What the hell is sharon stone wearing?
 
I decided to update my blog instead of doing the work that I should be doing.  I am watching letterman because the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs are going to be on and sharon stone is wearing the most god awful outfit.  She should have gotten some backstage fashion tips from Karen O.

Vacation Continued

The second day in memphis we went to sun studios and took their little tour, which was pretty informative but the tour guide was a little less enthusiastic than I would have liked him to be.  In our tour group there was this japanese couple and the guy had a total elvis pompadour thing going on.  It was like we were in Mystery Train.   There was also a whole thing with this annoying guy about our dogs being in the truck but I don't want to really get into that - it pisses me off just thinking about it.  All I will say is that Mike did a really good job of diffusing the situation before I lost it.

After Sun Studios we went to the National Civil Liberties Museum which is built into the Lorraine Hotel where Martin Luther King was shot.  Upon exiting the museum, Mike and I were discussing our food options when all the sudden he said "Those are your dogs".  I looked over and sure enough, there were my dogs just running around the parking lot having the greatest time.  Meanwhile, mike's dogs were sitting in the back of the truck, good as can be.  One of my dogs must have opened the camper shell's window.  For the rest of the trip I put their leashes through the tie downs so that they were secure.

The we got some more Tops BBQ for  lunch and bought extra for the cooler.  Then we were on our way to the Loretta Lynn ranch.  We got to the ranch that evening and it was so beautiful.  The campsite was by a pretty little creek and the whole ranch is full of green rolling hills.  It could do without it's motocross course but other than that it was amazing.  We decided then that there was really no way that we were going to get to dollywood on the trip so we revised the plan.  We decided to camp there for the next three nights and just take a day trip to Nashville.  That day was also Mike's birthday so we had country food at the log cabin restaurant and it was actually really good.  We ate pie.

So our first day at Loretta Lynn's ranch we toured her house and coal miner's daughter museum.  The house is a beautiful old plantation home on the outside but on the inside it is like the 70s threw up on it exorcist style.  The kitchen is all orange, brown and avocado but I was really excited to learn that it was the same kitchen where loretta filmed all of her Crisco commercials.  She must have had a falling out with Crisco since then because I bought her country kitchen cookbook and there is no Crisco used in it.

The Coal Miner's Daughter museum is just like a 20,000 sq ft closet for all of loretta and her family's stuff.  We got to walk on and touch everything in her tour bus.  Not only did loretta use that bus for 15 years but it is also the same one that was in Coal Miner's Daughter.  The best part about the museum was that all of the item descriptions were written by loretta in black magic marker on poster board.  They said things like "This is one of my favorite dresses, I used to wear it all the time.  I might wear it again.  I love you all, Loretta Lynn"

While we were knee deep in the life and times of loretta lynn, apparently our dogs were knee deep in barbecue.  Somehow they had gotten the cooler open and ate all of the rest of our memphis barbecue.  We were so pissed about it that we couldn't shut up about it for the next day or so. 

We went back to the campsite and hung out for a bit, swam in the pool and then ate dinner at loretta lynn's country kitchen.  It was not as good as the log cabin restaurant but it did have the best gift shop of the trip.  Ironically, I bought all my elvis memorabilia there.

(on a tv related tangent - Karen O seems very enchanted by David Letterman)

Okay, I am just going to battle through and write up the rest of the trip right now because otherwise I fear that I will never get it finished.  After dinner we just hung out at the campsite for the rest of the evening - it was our low key no go go go day.  It was really nice.

The next morning we got up and drove to nashville which was about 60 miles away.  We drove straight to a breakfast place that I had read about in my Roadfood book - the Pancake Pantry.  There was a huge line of people out the building (this was 10:30am on a friday) but it moved very fast and I would say that our whole breakfast only took about 30 minutes.  They really know how to move people through that place.  They had the greatest pancakes ever (with about 20 varieties to choose from) - when you are in Nashville you must stop!

After the excellent pancakes we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame, which was a great museum.  It takes you through the history of country in a really clear and informative way.  Plus only one little tiny bit of it is devoted to the modern shitty country that they play on the radio.  We bought a joint admission package that included a tour of RCA's Studio B.  That was the highlight of the trip for me.  Over 1,000 number one songs have been recorded there including like 40 of elvis' number ones and all of Dolly Parton's early records.  Our tour guide was this cool old guy who had the best stories and talked about the music in a way that showed that he didn't just know the facts - he really loved the music.  He was so funny and sincere.  I would have loved to go to a bar with that guy and listen to him tell stories all night.

We ate more barbecue for lunch and then tried to go the Ryman but it had closed about a half an hour earlier.  We also went to this great record store that was full of new old stock records.  I bought a best of dolly parton album from 1975 that had never been opened and still had a poster in it.  It is awesome and I can't stop listening to it.  Did you know that she wrote "I will always love you" and "Jolene" in the same hour?  Probably not.

We didn't want to head back to the campground too early because they were having a Trace Adkins concert that we wanted to avoid dealing with so we went to see Anchorman.  Will Ferrell is hilarious and if you haven't seen it and enjoy laughing at stupid shit for a couple hours - I highly recommend it.

The next morning we headed back to Denver via kentucky, illinois, missouri and Kansas.  We got as far as Salina, KS and spent the night at a Motel 6.  It was uneventful.  The next day we returned to Denver, safe and sound.