Holiday to Tennessee in Mar 2024: Day 6 – Memphis to Nashville

A good night sleep was enjoyed by all. The bed was comfy, although a tad on the soft side. We also had a challenge in turning off the lights.

The only way to turn the lights off was to turn the master light switch off at the door. Bizarre hotel…

We walked out in the cold to the closest Starbucks, which opened at 6am. It was connected to the Marriot Residence Inn Hotel.

We sat in bed enjoying our caffeine fixes, before heading down to hotel breakfast.

As a diamond member, we received a $15 credit per person, which seemed reasonable considering the prices of the dishes. There was no buffet here!

I ordered a farm breakfast with sausage and over-easy eggs. Overall it was very tasty, but the eggs were a tad overdone.

Vick ordered a humongous frittata, which took an age to prepare because multiple hens needed to lay the 100s of eggs required to make it.

We had already been to Jackson; in Mississippi that is. Today, our first stop would be Jackson, Tennessee, for a supercharging and Starbucks stop. It had a Casey Jones theme!

It was a lovely bright sunny day today. Chilly to start with, but as we drove north-east, it seemed to get warmer, which made us feel like we were on a summer holiday!

After an hours drive, we picked up our second Starbucks of the day from a store in Jackson.

It was the first time we had the luxury of sitting outside in the sun, and be warm enough to stay to drink our coffees.

We relaxed outside soaking up the sun for 5 mins – we had supercharging to do!

So, we drove the short distance to the supercharging station, located on the same site as the Casey Jones museum.

After plugging in, we popped into the museum. It was $12 per person but based on us only having about 15 mins available, we were advised to just go into the shop.

As it happens, the shop was really good. There were a number of model railway layouts, lots of toys to play with, and there was even a place for kids to sit and watch a cartoon on a TV.

Shame we were too old to thoroughly enjoy the place.

Our next stop was Harpeth River State Park, which is a linear park that manages nine river access sites along 40 miles of the river. The park is popular for kayaking, canoeing, fishing and hiking. 

There didn’t seem to be many tourist spots on our travels today from Memphis to Nashville, but we read one or two blogs which made reference to this park, as being good for walking and great views.

It was also about 25 miles or so from Nashville, and fairly close to a Tesla Supercharger, so it made sense to make a stop here before our final short drive to our hotel in downtown Nashville.

We headed to a particular part of the state park called the Narrows at Harpeth.

After parking up, there was a short walk to the start of three trails. We decided to head up to the Bluff Overlook to enjoy the views.

The initial well-constructed steps up a steep slope were a bit of a struggle, before the trail leveled out a bit.

The trail narrowed as we walked up the gentle gradient. Worth noting that there were a few sections of large rocks to climb over.

The eventual views were more than impressive.

We bumped into an American artist at the top who was busy drawing the view.

One thing we have noticed as we have driven further north and east, is how friendly everyone is.

Close by was another supercharging station, located on another one of these out of town shopping malls.

This one seemed to have lot more about it and there were far more people around.

We had a long drive the following day to Sevierville, so it made sense for us to top up before heading into Nashville.

We finally arrived at our hotel, early afternoon. We were forced into using valet parking again, which was a scandalous $59.

The hotel was expensive enough, but it felt like we were throwing money away, having to pay this amount as an extra fee to stay at the hotel.

We took the opportunity of walking around Nashville to take in the sights and sounds of the Country & Western capital of the world.

First off was a walk over the pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland River.

We walked up to the State Capitol building, which was fairly impressive looking.

By this stage, our feet were starting to ache a little, so we decided to head back to the hotel, via the main streets of Nashville.

There appeared to be a live band set up in every pub/bar, with the windows open, where pedestrians could reach through the open window to touch the drummer.

The place has got an amazing atmosphere and it’s family-friendly.

The comparison between Memphis and Nashville is stark.

Memphis has a feel of seediness to it. A place where it’s unclear whether we would be safe to wander around the streets, even during the day.

Nashville, on the other hand, feels like it is better set up for tourists. There is more of a visible police presence on the streets, which builds a feeling of safety, which leads to more people feeling comfortable to be out on the streets.

Back at the hotel, we decided we would drive out to one of the two The Cheesecake Factory (TCF) restaurants to stock up on veggies!

At least we took advantage of paying a huge valet fee to get easy access to our car.

We both had our normal salads and took cheesecakes to go, to enjoy in the comfort of our hotel bedroom.

We had wanted to walk the Nashville streets to take in the feel of the place after dark, but we were too tired to make that effort.

Follow the whole story here: Holiday to Tennessee in Mar 2024