The Tennessee Diaries Part 1

First stories are best when told first. So lets begin this blog with the very first time we visited Tennessee. When we decided to move out of our house in Oceanside, we were looking for a place that we could have afforded. I had never really traveled much, and even Mel’s limit was stuff mostly out of country. So we started looking, and really looking. We then debating between two states Texas & Tennessee. Why not Texas? It wasn’t just the weather (worse tornados & hurricanes are possible) but it was the area that we could live in. The state is not cheap! Unless you live towards the top and by New Mexico in areas that aren’t so safe. So we traveled to TN to see what it was about and see what we could find. And this is what we found our first trip.

It started at night, we were dropped off, our flight nice and early. The trip over was much storms. We flew over a storm in Arizona and the lightning itself was powerful enough to make any person go hum…then we landed.

As we landed in “Music City” and were walking to get our bags, what greets us more than a country band at the airport! We turned and looked at each other laughing. We had been on the phone with mom telling we landed okay and then that happened we both just laughed. How funny! Onto the car, which took a bit of time.

Our plan was get some food, then head to Jackson (not knowing how far that was!) but it was late in the day. We drove a little bit got food some place (I think it was Burger King) and noticed wow tax is high! Coming from 7.75 any tax higher is wow and I think at the time it was either 9.75 or 9.25. Still high!

I was too tired from the trip, I slept a lot sadly. I missed some great country side scenes while Mel drove around. We didn’t get much in the first day too exhausted. We started off for Jackson. It was getting to evening when we stopped in a small city called “Dickson” to find out how far to Jackson? It was a Motel 6 and when we heard how far it was still (about 2hrs I think) we just decided to stay there. What an adventure that was!
After a nice long nap, we went to this place called “The Waffle House” and never seen anything like that. Sure people can smoke cigarettes in there (its changed since then) and the whole thing so odd but cool. Everyone was SO friendly it was almost scary. We come from California, in peace haha. They gave us tips about where to move, if Dickson was a good place to live (we asked), and we had waffles that were SO GOOD! The fact we sat at the counter not a table and all our food made and served for us. Waffle Houses are 24 hrs and are down right delicious! I highly recommend them should you ever happen upon a trip down to the South!

Then we slept nicely that night. We got up the next day to drive to Jackson. The trip was really long so long in fact we wondered how we thought we would make it with little sleep there the night before? And guess what we got for the first time. TN heat! The state was in a heat spell, it was well over 105 degrees when we came into Jackson. We loved the only place we saw there but found out that there isn’t a lot of places to WORK in Jackson. Great city, I still wish we could have stayed but nothing to do but drive 1.5hrs to Memphis is where the work is…

So we departed with happy thoughts and ponderings, and went onto Memphis (we would be back we had stopped at the Motel 6 and checked in, in Jackson!). And a little place called “Germantown”. That was fun. We got off the highway (freeway for those from Cali) and tried to find the cute mall. Cute as in it was adorable, but well later got hit by a tornado after we moved out here but its okay. I think. Okay Memphis wasn’t what we were in, we were in Germantown but we found pleasantly they had things like Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and other things. After we had traveled back and fourth on the bridge. We found a Red Robin and ate there for dinner. We were SO happy they were so nice we gave them a huge tip! Then traveled back to the area, applied at B&N for me and headed back to Jackson.

There is something I can never describe best as the trip and road from Memphis to Jackson. I have traveled a lot of roads in this area since then, but none have what that road does. TREES, just tons of them! They line both sides of the “highway” and its BEAUTIFUL! I hear during the fall it’s a favorite to see them all change color (although we have found any trees doing this is great its so not like Cali!) I even saw a few deer along the road. I was like WOW deer! Mind you I have seen deer but my first experiences with real “wildlife” of this state always left me in awe from that place forward…

We slept well and got up our last day with a lot to do. First we heard that it was the day that Elvis had died so we wanted to go to Memphis just for a few minutes to see what happens. Oddly enough as I write this its August 13th almost 2 yrs to the day that we did this. We didn’t realize how popular it is. In fact we learned about this all from the guy at Red Robin who asked if we had come out FOR this event (that people come out and see, they also come in January for his birthday). Well it was a bit crowded (to say the least) to go into Memphis. So I guess you can say…we didn’t make it there! Oh well. Instead we had to turn back around after seeing the beginning of Memphis and a bad part of town (not fun). We went back not to Jackson but back home. Oh before we left we also stopped in at the train and Casey Jr. thing across the street which was fun train pictures and a souvenir each. Haha.

Our last thing before we left was a trip to the mall. We both wanted to apply at our jobs of choice. And good golly was it HOT! It was 107 that day and we had NO idea how big Opry Mills was. We parked on the end by Rainforest and if you have been there you know that the mall is huge and where I wanted to go (Barnes & Noble) was on the other end. Yeah lets just say I had to book it across a huge mall in 5 mint (I don’t know how I did that). Mel went to Rainforest to talk to them. Going into the mall and out I felt like my face was melting to my body it was so dang hot! Barely out of the mall we had to get to our flight home. Lets just say we were almost late. We got there as they were almost boarding, never again do that so late. Hello! Okay we going home…see you in September? Although we knew we would make another trip out we had a feeling it would be at least a month till it would happen again…or so we thought.

STAY TUNED FOR PART 2 of this of many of our trip & new lives in TN.