Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

After our experience in the frigid McDonald's, we remembered that we needed ice for the cooler, so we were in one of those McDonald's that's attached to a gas station deals and we walked into the gas station next door to get ice. Now, it's late and we're both tired and Abi saw the ice sitting in a cooler (keeping beer cold, but that wasn't readily apparent) and pointed to it and said "There's ice!" and I said, "They have ice in bags, we don't have to steal it from the beer." And for some reason, she found that hysterical. So now with the laughter - and I"m laughing now, too -- everyone in the store was looking at us.

I need to explain, we are not in a good neighborhood - evidently our GPS is set only to take us through the worst neighborhoods of whatever city we happen to be in -- and the employees are behind bulletproof glass. And they are looking at us like we're absolutely crazy because we're laughing so hard.

So it's our turn and I can't hear a word the employee guy is saying through the thick glass - made me feel like I needed a hearing aid, and we eventually purchase our ice. The lady employee made sure we knew where the ice cooler was - apparently she was worried about her beer ice or maybe she just wanted us out of there as quickly as possible, I don't know.

We went outside to the car to put ice on our, by now, very warm drinks in the cooler, and I grabbed the handle on the cooler - which promptly came off in my hand. Great. The cooler now matches the neighborhood we're in, but still...I'm at least able to pour out some water and get some ice on there so tomorrow we'll have cold drinks, so all is not lost.

So, back to the Sheraton Music City to spend the night and get ready for tomorrow's adventure - The County Music Hall of Fame and Museum...

Now, we were in that 3.5 star hotel, so no complementary breakfast - they offered room service - not bad food prices based on the menu, but for our "convenience" would add a $2.50 delivery fee and a 22% gratuity. We passed on the offer and went to Waffle House again - no red phones or anything.

Here we are

Now, I'm not a huge country music fan. I like some songs and I was force fed country as a child considering my Dad was a truck driver, but it has never been my genre of choice, but the museum was pretty cool anyway. It did help that I had heard of the older country music singers through my Dad's influence, but there was plenty of rock related stuff, too to keep your interest.

I figured if we were coming all this way that we should do the whole 9 yards, so we did the audio tour as well as the tour of Studio B. The audio tour told you additional information about many of the displays that was not necessarily posted on the signs at the displays. You could also listen to clips of music here and there as well.

One of the things I learned was that only about 10% of the collection was on display at any one time and they change the displays and add new ones frequently. While we were there, they had a Williams family exhibit section that was quite extensive. (as in Hank Williams) and I learned a lot I didn't know about that family. It was very interesting - and I'm not a big fan of either Hank or Jr.

The displays of instruments was impressive and they've got steel guitars and triple necked guitars and all sorts of things...including a couple of pretty impressive cars - they have Webb Pierce's car. Now, I wasn't sure who Webb Pierce was when I entered the museum, but apparently he was quite the sensation in his day. And based on his car, he must have been pretty flamboyant, too.

Yes, that's a pistol handle on Webb Pierce's car

The car had pistol handles, a rifle decorating the back and sides, coins embedded in the upholstery, and horns on the front. It must have been something to see driving down the road in the 1950s.

They also had one of Elvis' Cadillacs - not standard issue, I assure you. The paint job included ground up diamonds and fish scales from Asia to give it a luminescent look and it had a television as well as bar and ice maker (that could make ice in 2.5 minutes by the way - something we learned on the audio tour)

Elvis Presley's "Gold Cadillac"

All in all, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum was pretty impressive. In the lobby, there is a restaurant (we didn't eat, so I can't say if it is good or not) and while we were there, a live musician playing old country tunes on a guitar.

We were scheduled for our Studio B tour at 2:30, but finished the museum earlier than we thought we might, so we were able to change the time to 2. They put us on a little bus and we traveled to Studio B just a short drive away on "Music Row" where there are numerous studios. It was travelling back in time, although the studio has been updated and has digital capability now as well as analog. The studio is still in use, but mostly by a nearby college although artists do sometimes request its use apparently. Tours are done daily. We were there on a day when no recording was going on, so we were actually able to go into the studio and touch the piano and other instruments and get a real feel for the studio. I was surprised they let us go in there, but it was definitely pretty cool.

The Steinway at Studio B

Very, very cool place, and, of course, we learned some Elvis trivia since most of his songs were recorded at Studio B.

After the Studio B tour we got back on the road towards Little Rock for our next adventure along the way, but of course, we had a few on the way to Little Rock, too.

We discovered that the cooler was not really keeping things all that cool. I thought earlier that it was because we didn't close the top well or something, but apparently not. We drank lukewarm soda on our way out of Nashville and decided that we would find a Wal Mart somewhere along the route, which we did and found a replacement that is working MUCH better. Now, let me mention that somewhere in here is where the GPS was having trouble determining whether or not we were in North America. I am really pretty worried about being able to get back home, but I do have Mapquest directions printed out, so maybe we'll be okay.

We figured we'd stop in Memphis to eat since it was along the way and since (I think) Memphis in known for Barbecue, we decided we'd have that. We asked the GPS for suggestions and found Corky's BBQ and stopped there. We figured it was pretty good when the drive through was packed and we had to park a few buildings away. The food was good, the waitress was hysterically funny and we had a great dinner of ribs & such. We left Corky's and saw this:

Firetrucks at Corky's

We never saw any smoke, we never saw anything wrong, but the firefighters were sure looking at something and there were these two trucks and a couple of smaller ones. Made us wonder if we should have left earlier, but we had a good dinner, and survived, so I'm hoping that they were able to fix whatever it was that was wrong.

So Miss Maggie (the GPS) tells us to get on some other road that's not I-40. (I'm not sure why, but in the back of my mind, I'm wondering about that North American glitch earlier, but I follow her lead). She does get us back on I-40 eventually, so all is well.

We crossed over into Arkansas by traveling over a HUGE drawbridge at sunset with the MOST amazing view ever. I wish we could have gotten a picture, but it's kind of hard to stop on a drawbridge with traffic on an Interstate Highway, but just take my word for it, it was amazing. Abi said it was INCREDIBLE about 47 times.

Little did we know, that was the last sight we'd see for miles and miles and miles. You see, there is absolutely NOTHING in Arkansas. Our first 20 or so miles into Arkansas we saw about 3 houses and 2 gas stations. We drove on and on and I was beginning to get a little concerned since I'm on a quarter tank of gas. About 60 or so miles from the state line there is finally an Exit that has some sign of life. There's a Citgo and an Econolodge and a KFC/Taco Bell. We gas up thinking this may be the last thing we see until we hit Little Rock.

We check the GPS and it gives directions, but not directly back onto the highway, so I'm wondering if this is one of those weird exits that you can get off but you have to go around your left elbow to get back on - not many of them, but they do exist, so we follow Maggie, the GPS - who decides, for no reason that we know of, that we should go East. Now, I'm not great with directions, but even I know if I'm going from Memphis to Little Rock, I need to go West, but by now we're in the middle of NOWHERE. We pass the most terrible little downtown section of somewhere and keep going for awhile. There are no cars, no people, no nothing -- looks just like the highway did -- trees and grass for miles and miles and miles. Oh, what's that - A SIGN - know what it says? Wheatly Pop 372. Oh my gosh!

Eventually, we find I-40 West and get on, against the advice of Maggie, by the way. I had Abi cut Maggie off. When she came back on, she had regained her senses, but in the meantime, we passed the exit on I-40 that we had taken earlier to get gas - geesh. And again, miles and miles of nothing except the occasional deer crossing sign. There weren't even billboards -- I think we saw 6 or 8 total for miles and miles and miles.

Eventually, we got to the outskirts of Little Rock and saw signs of civilization. Mostly in the form of tractor trailer sales places, but it was a sign of civilization - for which we were grateful.

We found the hotel - a Holiday Inn near the airport. And opened the door to the car to get out and discovered that Arkansas does not smell pretty. Seriously. I don't know what it is, but there's an odor in the air and it is not a pretty smell at all.

We went to the front desk to check in and the lady at the desk was Asian. On the way back out to the car Abi asked, "I wonder if she was disappointed when she got off the plane from China or wherever and saw Arkansas?" I don't know, but it hasn't impressed us too much so far. I'm hoping we'll discover more today that will be better. I'm keeping an open mind anyway.

And Maggie was powered off for the night, so we're hoping to get where we need to go....