Music Cities Tour

When the announcement of a "music cities tour" was made on my website, it sounded like a lot of fun, so I contacted my travel buddy and we decided to join. It was a good decision as the tour was excellent.  We began in New Orleans, moved to Memphis, and ended in Nashville.  Along the way there were little excursions that were both informative and entertaining. I don't remember everything, but can highlight some of the places.

In New Orleans, we went to a culinary school and had a chef prepare food for us (like a TV show, with the demo on screens so we all could see what was happening).  Along with the food he prepared, he talked about how the food in New Orleans reflects both the history of the city and it's diverse population, which gave us a feel for how the food developed as the people came into the city and made it their own. We went to a "dive bar" called Daisy Dukes, and had excellent food that was as good and diverse as our culinary guide had described! We also went to a jazz bar for live entertainment and found out that New Orleans is alive and well 24/7!  The streets are packed with people who really cut loose at night.  There was a lot of construction in the French Quarter, which made it challenging to get where we wanted to be. The night of the jazz club, it was raining buckets, so as we made a dash for the hotel, I misjudged a curb and ended face down in a huge pool of water.  I was able to get up and slosh my way back to my room, but I was totally soaked, with a couple of boo-boos on my shins and knees. And my brand-new umbrella was trashed!  I had just bought it that afternoon because we were warned it was going to rain, but I fell on top of it and it was too flimsy to sustain the fall.

Yes, we went to the famous Café Dumond and had beignets, but they were just folded pieces of dough with far too much powdered sugar piled on top.  Across from the Café, we went to a "French" street fair, but it was just like the well-known street fair locally in Palm Desert. We also saw the famous cemetery and learned how the deceased are stacked up in huge vaults, and when the vault is at capacity, the next person to come in comes into the oldest vault, where the remains from that vault are dropped into a holding area at the bottom. It sounded weird to me, but our tour guide let us know that was why there weren't a lot of remains unearthed during Katrina: they bury people in vaults.  Good to know.

We also took a swamp tour while we were in New Orleans and it was great! We saw lots of 'gators and learned about the swamp while we toured it.  At one point, the tour guide held up a baby gator and let those of us who dared touch it.  I held it in my hands and was amazed at how soft and supple the skin was.  I also was surprised to learn that for most of the swamp, if your boat had a problem, you could get out and stand up as the water is only about 5-6 feet deep.

In Memphis, we got the whole Elvis experience, beginning with our stay at the new Guest House at Graceland, which is a new hotel and huge.  We did visit the Graceland property, including a walk-through the mansion, and then we went to the entertainment park, which was mostly empty of people.  It's mostly static displays, no rides, and some very pricey "park" style food, so nothing to entice anyone to go there more than once.

We did a lot of tours of the city, but one stop proved to be memorable: we went to the music studio where Elvis and his buddies recorded tracks.  There is the Steinway piano Elvis played (I have a picture of me on the bench of it), and while we were there our group gathered 'round a microphone and sang Dream Lover.  Little did we know that we were being recorded--and we were given a copy of the disc for our memory book.

In Nashville, we toured the original Ryman Theater and then went to the new locale of the Grand Ole Opry, which is so much bigger than I ever dreamed a venue could be!  We were there on a Thursday, and the venue was packed with audience members. We watched as the radio show personnel kept going through the short breaks, and had a great time.  The funniest person I've ever heard was Gary Mule Deer, who did a short set of hilarious comedy.  I did not know who he is, so my buddy told me she's heard him in the desert before, and, sure enough, he's going to be here next week, on the bill with Johnny Mathis, which seems like an odd pairing. The other big stop was at the Hall of Fame Museum, which was, again, a very large venue.  There is too much to see and too many people to see much at all. After fighting the crowd for about 15 minutes, I retreated to the lobby coffee shop and took my coffee and cookie outside, where it was much less stressful.  As I was sitting there, I saw the "float" style tourist bike, with 6 people on each side pedaling, loud music blaring and passengers singing along at the top of their lungs.  It may have been homecoming for one of the colleges in Nashville as the streets were filled with young people partying their butts off.

It was a good trip, lots of fun, and very informative. Our tour guide talked us through the bus trips with interesting info about people, places, and events. Somewhere along the way to Nashville, we stopped at Belle Meade plantation and had docents in costume tell us about the house and its history.  As I was leaving to find our bus, I saw "mending wall," with the rocks stacked and parts of it in disrepair, and I had a flashback to many, many years ago when my daughter took a picture of a stacked rock wall she came across, and then my son typed up Robert Frost's poem, which is still one of my favorites, and they framed it for me.  It's still on the wall of my office, where I see it every time I'm at my desk.  It's a treasure to me, and I enjoyed seeing the wall in person (although the wall my daughter photographed is a different wall) after all these years.