DAY #1 - JULY 2, 2023 – HOME TO HORN LAKE,
MISSISSIPPI
617 – MILES / 617 – TOTAL MILES
Today is the day
that I depart on my 2023 Great Canyonlands Adventure. I am up and about a
little before 5 a.m. and out the door right on schedule at 5:30 a.m. I am scheduled
to me my Sunshine Tour Bus at 6 a.m. but the information they sent said that I
should arrive at the pickup site 15-minutes early.
The bus arrived
just a couple of minutes late at 6:05 a.m. In addition to myself there were only
two other couples boarding here in Christiansburg. One couple was Glenn and Sarah Cochran, who
are friends of my friends, Pete, and Valerie Ramey. Glenn is one of the local
State Farm Insurance Agents here in Christiansburg and I have met him a few
time around town and at the Rec. Center.
I boarded the
bus and was happy to find that there were several vacant seats in the back of
the bus. On trips longer than 5 days, Sunshine implements a system where passengers
rotate seats every day so that travelers can get views from different sides of
the bus. I don’t like to rotate seats
and have found that if you sit at the back of the bus the other passengers don’t
force you to move and have no problem avoiding the bathroom. I’m hoping that
will be the case on this trip.
I find a seat
about 5-rows from the back and store my carry-on bag in the seat next to me. It
took the driver to less than 10 minutes to load out luggage and I am off on
what promises to be a grand adventure.
At 6:30 a.m. we
pick up several more passengers at the Sunshine Tour Office in Dublin and at
7:10 a.m. we pick up our final group at the Fairfield Inn in Wytheville. The
final count for this 15-day journey is 39, not counting our bus driver John and
our Tour Guide Michelle.
Shortly, after
departing Wytheville, Michelle formally introduces herself and John, and
welcomes us on board. She gives us a
brief description on what the rest of the day will be like. Basically, today is
all about miles.
As we leave Virginia
and enter the Volunteer State of Tennessee, we make our first rest stop at the
Tennessee Welcome Center in Bristol. Here at the welcome center, we are treated
to sausage or Ham biscuits, donuts, and coffee. This is where we all got to
mingle and get acquainted with some of our fellow passengers.
From Bristol we
pass the New Buc-ee’s that just opened a few day earlier at Sevierville, Exit
407. Evidently, the newness hasn’t worn off, because traffic is backed up on
the ramp and across the bridge waiting to get into the parking lot.
We soon streaked
through downtown Knoxville and start up the east side of the Cumberland Plateau.
At the top of the plateau, we pass another Buc-ee’s at Cookeville. Some in our group wanted to stop, but our
Driver John shut that idea down. Evidently from past experiences, John knew
that a 30-minute stop would probably turn into more than an hour.
Today’s schedule
is tight, and we keep pushing on toward our only scheduled stop of the day,
which is a lunch stop in downtown Nashville.
As we climbed
the Cumberland Plateau west of Knoxville, we entered the Central Time Zone and
shortly after 1 p.m. (2 p.m. Eastern Time) John pulled the bus up in front of the
Ryman Auditorium and let us off for a two hour stop for lunch and a little sightseeing.
Having been to
Nashville Several times before, I decided to pass on the traditional
restaurants and Honky Tonks that Line Broadway and chose to have a quick lunch
at one of the many food trucks that you can find parked just off Broadway.
After a quick
shrimp Po’boy from a Cajun Food Truck. The sandwich and drink set me back $14
but it was worth it. And the sandwich was really good.
With a little more than an hour and a half
left before I had to be back on the Bus, I set about exploring Broadway and
Music City. I stopped and took several
photos of the statue that stand outside Ryman Auditorium. Since I was her last back in 2021, a statue
of Charlie Pride has been added to the statues of Loretta Lynn, Bill Monroe,
and Jimmy Dickens.
While those
statues are great, I have always found it strange that there is not a statue of
Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl in the area around Ryman. It is just strange to me
that two of the longest and most popular stars of the Grand Ole Opry have been
ignored.
While everyone
else spent most of their time in restaurants, I spent most of my time walking
around and enjoying the sights and sounds of Music City. But at 3 p.m. It was time for us to re-board the bus and
head toward our first night’s lodging near Memphis.
About halfway
between Nashville and Memphis we made a bathroom/Rest stop at the Love’s Travel
Center near Jackson, Tennessee. Then it was back on the Road for the final leg
of our first days Journey.
It was a little
before 7 p.m. when we arrived at the Drury Inn & Suites in Horn Lake,
Mississippi which is just a couple miles south of Memphis. I have stayed at
Drury a couple of times in the past and they are known for something they call their
evening Kickback with features a rotating Menu of entrees, and sides along with
hot dogs with all the trimmings. The
kickback is free for hotel guests. The kickback food was very good and hit the
spot.
The end of Day
#1 was a long one. I got acquainted with several of my fellow travelers,
especially the Back of the Bus Bunch who had the same Idea at me. None of us wanted
to rotate and seemed to have developed an early bond. We covered a total of 617-miles today and
tomorrow promises to be another 500-mile day. This adventure is just getting
started.
No comments:
Post a Comment