Kentucky & Tennessee

West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee have beautiful countryside. I was particularly impressed with the barns in Kentucky, many of which had beautiful quilt designs on them. We stopped at Mammoth Caves National Park and went on a short hike in the karst cave - saw where and how saltpeter was mined from the cave. Didn't see the other 366 miles of cave passageways, though - no time! :)

Unfortunately, when we got to Nashville, country music capital of the world, we didn't have enough time to explore (5pm on Sun). So we made our way to a campground en route to Memphis. Spent all day in Memphis today. Visited the National Civil Rights Museum, which is housed in the hotel where Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated - they even have a display of his hotel room as it was the day he was shot - kind of weird. The museum is quite effective, though, in showing issues related to civil and human rights, mostly civil rights in the US. Evan was pretty mesmerized - we spent 2 hrs reading and listening to the exhibits.

After this, we ate at a diner, the Arcade Restaurant, in which many movies based in Memphis have been filmed. The food was surprisingly good - we even had Beignet's for dessert!

Then, off to Sun Studios for the afternoon to see where Rock'nRoll recording began! I decided it was worth going there over Graceland (sorry Andrew!), because I love blues and rock 'n roll beyond just Elvis, and there wouldn't be an hour-long wait outside like I was told there would be at Graceland (Evan is not fond of the heat, to say the least!). The tour of the studio was great -totally worth it! The tour guide is a recording artist as well, Amy LaVele. Pictures below for those interested in this type of history.