The Events of Thursday, January 27, 2011

                “Weel-come ta Loveless Café. Kin I git y’all somethin’ ta drank?” our waitress drawled. I shot a look at Ben and he smiled. After ordering our drinks, we all stared blankly at the menu of Southern breakfasts. Loveless Café, in Nashville, Tennessee, has a lazy, country atmosphere to it, with walls covered in signed photos of country singers, most of which we didn’t recognize, paintings of Johnny Cash who only Mom and Daddy recognized, and magazine articles about the café.

                The Loveless Café and Motel first started when Lon and Annie Loveless started serving fried chicken and biscuits right out of their front door to travelers along Tennessee’s Highway 100. After converting their house into a restaurant, the Loveless family enlarged their menu including their famous cured ham, fried chicken, and Annie’s own original secret recipe of biscuits. We got a plateful of these biscuits and they are to DIE for! No wonder their famous worldwide! Once our waitress found out that we had come all the way from California just to sit at her table, she took our picture and was probably the sweetest waitress I have ever met.             

                Well, you probably want to know what a Southern breakfast includes, so I’ll tell you. Abby ordered Famous Loveless Country Ham (with red-eye gravy) that included two eggs, a seven oz. ham slice that covered the entire plate, three homemade biscuits with homemade preserves, and a hash brown casserole that filled an 8 oz. bowl. I ordered the Southern Breakfast Sampler with bacon, sausage patties, sliced ham with thick creamy gravy, two scrambled eggs, and a hash brown casserole. Ben had Pit-Cooked Pork BBQ and Eggs, One to the Left and One to the Right, which was stringy pork drowned in BBQ sauce on top of a pancake with one egg on the left and one on the right. Caitlin ordered Country Fried Steak & Eggs which includes crispy breaded steak topped with home-style gravy, two eggs fried over easy, and a hash brown casserole. Mom had  a Southern Omelet (three eggs) in which diced bacon with onions, peppers and cheese were blended. And finally Daddy ordered the Three Steak Biscuits Made with Grilled Beef Tenderloin. We were pretty full by the end if you hadn’t guessed already.

                After more pictures, we hopped into Harvey Aardvark and drove through the beautiful countryside of Tennessee. We even drove along the famous Natchez Trace Parkway and saw a monument commemorating the very spot where Meriwether Lewis mysteriously died. The trees on both sides of the road were dusted with snow, but the road was still clear. We stopped at an abandoned rest stop and listened to how our voices echoed through the forest, while brushing our teeth in the cold, crisp air. Then, we were on our way again.

                Later, while looking for a rest stop to have lunch, I accidently chose one in Mississippi because on our GPS, when you push the button that says Rest Stops, it will give you the nearest one in 200 miles. And because I didn’t notice that the rest stop was in Mississippi, our afternoon changed dramatically.              After inadvertently crossing the state line, we ate the leftovers of our breakfast for lunch, beside a railroad track in the parking lot for Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center. Corinth is the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. The Confederates were trying to protect the town because it contained a major crossroad of railroads and was a vital resource for supplies. The Union army attacked in two different battles and conquered the town forcing the Confederates deeper into the South. The exhibits were overwhelming and very informative with two movies incorporated along the way. The Junior Ranger packet was one of the most difficult we have ever done and what we thought would be a quick drop in and leave, extended to two hours.

                My favorite part of the site was the Stream of American History, a water sculpture feature, in the courtyard in back of the building. At one end there is the Liberty Pool where a giant stone with the preamble of the Constitution on it sits in the middle of the pool. Water flows down from this pool into a bunch of blocks of granite with the different battles of the Civil War engraved on them in chronological order. Each block is a different size representing the casualties of that battle. The “stream” ends with the Pool of Reflection. In this pool, sit three large flat blocks, engraved with the three Constitutional amendments that came after the war. Surrounding the pool are bronze leaves embedded into the sidewalk, each one of them representing one state of the 32 states that existed during the Civil War. When we had finished all the exhibits and the Stream of American History, we turned in our packets and headed to the RV.

                After driving for quite a while more in Mississippi, we cut up into Tennessee to reach Memphis, and travelled until 6:00, when we arrived at Graceland RV Park and Campground on Elvis Presley Blvd. in Memphis, Tennessee. We slid into slot 41 on Teddy Bear Lane between Love Me Tender Blvd. and Hound Dog Way. We are right next to Heartbreak Hotel. We have officially entered the world of Elvis Presley.

                Mom baked three thin crusted pizzas in our teeny tiny oven (one at a time) and steamed frozen corn, beans, peas, and carrots in the microwave. We finished off our slightly frozen cream puffs that we got after Mom wouldn’t buy expensive overpriced ones at Norway in Epcot at Disney World. (These are much better and much less expensive than the Norway ones.) Caitlin played the role of dishwasher and Ben played the role of sweeper and is reading over my shoulder this very second INSTEAD of sweeping! After all was finished, we gathered together to decide what to do in Mississippi and map our travels thus far. And then, we all pretty much went to sleep, still getting adjusted to this time zone. Night y’all!