Nashville, Tennessee and Home

We put Nashville in our trip plans because I love country music as good as anybody.  We had no real agenda except to see the Grand Ole Opry and Grand Ole Opry Hotel.  It was flooded when we were in Nashville three years ago.

We met R D and Cheryl Warren in Fairbanks, Alaska.  They live in Murfreesboro near Nashville and we also wanted to make contact with them again.  We not only made contact with them, we spent the next a day and a half having a Grand Ole time.

R D drove us around Nashville to see the sights.  As we rode past the Grand Ole Opry we saw people going in which was a Tuesday night.  R D stopped and asked someone what was going on and the reply was the Opry was having a show.  We stopped and purchased tickets and went to the show.  I never dreamed I would be at the Grand Ole Opry on this trip.  It was AWESOME.  What an unexpected treat. We saw Montgomery Gentry, Easton Corbin, Jim Ed Brown, Diamond Rio to name some of them.  Afterwards looked for somewhere to eat because we had not had dinner.  This was the best evening to have not been planned.

We didn't have the camera with us so here is a picture of the ticket.

The next day R D and Cheryl picked us up and we went to lunch and visited their home.  Cheryl makes beautiful quilts.

Later we toured Stone River National Battlefield.  It was called the Battle a Murfreesboro and was considered the battle that determined the outcome of the Civil War.  81,000 lost their lives.
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We ended our visit with R D and Cheryl with a nice dinner.  This trip will have many great memories and our time with the Warrens will be right at the top.  The next day we started home.

After 13,745 miles,  and seeing many amazing sites and beautiful places and meeting many wonderful people we are home.   We are thankful and grateful.

Memphis, Tennessee

We made the journey through the Ozark Mountains.  John was not particularly happy with the pull on his truck.  Since we had already traveled through Alaska, I didn't see the big deal.  We stayed at the Tom Sawyer RV Park in West Memphis.  The route leading to the campground was very unimpressive.  Campgrounds had been either a hit or a miss and this was looking like a big miss.

Well that was the furtherest thing from the truth.  The Tom Sawyer RV Park backs right up to the Mississippi River.  It was absolutely beautiful.  It had concrete pads for the campers and green grass yards.

 It was fun just to watch the traffic go down the river.  The campground even had park benches at the campsites so you could sit and watch.  Pretty nice.  The campground in Branson was a big miss but I want go into that.  But Tom Sawyer more than made up for Cooper Creek.

You have probably guess why we went to Memphis.  A visit to Graceland is on my bucket list.

I thoroughly enjoyed my tour of Elvis Presley's home and all the grounds.  I came away with a bigger appreciation for his life and his talent.  John enjoyed it too.  He didn't think he was going to though.

Flashes were not allowed in the mansion because of aging the artifacts. John mistakenly took a picture of the living room with the flash on.  Thankfully he wasn't caught.

Branson, Missouri

We spent the next couple of days making our way toward home and Branson, Missouri.  We did not plan well for Branson.  My plan was to see The Texas Tenors.  They were contestants on America Got's Talent and did very well on the show.  Anyway they were not in town while we were there.

All was not lost because we made reservations on the Branson Showboat.

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and were entertained by singers, a fiddler, a rhapsody piano player and a comedian.

Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota and Crazy Horse

We visited George, Thomas, Teddy and Abe at Mt. Rushmore.  Mt. Rushmore is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  I feel I received an good education on how Gutzon Borglum created the monument.  It was started in 1927 and complete in 1941.  The likeness of the gentlemen was impressive.  And the Black Hills were pretty.

Then we visited (still under construction) the Crazy Horse monument.  It is also in the Black Hills in Custer County, South Dakota.  All you can see is Crazy Horse's face.

Although the Crazy Horse monument is far from being finished they have completed an amazing museum to honor heroic indians and their customs.

Yellowstone, Grand Teton and more Wyoming

We experienced the geyser doing it's thing. Pretty impressive, it was right on time.  It was a very unusually warm day so we didn't do any trails or horse rides.  We saw buffaloes and a moose.  Also there were two forest fires that started while we were in the park  They were close and a little alarming.  Much of the park had evidence of previous fires.  It's a  shame that such beauty has been destroyed.

Here is the moose.  By the time we got close in ran into the woods.

The last few pictures are of the drive in part of the park.  Devastating heights and curves.  You would think I would be used to them by now, but no.

Sorry but my pictures of the Tetons did not them justice.  We were confused by our GPS.  The road it was telling us to take was closed.   We did get a better live views than the pictures.

The pictures below were taken on our drive back to the campground.

John and I both know how blessed we are to be having this experience.