Day 8: Country Music, Gibson Guitars, and 100+ degree heat!

Greetings from Little Rock, Arkansas, where we are happily ensconced in the Rosemont Bed and Breakfast, watching HBO on-demand and catching up on Entourage. Yesterday's 100 degree night (it was still 96 at 10 pm) in the breezeless Nashville KOA campground seems but a distant and unpleasant memory. Today was all about the music. We woke up to stifling heat in Nashville and decided we should see something more than the campground in the dark, so we headed to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Now, neither of us are fans of the country music, but the museum is pretty amazing and well worth the visit and the $16 price of admission. We wandered through exhibits on the history of country music, hillybilly music, bluegrass, etc. I enjoyed seeing all of the instruments--especially the steel and the pedal steel guitars and listening to all of the old records. The Hall of Fame portion itself was a bit creepy--too much "never let the circle be unbroken," but there was a fantastic exhibit on Ray Charles, and after about 2 hours, we headed out and drove off towards Memphis.

We were a bit wary about stopping in Memphis as this week is "Elvis Week," and, as billed, the biggest Elvis celebration "ever."
But, we said, what the hell and decided to make a quick run-through. Steve wanted to visit the Gibson Guitar factory, so we called ahead and booked a tour, and headed into town. The Guitar factory and showroom is right next to the infamous "Beale St.," home of the blues, birthplace of rock and roll. SO, while Steve headed in to his tour, I decided to make a trip to the Rock and Soul Museum across the street. It was about this time that we both figured out that the time zones had switched from Eastern to Central, so we had a little more time in Memphis than we thought. The Rock and Soul museum was also well worth it, especially for the more than 100 songs you have access to on the audio tour. I enjoyed seeing Al Green's costumes, and Isaac Hayes's amazing diamond and emerald crusted piano watch next to his giant mink coat. There were some great artifacts in there--guitars, albums, costumes, old jukeboxes and radios and a really well-done history (thanks to the Smithsonian affiliation) of blues, country, and rock-and-roll born in Memphis. Really fascinating. I then met up with Steve, who thoroughly enjoyed watching the factory workers build hollow body electric guitars (this is one of 3 Gibson factories in the country). Fun fact: the factory uses 900 gallons of water a day to keep the factory's humidity at 50%.

We took a quick stroll down Beale Street, marveled at the amount of people from all over the world in town for Elvis week (an Italian guy at the Gibson factory asked to take his picture with Steve b/c he looked like one of his buddy's from home), saw an impersonator or two, and drove out of Memphis. We made a quick stop at the Lorraine Motel, sight of MLK's assassination, but were too late to go to the museum. The hotel balcony itself is amazingly poignant, definitely sends shivers up one's spine.

We then headed off to Little Rock, home of all things former President Clinton. We've spent quite a bit of time on Route 40 west since leaving Asheville--and the Arkansas stretch was lovely in parts and scary in parts. The religious billboards took a scare tactic turn in Arkansas, warning us never to commit adultery and asking us if we died today, where we would be spending eternity? Not on route 40, that's for sure! It took us about 2 hours from Memphis, and once we checked into the
B+B, we headed down to the River Market district to grab a little dinner at a Pizza pub and sports bar hangout. What little we saw of Little Rock was pretty cool, but we have a very long day of driving tomorrow (600 miles from here to Amarillo) so off to bed!

Pic 1: The Atrium of the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville
Pic 2: It's Elvis week in Memphis, the 30th anniversary of his death...need I say more!
Pic 3: The Rock and Soul Museum, Memphis
Pic 4: Gibson Guitar Museum, Memphis
Pic 5: The Lorraine Motel, Site of Dr. Martin Luther King's Assassination