Preparing Road Trip 2004 : from Pittsburgh to Memphis
 

Hi,

I am preparing this summer's trip. My inlwas are coming from France. They don't want to fly in the US, they like country music, so we are going to drive to Nashville and Memphis. I was thinking on stopping in Ashville on the way to, and Lexington on the way back.

For now the ideas are as follow:
9 days max
a bit a Smocky Mountain NP
Nashville : country music hall of fame, Grand Ole Opry, Belle Meade.
Memphis : GraceLand, going on the river, civil rights museum
KY : mamoth cave, corvettes, horsemuseum.

Hotels : no idea. Opry in Nasville? I'd like to try a nice american bed and breakfast once.

I was wondering if we should go further south a bit.
Do you have some recommendation ?

Celine

That's a lot of driving in a 9 day vacation. Roughing it out on mapquest:

Pittsburgh to Asheville - 500 miles 8+ hours
Asheville to Memphis - 500 miles 8+ hours

(you'll go through Nashville to and from Memphis)

Memphis to Lexington - 400 miles 7+ hours
Lexington to Pittsburgh - 370 miles 6+ hours

That's 4 pretty solid days of driving out of 9. I think I'd skip Asheville and Memphis on this trip. See stuff along the way to and from Nashville. That'll keep your driving to 2 full days instead of 4.

Options on the way there and back are Columbus & Cincinnati, OH and Lexington & Louisville, KY.

I'd stay at The Peabody in Memphis--it's great and right downtown in the middle of the action. Enjoy the BBQ there--try Rendezvous Ribs a block from Peabody.

9 days is okay, if you think about this as a road trip, and not really a destination trip.

Day 1: Pittsburg-Asheville (whole day driving)
Day 2: Biltmore estate, etc: drive to near Great Smokey Mountain NP.
Day 3: Tour area, overnight near Knoxville
Day 4: Knoxville - Nashville, afternoon tour
Day 5: Nashville - afternoon drive to Memphis
Day 6: Memphis - head back towards Nashville afternoon
Day 7: Bowling Green, Mamouth Cave; brief tour of Louisville
Day 8: Drive to Lexington, tour area
Day 9: back home, perhaps brief visit of Charleston, WV

Definitely not going any further than this.

we just took a similar trip in early summer - Houston to NJ. We stayed in Memphis at the Peabody and had the great experience of ribs at the Rendezvous. Would recommend the same for you and your inlaws.

At the base of the smokey mountain national park in gatlinburg, TN, there is a GREAT B&B called the Eight Gables INN. Would highly recommend this overnight stay.

jnconrad