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It was time to check out by the time we woke up. Had wanted to grab a bite at the hotel, but they were not serving lunch yet. So we packed up, checked out, and went down to Beale St again. Figured someone’s got to be serving food.

Stopped by at the Police Museum, which was actually a functioning police station. Lots of weapons and gadgets used by both police and crooks. Also stopped by at A Schwarb, supposedly the oldest shop in Memphis or something. Got some candy, but otherwise, most of the stuff was pretty boring.

Had a ghastly lunch at Kings Cafe or something like that – I had seafood pasta, which falsely advertised “crabmeat” when it was only crabstick. I could not taste anything, although the inside of my mouth was completely buttered by the time I stopped eating (with almost half of the pasta remaining). Randall had a Bloody Mary that had too much mix and not enough of anything else, and a vegetarian pasta that was also baked in butter, and still stewing in it when it was served.

We later popped over at BB King’s for a drink (just to say we have done it), and boy was it a pleasant surprise. The drinks were excellent – we had the Hootchie Coochie, Root Doctor, June Surprise, and Voodoo Child. We also got to keep the glasses as souvenirs (the drinks were 9.99 and 6.99 depending on whether they were cocktails or shooters). Excellent deal I thought. And the fried catfish bits we ordered was pretty good too.

Lost the map for Memphis, so decided to head back to Lonoke instead of going to Graceland. Great to be back.

Heading towards Memphis today. Got a room at the Marriot through Priceline for 75 bucks, not bad considering its a downtown area. The room was pleasant, although there was no free high-speed internet – available for $10 a day. Decided to pass since we’ll be back in Lonoke tomorrow anyway. There were some nice Neutrogena bath products provided – not as fantastic as the Aveda ones in the George rooms, but good enough.

We had stopped by at the Coors brewery before checking in. Coors is apparently the #3 beer in the US (although I have not heard about it before), behind Budweiser and Miller. The guided tour was ok — didn’t really get to tour the facilities. A lot of time was actually spent in front of diagrams and pictures, and Chuck the guide just explained what they all meant. Made some nice points, I thought, such as Budweiser is the only beer to use colors that resembled a soft drink (namely, Coke), as well as use animals and cartoons in its commercials.

We were given a couple of free drinks at the end of the tour. Coors Original, which I tried, was pretty good for an American beer. [Ever heard the joke about why drinking American beer is the same as making love on a canoe? They're fucking close to water! Ha ha.] Also tried the Blue Moon, a Belgian-style wheat ale, and the cherry Zima –> an alcoholic soda like Hooch. Too bad we didn’t get any free souvenirs.

Had dinner on Beale Street – including some pretty decent ribs [apparently, you have to have ribs when you're in Tennessee]. The stuff mushrooms were pretty disappointing though — think they’ve been soaked in butter for way too long. The night (after watching the finale of The Apprentice) was spent at a few clubs, two of which were Irish – Pat O’Briens and Silky Sullivan’s. The bartender at the latter joint didn’t know how to make a Black and Tan, or a Snakebite. Hmm.

Decided enroute to Bristol, VA/TN that it would be fun to visit the Jack Daniels distillery in Tennessee . A quick reference to the AAA guide to Kentucky and TN showed that it was located in Lynchburg, TN. That was about 4 hours away, so we should be able to make it in time before the guided tours closed at 430pm.

Managed to find the JD distillery without too much difficulty, although I did miss the exit at Crossville and had to instead make the turn at Cookeville instead — probably took us about 15-30 mins longer. The population of Lynchburg is 361, which pretty much revolves around the distillery and the gift shops that sell JD souvenirs, although no JD is actually sold here because it is a dry county. Ironic huh.

The tour was actually really interesting. The guide pretty much brought us through all the stages of distilling JD. We got to see the stills, bottling, and ageing areas, and lots of free smells in the process (although there was no free whiskey to be had). There was this particular building where the whiskey was filtered through maple charcoal to remove the taste/smell of yeast and barley –> the guide lifted a little of the lid and let us smell the whiskey. Man, free air is overrated compared to the smell of raw whiskey.

Tonight would be spent at another Super 8 Motel, this time in Pulaski. The manager at the motel suggested that we not venture into any bar or club unless we were armed with a gun and 2 knives. I assumed this meant each, and even though Randall’s from Arkansas, he doesn’t have a rifle in the boot of his Le Sabre.

There was a nice cozy [sorry if these adjectives are repeated too often, but well, this is the South] restaurant next to the motel, which served typical southern food. We had the sampler platter – deep fried cheese sticks, jalapeno, stuffed jalapeno, mushrooms, pickles – and the seafood platter –> deep fried fish, oysters, shrimp, scallops, and hushpuppies (deep fried cornbread in balls). The baked potato was great… totally fluffy with whipped butter and sour cream.

I didn’t know that continental breakfast in America meant pastries and coffee. We didn’t have any, and proceeded to check out. It would be a long day – have to traverse the rest of Tennessee to reach Virginia. The original idea was to reach somewhere near Williamsburg, so that we can see a bit of Williamsburg tomorrow.

We stopped over at Morristown, TN to look for this place called the Crokett’s Tavern. But after looking for it for like 20 mins, all we found was a Crokett’s Tavern Museum – which featured a big cauldron and some kind of wheelbarrow. Apparently, there were exhibits to be viewed, but we couldn’t find the entrance or ticket booth, so we just left.

Tennessee is really a very scenic state, lots of nice colors in the landscape, with the Smokey Mountains as a backdrop.

It was 5pm by the time we reached Virginia – the slogan being “Virginia loves Lovers” – and no way we could reach Richmond or Williamsburg by 8 [our stop time in order to watch primetime tv]. So we stopped instead at Appomatox – where the North and South kissed and made up during the Civil War –> but we will only go see the Historic Courthouse tomorrow. Dinner was at a great cozy little place called Granny Bee’s. I had the Mama Moore’s special, a 6oz ribeye steak with 8 grilled shrimps. The beef was rightly tender, and the fat moist and melted in the mouth. The shrimp was a tad underdone at points. But the highlight was the bread, which was fresh and fragrant. Definitely the best bread I’ve had, ever.

Staying at Motel 8. Much more pleasant than the Ramada – there was security points at all the doors. And although there wasn’t a pool, I had no complaints [well, the pool at the Ramada was covered, while the jacuzzi had soil and plants in them].

Today was going to be the beginning of the long trip – all the way to Washington DC.

First stop was Memphis, Tennessee, home of Elvis Presley. We would only be having lunch here today, at a microbrewery called Gordon Biersch, which has branches all over the country, including DC! I had this great pizza called the Looziana, which was topped with crawfish tails and cheese. Definitely have to check out the one in DC, although I kind of lamented the lack of an unfiltered wheat ale.

3 hours on and we were in Nashville, TN. This is home of country, where 90% of the radio stations played country. Most of the time, we stuck to that one rock station, or some unoffensive country music. We stopped over at the downtown area, tried to get some postcards — failed, cos they were all too tacky — then found another microbrewery, this time the Big River. We had the sampler, which convinced me I didn’t really like the beers here, so I had a margarita which was too sour. We also had the nachos with spinach and cheese dip. Nice, and really pretty, cos the chips were in 3 colors.

Decided to call it a night a Crossville, about 2 hours from Nashville. Originally thought Ramada was a reasonably nice place, but we were WRONG. The place was pretty run-down –> stairs creaked too much, pool was closed, and they had put potted plants into what was presumably the jacuzzi. The heater in the room was too noisy. Overall, the place reminded me too much of something from Afred Hitchcock’s Pyscho.