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A couple months
ago, Margaret and Gina started planning for a combined couples
road trip. The spot picked out was Memphis, Tennessee. Not
because it is the home of the Blues. Not because it was
the birthplace of Rock & Roll. Not because of the
famous Beale Street... But because they have Trolls! Yes,
the ladies were on a mission to get their
"trolls" on!
So the day after having a
wonderful Easter, Kelly & Margaret grabbed their
license plate game, hopped in the car, and made the 8 hour
trek to Mt. Juliet to meet Gina & Larry to start their
adventure. Other than some rain in Michigan and Ohio, the
rest of the drive was pretty smooth.
We got to Larry &
Gina's place Monday afternoon. After a couple welcome
cocktails, Larry and Gina grilled the thickest, most
delicious, rib eye steaks for dinner. After the wonderful
dinner, we retired to the living room for some more
cocktails and a couple rousing games of Fibbage and Joke
Boat on their Jackbox TV. Laughter filled the room all
evening long before retiring for the night.
Tuesday, we all went to
Nashville and visited the Cooters "Dukes of Hazzard"
Museum, walked around the Opryland Hotel, had lunch at the
Opry Backstage Grill, and finished it off with dessert at
the Wanna Spoon Cereal Bar. In the evening, we all went to
a Mexican restaurant to have dinner with the Brookfields.
After a filling dinner, the 8 of us all went back to Gina
and Larry's for great conversation and cocktails while the
kids played outside before turning in.
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| Photos from
Cooters in Nashville |
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| Sights around the
Opryland Hotel |
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| Great food. Great
people. Great Times |
After waking up on
Wednesday, Larry made some final corrections to his well
thought out itinerary for the Memphis trip. Because
Thursday, the weatherman was calling for rain, he moved
some things around so we could make the most of our time
in Memphis.
We started out for the 3.5
hour trip from Mt. Juliet to Memphis which got us there
about noon. The updated itinerary called for going to the
Botanic Gardens right away so we could see all the
Trolls in good weather. We all had a great time walking
around the gardens, taking in all the beautiful gardens,
flowers, yes... and Trolls.
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| Some of the many
things we saw at the Memphis Botanic Gardens |
After the Trolls, we still
had a little bit of time before checking into the Holiday
Inn in downtown Memphis, so we went to the next thing on
Larry's itinerary, which was the Crystal Shrine Grotto
which was located in a very large cemetery. The Grotto was
carved in a cave on the grounds with lots of religious
artifacts and artwork all in this cave with shimmering
crystals all over. It was pretty awe-inspiring to me.
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| We made a short
visit to the Crystal Grotto |
Larry's
itinerary was working like a well-oiled machine... That
is, until a rod was thrown it. When we arrived at the
Holiday Inn that we all booked in downtown Memphis over a
month earlier (because of its' proximity to the Peabody
Hotel, famous for it's twice a day duck march, and to
Beale Street) we were told that the air conditioning in
all the rooms was not working. When we asked what did that
happen, they told us "months ago"! (They
shouldn't have told us that when we booked) They said we
could still stay there (but it was a very warm day), or we
could cancel and book elsewhere. They gave a couple
suggestions, but we settled on a Hilton which was about
a block away. It was more expensive, but we were still
walking distance to the Peabody and Beale Street. We took
up our luggage and walked the block back to the Peabody
Hotel in plenty of time to get a front row table in the
lounge to see the 5 pm duck march to the roof.
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| The March Of The
Ducks was a hoot to watch - We got to go up on the
roof where the ducks stay during the night |
Beale
Street was a blast, and Larry redeemed himself with 2
choices for dinner and drinks on Beale Street. He had a
BBQ place recommended by Chris Love, or an Irish bar
called Silky O'Sullivan's. It was a tough choice until
Margaret
mentioned that Silky's had dueling pianos, which sealed
the deal for me. Our first request was "War" by Edwin
Starr.... and they delivered! We were screaming the lyrics
along with everyone else in the place and the piano
player. "War! uuuumph! Good God Ya'll! What is it good for? Absolutely
Nothing! Say it again!"
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| We had a blast on
Beale Street. All the music and entertainment you
would want. |
Thursday, we drove back to
Mt. Juliet, but not before going to the Bass Pro Shop
Pyramid in Memphis, where we looked around the whole
inside and enjoyed some appetizers at Wahlburgers. Once it
was 'officially' lunch time, we went to the top of the
pyramid for a view of Memphis from that vantage point, and
enjoyed a nice lunch at the Lookout Restaurant which had
365 degree views up there.
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| The outside had a
glass bottom, so it was a bit scary if you looked
down |
One more stop on Larry's
itinerary was the world famous Casey Jones Museum. It was
actually a cool place, but if you have ever been to Disney
World and gone on the It's A Small World where they played
the song over and over again. It was kinda the same with
the Casey Jones song.
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| We saw the train,
and took an audio guide of all the exhibits |
When we got back to Mt.
Juliet, Larry went out from some Greek food which was
delicious. We had our final cocktails that evening and our
final games on the Jackbox TV before calling it a final
night in Tennessee!
On Friday, we left at 8am.
Larry did us the honor of giving us another impromptu
itinerary for the way home which was very thoughtful.
Unfortunately, it rained practically the entire way, so it
put a damper on some of the things. We however did a
couple of the things he suggested as we stopped at
Bucc-ee's
in Richmond Kentucky (Margaret hadn't seen one before and was in
awe of the sheer number of gas pumps, the cool toilets, all the fresh made foods
they had, and just the fact that a lot of people were
using shopping carts at a gas station store). There was
also another Troll park. It was raining pretty steady, but
when we went on the 1/2 mile hike to see the first one, it
just poured. Luckily, one of us was prepared and smart and
brought and umbrella. The other one was me. I learned by
the second troll!
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| Beavers and
Trolls on the drive home |
We had such a great time
not only seeing the Trolls, but visiting with Larry, Gina,
and the Brookfields. It was a blast, and I can't wait to
go on another trip with by bro and sis! |
