Posted on 05/31/2019 11:00:06 AM PDT by gnarledmaw
That is to say, Ill be spending some time in Tennessee soon. The TN tourism page is near useless other than trying to get me to go to the civil rights museum and doesnt tell me how to truly do Tennessee like a native.
What is the thing I must do when I visit? Where do you go and what do you like to do?
Ill possibly be all over and everywhere so the whole state is open. Dont do professional sports but Im open to just about anything else. Favorite hike? Best food/hotel for the money? Whitewater rafting or dwayyo huntin? Im there. Best hike? Best fishin? Best cave? Im there. International roadkill cookoff championship? National Museum of Unusual Goat Turd Sculptures? I might still be there!
Any advice on where/what to avoid is always helpful too.
Pls post or FRmail. Thank you.
Well, there’s thirteen hundred and fifty two
Guitar pickers in Nashville
Cades Cove is a special place...A good hike from Cades Cove to Abrams Falls is nice...Another good hike is from Cades Cove Campground to Spence Field. Trout fishing on Little River, Middle Prong, and Abrams Creek is good...
Hike from Hwy 441 to Alum Cave Bluff is good and if you feel like it, you can go on up to Mt LeConte on the same trail...
East Tennessee is an outdoors paradise...
More of my opinion...
If you can afford the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, stay there, enjoy the Peabody ducks and beautiful lobby.
For Memphis BBQ: Corky’s is the well-known stop, but the Commissary in Germantown (suburb) is really good. Also Interstate BBQ is good but best to go during the daytime. The really famous one is The Rendezvous but I’ve not eaten there yet so can’t give a personal review.
Memphis museums: Brooks Museum; Pink Palace; Graceland (Elvis’ old neighborhood not too safe, be careful)
Memphis steaks: Folk’s Folly (expensive)
Tom Lee Park is great to sit and watch the barges go up and down the Mississippi River. Probably best not to go after dark.
Memphis DownHome Country Cooking: The Cupboard
Moving on to east Tennessee.....
Pigeon Forge DownHome Country Cooking: Mama’s Farmhouse
Very good food/steaks: The Walnut Kitchen (in Maryville)
Good fresh seafood: The Shrimp Dock (Knoxville, Maryville)
Nice scenic drive: Foothills Parkway (new section is finally open also)
Nice scenic drive: Cades Cove (also has museum, old church structures, trail; but tremendously crowded in summer—takes about 2 or 3 hours to make the loop).
Nice scenic drive: Wears Valley Road (can have traffic but views along the way are beautiful)
Nice cave: Tuckaleechee Caverns (Townsend)
Fun people-watching street: Downtown Gatlinburg (but again, traffic just creeps so patience is needed)
Haven’t been to Dollywood yet, but sure gets the tourists.
Tennessee Native here. Nashville resident.
Since I know more about Nashville, I’ll start here.
Ryman Auditorium
https://ryman.com/tours/
Country Music Hall of Fame
https://countrymusichalloffame.org/
The Hermitage (Home of DJT’s favorite president)
https://thehermitage.com/
The Carter House, Carnton and Confederate Cemetery
The Civil War Battle of Franklin, TN (18 mi south of Nashville)
https://boft.org/
Downtown Nashville - Lower Broad - where all the tourist go
People watching can be fun. Sit next to a window in a honky tonk and watch them stagger down the sidewalk.
The Civil War Battle of the Stones River - Murfreesboro, TN
25 miles SE of Nashville. Can take you 2 hours between 3-6 pm
https://www.nps.gov/stri/index.htm
Belle Meade Plantation - West, Nashville - Antebellum Home
(Where my daughter got married)
https://bellemeadeplantation.com/
Cheekwood - West, Nashville - Botanical Garden
https://cheekwood.org/
Percy and Edwin Warner Park - West Nashville - Hiking
Go to Luke Lea Heights, highest point in the park
http://warnerparks.org/
Radnor Lake - South, Nashville - Beautiful park and hiking trails. Man made lake served as reservoir for filling the steam trains in the day.
https://tnstateparks.com/parks/radnor-lake
That should keep you busy for a day or two!
Since I went to college in Knoxville, I know alot about East TN as well. My son lives in Memphis and I’ve been there many times before and since he moved there. Once upon a time, they said, if you had to give the state of TN an enema, you’d have to stick it in Chattanooga, but I’d have to say it’s Memphis these days. And dont make the common mistake of pronouncing Chattanooga as Chatt nooga. There’s an “a” there in the middle that needs to be pronounced. Chatta nooga.
Enjoy yourself while in TN.
Those are all great recommendations for Memphis, married21. The Bass Pro used to be an arena where the Memphis Tigers played basketball, but it was transformed to an amazing sporting goods venue, complete with a restaurant on top and viewing platforms with great views of downtown and the river. Even a bowling alley and a small gun range (not the one for the kids downstairs, a real one).
Two blocks from the Pyramid is St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and you can get a guided tour if you call. Under the domed pavilion are history exhibits of St. Jude and Danny Thomas.
On the other end of downtown, an old railroad bridge across the Mississippi has been transformed into a pedestrian bridge - you can walk across the river and back.
The national Ornamental Metal Museum is close by that bridge. It keeps the art of forging and blacksmithing alive by giving classes.
Across the street from the Peabody Hotel that married21 mentioned is the home of the Memphis Redbirds, the AAA St. Louis Cardinals’ farm club, Autozone Park. A really cool place, even if you don’t like pro sports. (Pujols played here, and lots of other Cardinals stars.)
Farther east is the “Pink Palace Museum”, the depression-era mansion of Clarence Saunders, father of the modern grocery store (Piggly Wiggly). Pretty neat place, with stuff like a re-creation of an early Holiday Inn hotel room (started by another Memphis legend, Kemmons Wilson), and a cool planetarium.
LOTS of neat places in Midtown around the Overton Square area, and “Cooper/Young” - small theaters, restuarants, etc.
The Overton Park Zoo is pretty amazing - It ranks among the best, and has several new areas for the animals just finished in recent years - the “Hippo Camp”, “Northwest Passage” (grizzlies and wolves, etc.) “Cat Country”, and the “FedEx Farm” petting zoo.
Some interesting suburbs, too, including Germantown, home of The Commissary - a great BBQ joint. And Collierville, voted by Parade Magazine to have the best Town Square in the U.S. (Ok, so we FReeped the voting...) A few old train cars (engine, caboose, diners), 7 restaurants and several shops - antiques, western store (boots), home furnishings... And a gazebo where they actually play bluegrass on Friday evenings.
Not a whole lot of really interesting stuff in West TN, but there is a Safari Park in Alamo, and someone mentioned Shiloh National Military Park. Land Between the Lakes up near Paris, and Discovery Park in Union City - that’s actually pretty cool, but hard to describe - use your Google skills.
Around Nashville, don’t think anyone mentioned The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home, but that’s really good, too. And the Opryland Hotel - HUGE, and worth just walking through.
There’s so much other stuff, but I’ve taken up a lot of real estate. Send me a FReepmail if you want more. Welome to the Volunteer State!
I was in Memphis back in ‘97 and it was iffy back then. But the immediate downtown area and Beale Street seemed safe to me.
You’d think there’d be a sizable police presence on Beale Street because of the tourists.
Has it gotten that bad?
Nashville also has the only full-size replica of the Parthenon, in Centennial Park. The museum inside has replicas of the Parthenon marbles.
Memphis downtown has gotten better with more police protection. But unless things have changed recently, Beale Street after midnight is not a good place to be unless you want to feel outnumbered by a very rough bunch.
Tom Lee Park might be ok at night if you have a large group with you. I wouldn’t go alone or even with just 2 or 3.
Theres one more thing Id like to ask but I have to tell a story first.
Many years ago, before we had even gotten married, the now Mrs Maw and I had had a conversation about vacations (I think National Lampoons Vacation movie instigated that). We both agreed that the standard "drive to the grand canyon" type vacations were just too mundane. We came up with the idea that we would be a "Scooby Doo/X Files" family. When we went on vacations we would stop by all of the things people normally do on vacation "by accident", might as well since we are already there, but we would tell the kids that the purpose of the vacation was really to hunt monsters of some sort. For example, one year we spent the summer in Northern Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin, and Dah Yoopee of Michigan "looking for bigfoot" and along the way we accidentally visited beaches, toured parks/waterfalls/mines, hiked forests, chartered a fishing boat, spent a week in a ufo (PodUpNorth.com/)and a number of other things which I assure you were entirely incidental. This way when our children are adults they don't tell the story about the year they "went to the grand canyon" they will instead tell stories of the year we hunted some paranormal thingie.
This then is the question: What paranormal creature do you know something about? Im not asking what creature do you believe in, Im just looking for more precise information than what Im finding on the web as the premise for our vacation. Ive heard of White Whistlers, Yowies, Dwayyos, Snollygasters and a couple of other things but Im having a hard time finding information on where these things are claimed to have been. For example, if you once worked with a guy who knew a guy who had a cousin that claimed to have seen the Yowie then was he more specific? I know that that was likely "somewhere in the Smokies" but if it was in "Moonshine Pass" "on the Robinson farm" "near Finnes Creek" or "on Crabtree Bald"? If so then that's where we are going to "look".
Bell witch? Old news but all the other hauntings, monsters, and other weirdness would be a great addition to the trip.
Please? Im not asking you to believe, I just want to know about your local bogeyman.
Thanks you again.
There is not any mythical creature in the South Bay Area of Los Angeles, of which I am aware. However, legend has it that there is a mountain lion somewhere on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, despite being miles from the nearest forest.
Also, where I grew up, in San Diego, there was supposed to be an albino deer in Presidio Park. However, I’m sure that one has passed away as this was a long time ago.
Also, when I lived on the east side of San Francisco Bay, in Union City, we learned of the ghost of Niles Canyon. She was a young woman in a wedding dress who appeared at night. A driver would pick her up and she would say that she was going to meet her groom. She had actually died in a car accident and she would disappear when you left the canyon, I think. Not sure. I heard the story in 1972, after all.
Is there someone that you know of that maintains a Tennessee ping list? I always feel guilty for some reason to misuse the state specific sub boards so Im hoping that the ping lister will find my request funny enough to allow it...
Somebody researched the Niles Canyon story. Link here: https://dreamingcasuallypoetry.blogspot.com/2015/10/a-possible-mystery-solved-in-niles.html
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