Motorhome Trip - Amarillo, Texas and Albuquerque. New Mexico

Amarillo

Brendan's brother, Christopher, had told Brendan about the Big Texan steak challenge years ago and so Brendan had been planning to stop here for a long time.  It was just a funny place, and the kids really enjoyed it.  They have a restaurant and hotel.  The restaurant is loud with people singing at your tables and animals and horns all over the walls.  The kids favorite part had to be that their kids meals came in cowboy hats.  We also stopped in the gift shop and bought some rock candy for the kids and fudge for us.   The steak challenge is that you have to eat the 72 oz. steak with shrimp cocktail, a baked potato, and butter and roll within an hour.  If you win you get the meal for free, but if you don't you have to pay the full $72.  Thankfully Brendan didn't try the challenge.

 Albuquerque

I think Albuquerque was our least favorite city.  We weren't there long, but it just didn't seem very nice, and it was hot.  We walked around downtown and went out to eat.

Breakfast in the motorhome.

Brendan really wanted to get some good New Mexican food with green chilis.  My travel book and people around town recommended Frontier.  It was a good choice.

Niels just doing his usual sit in the city.

We stopped at a park and it had shades all over it because of the sun and heat.  No thank you.

All wiped out at the same time.

Motorhome Trip - Little Rock, Arkansas and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Little Rock

This next half of the trip wasn't as exciting as the first.  The cities weren't as cool, the weather was hotter, we were tired and had a lot of road to cover to make it back.  In Little Rock we stopped at the Famous Central High School.  You may remember learning about it in school.  In 1957 there was a desegregation Crisis at Central High.  9 African American students were persistent in attending the all white school at the time.  I briefly remembered about it, but it was cool going to the visitor's center and watching little videos about it.  School had let out for the day, so we could walk outside the grounds.  It is a beautiful school.  

Even the kids really liked the exhibits.  

We also went downtown and walked around for a little while, but there wasn't much to see.  As we were walking back to the motorhome sweating, we were parked by the splash pad so we decided to let the kids cool down and have fun.

Oklahoma City

Just east of downtown is Bricktown.  It used to be a major warehouse district, but is now a dining and entertainment district.  There are waterways throughout Bricktown, and water taxis you can ride.

 It was nice having a small Minnie Winnie because we could still park in cities without being too long.

 We briefly walked around the National Memorial honoring those who were affected by the Oklahoma City Bombing.  There are 168 chairs representing each person that was killed.

Motorhome Trip - Nashville and Memphis

Nashville

  

 No one was playing at the Grand Ole Opry House when we were there, and we also had the kids, but it would have been fun to go to a show.  Carrie Underwood was playing a few days after we left.

It was beautiful to walk around inside the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center.

Hatch Show print has been around since 1879 and is one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in America.  Each print is created using the same technique with wood carved blocks just like in 1879.  They would print posters for all the events in town, including lots of country music artists playing at the famous Ryman Auditorium below.

These Goo Goo Clusters were so good, and now that we're home we found a place that sells them close by!

We walked around Music City, and it was very busy.  The CMT awards were starting in just a couple of days, so people were setting up stages and getting ready.

 Niels in every city.  He would sit down when he didn't want to walk or be in the stroller.

 These gourmet popsicles were delicious.  We bought strawberry lime, Mexican caramel, avocado, cantaloupe, and mango. 

 We ate at the Pancake Pantry which was near Vanderbilt University.  It was a recommendation by Taylor Swift and many other people, but it was just OK.  I had the sweet potato pancakes, and they were pretty good.

Memphis

 Christopher told us that he really enjoyed the National Civil Rights Museum, so we were excited to go to it, but it was closed they day we went.  We still got to walked around outside though and see the motel where Martin Luther King was shot and killed.  They also had buttons you could push and it would tell you more about the history.  Hazel had learned about him in school, so she was really excited to see it.  It was definitely a highlight of our trip.

Memphis is known for it's BBQ, so we had to try some.  

 We had so much fun at the Louisville Slugger tour, we tried to go on a tour at the Gibson Factory, but tickets were sold out.  You had to be 5 and older so Brendan and Hazel were going to go together on a little date and she was so excited, so when they didn't get tickets she was very disappointed!