Category: Road Trip 2016

New York to Graceland and back with stops in between.

Road Trip 2016 – A New Beginning

So I am planning a road trip to see if I can find America. New York to Graceland and back, with many stops along the way. Here’s a map

New Toys

I love my gadgets. So far: New cell phone with better reception for travelling in the boonies and a larger screen for navigation (and more RAM so I can deposit checks on my cell,...

Music for the Road

America by Paul Simon for the New Jersey Turnpike America cover by Yes War by Edwin Starr for Gettysburg Jolene by Dolly Parton for Nashville Graceland by Paul Simon Heartbreak Hotel Elvis Presley We...

Day 0 – Drop Off at Camp

269 miles. Benjy’s summer sleep away camp bookends our vacations. Summer doesn’t really start until we do the three hour drive up to Frost Valley Y. On the way up we have four cell...

Day 1 – Mon 7/11 – Battle of Gettysburg

Day 1 – Mon 7/11 401.2 miles to Harrisonburg via Gettysburg, the high water mark of the Confederacy. General Robert E. Lee’s defeat by General George Meade. 51,000 dead in a convincing demonstration of the...

Day 3 – Wed 7/13 – Nashville

Nashville: Country Music Hall of Fame, amazingly interesting. I had no idea that Bob Dylan played with Johnny Cash. And the Grand Ole Opry, which is a complex with hotel and resort, and mall with expensive...

Day 4 – Thurs 7/14 – Guns Old and New

Another Civil War battlefield, Shiloh, scene of Ulysses Grant’s first victory over the Confederacy. Very good movie at visitor center, but I got lost several times driving around the battle field. Seems that Grant really...

Day 5 – Fri 7/15 – Memphis, TN

82 miles into Memphis. Sun Studio, where Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash recorded.  The Lorraine Motel where MLK was assassinated (Now the National Civil Rights Museum).  The balcony where he was...

Day 6 – Sat 7/16 – Graceland

Graceland. And the ultimate destination of the trip: Elvis’s grave. Stax Museum of Soul, former home of Stax records, label for Otis Redding and many other soul stars. And the night life on Beale Street....