1 July, More Memphis The Elvis museum was ruled out due to being expensive, for something I didn't especially want to see (the basic tour, and it's very basic, is $28, and the worthwhile one, which I'd do if I wasn't so tight, is $69). I did go to the W C Handy house and museum, during opening hours, but it was closed… I took a late lunch in the Kooky Canuck diner, where for $21.99 you can get 4 pounds of pure beef on a bun with lettuce, tomato, onions, pi...

30 June. Nutbush City Limits Today I started with 90 minutes by the pool. It was, as ever, hot, but when the cloud came over I decided I wasn't prepared to put up with the heat unless there was sun!! So I went to the aptly named Sun recording studios, within a mile of the hotel. This is reputedly the birthplace of rock and roll, as well as being used by blues artists. The list is like a roll call of music legends - Elvis, B B king, Howlin' Wolf, Roy Orbison...

29 June, "All The Way To Memphis", (to paraphrase that immortal 70's Mott title…) Check out in Tunica was 11:00 which I just about managed. As check-in at the Holiday Inn in downtown Memphis, wasn't until 4 pm,, with only 50 miles to travel, So I took the opportunity to drive to Little Rock in Arkansas (300 mile round trip!) to visit the Clinton Presidential Museum and Archive. This purpose-built building was opened in 2004. The tour starts with ...

Saturday 20 June From Townsend to Nashville, the roundabout way With an ambitious agenda for Saturday I needed to get away reasonably early, so packing was mostly completed yesterday and this morning started, at 84 degrees at 8 am, with me tidying and sweeping. Then time for one last dip in the hot tub and away. I will really miss the hot tub. It's always on, and heated to around 100 degrees so no forward planning is required - just hop in, whack up the jets a...

Friday 19 June The Great Smokey Mountains Randy (who I hired this place from) dropped by this morning. He was probably checking I hadn't trashed the place, but stayed talking for quite a while, and gave me extensive tips for Nashville and other destinations. I told him that if I take out sleeping and drinking time in Nashville, I only have about 20 minutes spare. He saw that I'd been doing some washing (well, after a week I thought the pants had earnt a rinse!...