Memphis TN to Nashville TN (224 Miles)

Remember how, yesterday, we said we were stopping off at Stax Records BEFORE we left Memphis on Sunday? We did NOT get to Stax Record Studio. Research showed us that it was open at 11 am and we thought we could easily go in for a tour Sunday morning before we hit the road to Nashville. Well, research was incorrect. Six days of the week it is, indeed, open at 11 am. The other day (…..guess which one) it is not open until 1 pm. Now, to do a tour and then hit the road for a 4 hour drive was just not something we felt we would enjoy doing. Given that you usually spend a good 1-1/2 hours at these type of displays. We were actually just getting ready to leave  the campground for Stax when Doug figured it out……Sorry Teagan, we absolutely were disappointed about it but if it helps, we totally ATE up everything we could about Sun Studio.

Just because Paula & Jerry knew how disappointed we were, they took a few photos of it for us on their tour today. So, Teagan - these are for you with full photo props back to Paula Gale!!!!

 

So, travel day!! Since we screwed up on the Stax Studio thing and we were ready to go anyway we gave our friends, Paula & Jerry, a ride downtown so we could all take in the Peabody Duck March. It has been going on at the Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis since the 1930’s. The general manager and his buddy were out duck hunting and came back to the hotel with some live decoy ducks. They, in their inebriated state, thought it would be funny to put the ducks into the fountain in the lobby of the hotel. They went upstairs to sleep it off and when they came down in the morning, the ducks were still there and people staying at the hotel liked it….Voila an idea was born!! They come downstairs each day at 11 am and go back upstairs at 5 pm.....

Here is a bit more information:
 

In 1940, Bellman Edward Pembroke, a former circus animal trainer, offered to help with delivering the ducks to the fountain each day and taught them the now-famous Peabody Duck March. Mr. Pembroke became the Peabody Duckmaster, serving in that capacity for 50 years until his retirement in 1991.Current Duckmaster Anthony Petrina, a Memphis native, is only the 5th Duckmaster in the hotel's history.

   

When off-duty from the Lobby, the ducks live in their Royal Duck Palace on the hotel's rooftop. The $200,000 structure is made of marble and glass and includes its very own fountain with a bronze ducks spitting water. It also includes a small house - a replica of the hotel - where the ducks can nest, with a soft, grassy "front yard."
 

Raised by a local farmer and a friend of the hotel, each team of Peabody Ducks lives at the hotel for only three months before retiring from their duty and returning to the farm, where they are free to live as wild ducks. With a return to the great outdoors in mind, the hotel recognizes its resident waterfowl as wild animals and does not domesticate them or treat them like pets. 

 

Miss Paula, hiding out watching for ducks!!

Quite the crowd, about 15 minutes before they came marching in.

The crowd actually got a bit bigger than this!!

Poor picture but here they come - quack, quack!!

 

 After this was over, we headed off to our trek to Nashville and

Paula & Jerry stayed on in Memphis for the day and did another tour.

 

 

Just look up Peabody Ducks-Memphis TN and

I am sure you will find out even more !!

Oooops - guess one little duck snuck into the car with us!!

Other than that it was a pretty uneventful drive – which is good. However, it was super windy, all day long!! We both thought that the countryside looked a lot like BC. The trees are just beginning to come into leaf. It seems to us that even Memphis trees are further ahead than Nashville's. We will have to ask about that!

Hey....that's a great name for a road!!

Sorry about the reflection off the dash.......

 

Doug is doing very well in the photography department, don't you think?

The Cumberland River and downtown Nashville in the distance....

 

We arrived at Two Rivers RV Park in Nashville and we are here for 3 days at Site #509. Seems really clean and we have a great site. I have yet to find THE 2 rivers but I will keep a look-out for them!  

 

Red roof is the office.....

 

...and yes, ladies & gentlemen, that is INDEED how close the bathroom is!!!

I am SO excited!!!!!

Tomorrow we will figure out what to do for the day. It is scheduled to be raining but we are very close to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel - like walking distance, we think. In Paula's words...It's gorgeous and contains bars and different restaurants, landscaping and even an indoor river. It is actually over 40 acres of covered space - like a gigantic terrarium.

Paula & Jerry arrive later in the afternoon so we will be doing some hootin’ and hollerin’ with them downtown on Tuesday evening we hope!!

Peace….

Thought for the Day: If we wait until we are ready, we'll be waiting for the rest of our lives...