and are planning another one next Friday (23rd).

Anyway, that was quite a shock when we heard about Scott's dirt bike accident. He seems to be making a habit of going to hospital at this time of year. We all wish him a speedy recovery - not least because we need our BBQ king back in action for our arrival in Oregon on 17th July!!!!

We're having fun and games with our holiday plans. We received an email from Marriott yesterday confirming the cancellation of our 5 night stay on Hilton Head Island - what???? Must be some gremlin in the system as I certainly didn't cancel it. As we speak, Marriott are trying to sort it out - fingers crossed. As if that wasn't enough, United are mucking about our schedule again - we got notification this morning that our journey from Memphis to Medford will now be a 3 leg affair, rather than just 2 - going through Chicago now as well as Denver. Grrr.

What else is on the horizon? Another live broadcast on River Dee Radio tomorrow night, and then a CAMRA branch meeting in Stonehaven on Saturday.

This morning, Jo's got her first physio appointment - hope she can get some help from this.

To close, here's a photo of the old house at Dalmahoy, where I stayed this last weekend. It's just a mile or two from our old home in Balerno and it's where I used to play squash regularly with my American work colleagues back in the early 80's:

The journey down there means crossing the Forth Road Bridge and you get close-up views of the magnificent new bridge which is rapidly nearing completion. It's going to be quite a tourist hot-spot as people come to admire the spectacle of the three bridges (including the rail bridge) side by side.

Wet week

It's been a damp start to the first official month of summer - but I guess we needed the rain.

It's just been cycling and a bit of golf this last week. There's more of the latter to come as I'm heading down to Dalmahoy on Sunday for 3 consecutive days of golf - the first time I've tried that for a while. Hope my body stands up to it OK. If it does, I would normally be playing at Banchory again on the Wednesday, making it 4 days in a row, with another outing next Friday to Blairgowrie. 5 days out of 6? Not sure I'll manage that - may have to prioritise.

Still on the subject of golf, my driver's head cover - a gift from Kelly and Chris - is not faring too well. It now looks as if the 'roo has been savaged:

Major achievement this week was the completion of the 1,000 piece jigsaw that Colin gave me a couple of months ago. He got it as a Christmas present and decided to challenge me to complete it after he'd managed to finish it. It's the first jigsaw I've done for probably 40 or 50 years. At first, it just lay in our house, largely ignored by Jo and I, but slowly, we started to fit a few pieces each day. The brightly coloured bits were easier to start with and Jo was a big help here, but when it came to large areas of just sea and sky, it was a slow grind. Jo's eyesight wasn't good enough to contribute much here so it was a question of trial and error for me - and huge patience - but we got there in the end:

Tomorrow is a possible hill-walk for me, but there will definitely need to be a rain check in the morning - the forecast is a bit mixed just now.