April 3, 2006. At 2:00PM today we crossed the Mississippi into Memphis, Tennessee. We're officially in the eastern US!

On previous visits to Tennessee we spent our time in the eastern and central parts of the state visiting Nashville and Knoxville. This time we decided to spend more time exploring Memphis.

One of our first trips was to rendezvous for Ribs. The restaurant doesn't "officially" open until 4:30PM, but they do allow people in at lunchtime for a limited menu - ribs only. We really enjoyed the ribs, and found several recipes online to imitate them. We combined 2 of the recipes we found to make our own version in the motorhome.

The weather turned pretty nasty with rain and thunderstorms, so we didn't get to see everything that we would have liked to see in Memphis, we did see the zoo, the Museum of Rock & Soul and Sun Studios. We opted to skip Graceland!

A tour of the Gibson factory, exploring the "Riverwalk" and more exploration of the downtown and Beale St. area will have to be done on some future trip.

On April 8th we crossed the state to our Coast to Coast "home" park in Crossville, (Golf Capital of Tennessee) to rest up for a week and see some of the local sights.

The weather is noticeably cooler here today, less than 50F outside at 5:00PM. We've traveled north east and are also at an altitude of about 1900 feet.

When we woke up on Sunday it was to a crisp sunny Tennessee day, an invitation to explore the countryside!

First, a drive over the hills and through the woods to Cumberland Mountain State Park for brunch. Then, after brunch, a walk by the lake and some exploration of the park.

The weather continues to warm up here, most days in the 70s and 80s and lots of sun. We can see spring advancing everyday as new trees come into bud and the flowering trees increase in color.

On April 12 we took a long and winding road through the hills to Fall Creek Falls State Park. This state park, like Cumberland Mountain, is also a resort with lodges, inns and cabins as well as campsites.

Of course the main attraction is the water! Swiftly running creeks turn into high cascading waterfalls which drop in to deep basins carved out of the surrounding rock.

One, Fall Creek Falls, is the highest waterfall east of the Rockies. While is doesn't have the water volume of Niagara, it makes up for it in height and in its beautiful setting.

Crossville is located on the Cumberland Plateau, a forested plateau. During the 30's this area was homesteaded under FDR's "New Deal." The pioneers who settled here had to battle bureaucracy and red tape instead of Indians and bad weather, as earlier pioneers had.

One other important aspect of the "New Deal" is social security, another great success story!.

It was from the Crossville Train Depot that (Sgt) Alvin York left to fight in WWI, and became, possibly, the most famous American soldier in that war.

As we travel through the southern "bible belt" we are becoming re-acquainted with a phenomonom known as the "dry county," of which Cumberland (where Crossville is located) is one.

Liquor is not outlawed in these counties, only the sale of liquor! Buying wine entails a trip to the next county over.

If we want wine with dinner, I suspect that the plan is that we would get water then find someone to turn it into wine for us!