Baby Boomers: Modern day Road trip through the near South

Baby Boomers: Modern day Road trip through the near South
By Ray Hanania

One of my fondest memories as a child was going with my parents and siblings on a “road trip.” This was in the 1950s and 1960s, long before Chevy Chase and others made classic comedies about the motorized travel experience.

A “road trip” wasn’t a business travel pitch. It wasn’t a drive to a nearby town to visit grandma. It was the family getting in the car, or if you had money, the camper, and going on vacation through America.

We did several road trips, once to Canada and Niagara Falls, and another to Oklahoma where we spent time checking out the Native American reservations and historic sites. We traveled through the Smoky Mountains, through the South to Tennessee and Florida, and even went as far west as Texas.

Many times, the motivation was to visit relatives. But driving took us through cities and sites we found to be fascinating.

We collected decals from each state, and other souvenirs, including knickknacks that were symbolic of the regions we visited. We’d stop at local restaurants to enjoy food from the region, and stay at a “motel,” which was a motorists hotel.

They were usually small, had a swimming pool and were inexpensive. You didn’t need reservations, usually, even though the roads were packed with millions of Americans who would jump into the car and vacation on four wheels.

Over the past three decades, as the father of my own family, we’ve traveled almost exclusively by plane to resorts in the Caribbean, Mexico and Dominican Republic. In the past 15 years, almost every trip involved a beach resort that was “all-inclusive,” where our meals were paid for ahead of time as a part of the vacation package.

Many times, we used a charter like Funjet or Apple. A few times we booked the air and hotels on our own. One time, we just booked the plane to France where we spent 10-days traveling through that beautiful country not knowing where we were going to stay.

The France trip was much like the old road trips I took with my dad behind the wheel. The uncertainty of what to expect made the trips more exciting. We easily found places to sleep in France and we did on the road back in the 1950s and 1960s.

So it was with all that in mind that I decided I was going to take the family on a new roadtrip, this time planned out with hotel reservations made in advance and tourist sites mapped out.

The difference between 1950 and 2013 is that the roads are different. In the old days, we drove mostly on slow, two-lane roads that took us through the towns at 35 to 45 mph. We went through a lot of towns. Today, a lot of those old roads have been replaced with super highways. Where the speed limits are 70 mph and they take you around the little towns, not through them.

The highway system in the old days was made to connect people. Today, the tollways and super highways are there to facilitate speed and save travel time. And when you save travel time, you lose a lot of the experiences that made road trips in the past more fun.

We stopped at Hanging Rock Cliff in Madison, Indiana, and then continued on our journey. Whenever there was a scenic option on the road, we tried to stop there.

Hanging Rock, Madison, Indiana

We booked hotels online in Jeffersonville, Indiana across the river from Louisville, Kentucky where we mapped out several sites to visit like the Louisville Slugger factory and baseball museum. We stayed at the Sheraton and ate at one of the high end restaurants that crowded in the little hotel corridor where everyone else boarded, too.

Jeffersonville, Indiana view of Louisville, Kentucky across the river

Plaza bat display at the Louisville Kentucky baseball factory, the Louisville Slugger

We did some online research while passing some of the towns and found that Col. Sanders is buried in Louisville Kentucky. We found the cemetery and discovered that it had painted two lines in the middle of the street that take you right to his grave, one in White and the other in Yellow.

Col. Harlan Sanders grave in Louisville, Kentucky

We drove to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. But you couldn’t buy tickets to tour the cave by walking up to the National Park. Tickets had to be booked in advance, online. So we walked around, checked out the frigid entrance of the deep cave, and then left.

Mammoth Cave entrance

In the old days, you wouldn’t need reservations at all.

We made our way to Gailinburg in the Smoky Mountains, a place I had seen years before. Back in the 1960s, Gatlinburg was the only real stop through the Smoky Mountains. Today, they have turned the little town of Pigeon Forge into a huge Honey Boo Boo resort filled with cheap attractions, wax museums, a Titanic museum, go cart and ferris wheel rides, restaurants and sky lifts. It’s kind of like a poorman’s Las Vegas. Dolly Party has “Dollywood” and the Hatfields and the McCoys battle it out each night over a dinner show.

The Great Smoky Mountains

Gatlingburg from the sky lift

It seemed most people stayed in Pigeon Forge in the carnival atmosphere than to really enjoy the pure air in the higher Smoky Mountains.

We drove to Clingman’s Dome, one of the three largest mountain ranges east of the Mississippi River, 6,643 feet high. And those mountains are smoky, reaching into the chilled clouds.

Clingman's Dome view

Next, it was off to Nashville and Broadway, the blues and music capitol of America where we enjoyed lots of music, museums and music tours including through the Country Music Hall of Fame, and RCA Studios where Elvis Presley and others recorded many of their hit songs.

Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee

Johnny Cash Museum in Nashville, TN

We found a few outdoor attractions to check out, like Cummins Falls, a more than half mile trek through the woods to see a beautiful waterfall. And then we made our way to Memphis to visit the Graceland home and grave of Elvis. The following week of our tour marked the 36th year of his death, so the place was not yet packed with tourists making it an easy and enjoyable walk through his mansion-like Southern home.

Cummins Falls, between Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee

It wasn’t until we were on the road to Memphis on I-40 that I saw a gas station “trading post” which sold Native American souvenirs. The only other one I found was near Mammoth Cave, a place called Big Mikes where I bought a dozen arrow heads, and other souvenirs for my son. We purchased some small raw crystals and rocks for his collection, too.

At the I-40 trading post stop between Nashville and Memphis, with a Raccoon skin hat

I even bought copies of the drivers licenses of Moe, Larry and Curley, the Three Stooges, who helped raise me through my childhood.

We checked out Fort Negley, which was the first Confederate Fort captured by Union soldiers in 1862. There were only a few tourists walking through the stone and tree fortification.

Fort Negley, Memphis

The Johnny Cash museum was a hit in Memphis, as was Beale Street, the music center of Memphis.

Memphis was a big stop with the Gibson guitar museum, riverboat rides and carriage rides, too. Great southern food and parks.

Beale Street, Memphis

Carriage rides in Nashville, Memphis and St. Louis

Memphis Riverboats

Elvis grave at Graceland, Memphis, TN

Gibson Guitar Factory in Memphis, TN

Country Music Hall of Fame display, Memphis

Memphis Bridge to Arkansas

From there we drove through one town that still looks like the way it might have in the 1960s, Cape Girardeau where we stopped at Market Street along the Mississippi River and enjoyed Jambalaya, the little shops and Gator Fritters.

Cape Girardeua, Missourri

We reached Cape Girardeau driving through the Arkansas Delta, which didn’t have much to see, sadly. 

We spent a night in St. Louis and toured the wonderful Arch. It’s is stunning. The photos of the Arch in the morning and night skies are striking.

 

The St. Louis Arch

And then we made our way zigzagging over the Mississippi from Illinois to Missouri. On the Illinois side, we stopped at the Popeye statue at the base of the state of Illinois. The creator of the Popeye cartoon character is from Chester, Illinois.

Then it was straight up Illinois through Springfield and back to home.

We drove almost 2,000 total miles during the road trip. I stopped for gas seven times. Gasoline was about $3.50 a gallon for premium, a dollar lower than what they charge in the Chicago area.

The expenses mounted, though. The average cost of a hotel room was $200 a night, with reservations.

Everyplace had the Internet. I guess it’s no different than the telephone technology of the 1960s. They had phones back then, and Internet today. But the Travel Apps were worthless. They were clearly designed by techies who never got out of the house when they were young.

Honeslty, I downloaded six of them – TripIt, Tripper Pro, Trip Suite, Trip Rider, Routes, Smokies and Circle the Smokies. The two last apps, which offered highlights of the Smoky Mountains were OK. But the rest of them were junk.

There’s nothing like exploring and running into a surprise.

Our Itinerary:

Jeffersonville, Indiana

Louisville, Kentucky

Gatlingberg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Memphsis, Tennessee

Cape Gerardo, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist. Reach him at www.TheMediaOasis.com or follow him on Twitter at @RayHanania.)