After a good night’s sleep we left the hotel and popped over the road for breakfast – there was loads of choice of pancakes, bacon, egg, mushrooms, sausage, toast, fruit and beverages. We filled up and then set out on our way to Florida which was around another four hour drive.

In the afternoon we started on the beers and had a bit of a sing song on the bus.

Once we got to Florida we spent a little bit of time exploring our accomodation, which is like a beach hut right by the water. Outside our hut is the intercostal waterway. Thos is a 3,000-mile inland waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States, running from Massachusetts southward along the Atlantic Seaboard and around the southern tip of Florida, then following the Gulf Coast to Brownsville, Texas

We are in Fort Pierce, Florida on Hutchinson Island. Fort Pierce is named after the Fort Pierce Army Post that was built in 1838.

Some weird facts about Florida; it is illegal for a doctor to ask a patient if they own a gun, it is illegal to break more than 3 dishes a day and unmarried women are prohibited from parachuting on a Sunday.

After we had sorted put our rooms – I’m on the sofa in the lounge – we headed down to the beach. We went for a swim in the sea which was warm but quite rough.

After a while it started to rain but it was only a passing shower.

We went back home when we started to get a little cold, had showers and headed out to Sharky’s for dinner.

We watched the sunset before we headed out.

The food here was amazing. We shared some Mahi bites fir starters and I had buffalo shrimps and sweet potatoes fries with blue cheese sauce and mixed vegetables for main.

The Mahi mahi fish is known as the common dolphin fish and it was really meaty and tasty.

The moon was shining bright and you could see Jupiter to the right of it as well.

When we got back home we sat on the deck and chatted for a bit. There were a lot fish jumping in the water.

It was a lovely end to the evening.

This morning we were up, showered, had a small breakfast and coffee, bus packed and on the road by 7am!

I took a quick photo of the sunrise before we left.

We had around a three and a half trip to Graceland in Memphis and had booked a tour for 10:45am.

It was quite busy when we arrived at Graceland but they split you into smaller groups so it feels OK, although there is quite a bit of waiting around at the beginning.

The tour starts at Elvis’ Graceland House. Tourists are only allowed in the downstairs part as the upstairs has been left as it was when Elvis died.

Elvis bought Graceland in March 1957 and paid $103,500 for the house and 13.8 acres of land. He was just 22 years old. He had a stone wall built around the perimeter of the property and installed the music themed wrought-iron gates.

Elvis lived at Graceland with his parents Gladys and Vernon as well as his paternal grandmother Minnie-May.

The furniture and decor in the rooms are amazing. In the dining room the crockery on the table is a gift Elvis and Priscilla received for their wedding.

These are the ground floor rooms and are the lounge which includes a baby grand piano, the dining room, Elvis’ mum’s bedroom, the kitchen and then the stairs going up as well as the ones leading to the lower floor, which are all mirrored.

On the lower ground floor is the jungle room, which is an extension built onto the original house as well as the pool room and media room.

We then walked across the outside paddocks to the recording (Vernon) studio and also a small area where Elvis practised shooting with his friends.

We then walked through a space where there was lots of information about Elvis and his family. Elvis and his parents originally lived in Tupelo and in relative poverty. They moved to Memphis in 1948 so Gladys and Vernon could find work.

The next area showed various trophy and items from Elvis’ life and lots of photographs of him. One of the items was a tv that had been gifted to Elvis by a film company and there was also a photo of his favourite horse- Rising Sun. Elvis made 31 films during his life.

We then wandered outside again to the Meditation Garden where Elvis is buried alongside his mother, his father and his grandmother.

Elvis Presley was originally buried next to his mother at Memphis Forest Hill Cemetery, but his body was moved back to Graceland after an attempt was made to steal his coffin and hold the remains the ransom. His mother’s body was also then moved to Graceland.

It was actually quite emotional standing by the grave of such a superstar.

As we walked out of the garden I spotted a butterfly and took a photo.

As we drove back towards the entrance we passed the wall that everyone signs.

Our next stop was to have a look at all the cars – all owned by Elvis and this was only part of his collection. Obviously there was the focus pink cadillac as well as the 1970 Mercedes-Benz 600 Saloon Limousine which was one of the.mpst expensive cars Elvis owned.

There was then another area which provided a lot of the information about Elvis’ life in the army as Private Presley.

It was during his time in the army that Elvis met Priscilla, who was just 14 when they first met. They eventually married in May 1967 in Vegas when Priscilla turned 21.

In February 1967 Lisa Marie Presley.

The last stop of the tour was to the aeroplanes, one which was named after Lisa Marie. The plane was certainly very luxurious.

It was an amazing tour and quite surreal at times.

After a quick lunch stop at Burger King it was back on the road for the long journey to Lake City.

The total mileage for the day was 867 miles and we passed through 5 states: Tennessee. Mississipi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

In America every 5 miles of the highway have to have a 1 mile landing strip. This is 1 mile of straight road so a planes could land. This means that a plane can land anywhere in the country and was introduced by Eisenhower.

On the journey you could see the full moon, the Hunters moon.

Ali, Sarah and I shared a bottle of red wine on the journey – it was hard to take a photo as the roads were very bumpy!

We arrived at the Holiday Inn in Lake City around 130am. I had a whole room to myself and slept really well.

Today we had a lazy morning before getting ready to go shopping. We left Bob and Cindy to bit of peace and quite and headed into town.

Our first stop was Hard Rock Cafe where I bought a hoodie.

We then wandered down Broadway in the search for cowboy boots, and passing lots of interesting stores on the way.

We stopped off at the Lucky Bastard Saloon for a photo opportunity. We also had some jello shots as they were buy one get one free.

We carried on walking through town to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

We were planning to have a look around but the queue was massive so we just took some photos and left.

On the tour the day before our guide had pointed a boot shop that was good  quality but not too expensive so we made our way back there down some of the side streets.

I did end up buying a pair of cowboy boots which I then had to wear for the rest of the day.

Not far from the boot shop are the famous Angel Wings, so we made our way over to them. There was a bit of a queue to have your photo taken but Ali, Sherrien and I decided to wait, the rest of the group went to the pub.

On our way back to Broadway we passed a shop with another photo opportunity.

Back on Broadway we stopped off at a Tapas restaurant for a late lunch. It was quite expensive and the service was rubbish so we asked them to remove the service charge from the bill.

From here we decided to explore Printers Alley. On the way we passed the Ryman Auditorium. This is a huge live venue and is the original site of the Grand Ole Opry. It is known as the mother Church of Country music and the birthplace of bluegrass.

The Auditorium was originally called the Union Gospel Tabernacle and was commisdioned to be built by Thomas Ryman, a steamboat captain.

There were other statues around the Auditorium as well.

From here we headed down Printer’s Alley. In its earlier days there were a series of posts where men bound for the courthouse hitched their horses. By the turn of the twentieth century it had become the center of Nashville’s printing industry; in its heyday, circa 1915, thirteen publishers and ten printers were located in the area serviced by the alley. Nashville’s two largest newspapers, The Tennessean and the Nashville Banner, had their offices here at one time. Now it is mainly smaller bars and restaurants, many of which have kept a lot of the original features.

We peeked in a few of the bars and decided to stop for a beer in one of them. Like everywhere in Nashville there was live music.

And then it was time to head home to catch the last of the sun on the rooftop of our house.

Bob and Cindy made a delicious dinner of steak, baked potatoes and salad. It tasted so good.

And then we had a little party with some great DJ’ing by Jim.

Before heading to bed I took a quick photo of the moon.

Sid was up early and took a photo of the sunrise.

After a breakfast of blueberry pancakes a few of us headed out to Nashville Farmer’s Market. The market dates back to the 1800s and covers 16 acres. It is a mixture of food and artisan stalls as well as a garden centre.

I bought a chocolate chess pie for us all to try. This is a southern traditional pie made with butter, sugar, and eggs; a dash of cornmeal for texture, and a splash of vinegar. It tasted really nice but it would have been difficult to eat a whole one.

As we walked into the food hall we spotted a squirrel.

We walked around a few of the stalls and I ended up buying some handmade soap.

We also saw a stall where a guy made guitars out of almost anything, and could play them too.

After all that walking around we felt we needed to treat ourselves so decided to do some wine tasting.

We all felt a little bit hungry so we had some Chinese noodles before taking a rest break and then walking into town.

The walk was around 25 minutes, mainly through areas that were under construction, but we did pass some interesting buildings including the university.

Our meeting point for our city tour was the union station hotel.

The building is made from limestone and marble and was originally built as the Union Station travel center in 1894 and it was renovated in 1986 to become a hotel.

The interior is very luxurious and decorative. The stained glass is a certain type of stained glass called prismatic glass as it bends the light in a certain way.

The angels at the top of the arches are called the Angels of Commerce and represent agriculture, literature and alcohol!

This was the first stop of our food and drink tour and we started it off in style with a glass of champagne.

We then walked through the area known as the Gulch – so named because this was where the train tracks used to go and its a mixture of gulley and ditch.

Our next stop was Biscuit Love which was founded by a husband and wife team who originally just provided food from a food truck in 2012. Here we ate the house speciality -a bonut. This was really tasty.

From here we made our way to Peg Leg Porker. The guy who owned this place had cancer and lost his leg and then decided to do what he loved – which was barbecuing. We had a pulled pork slider with mac and cheese and a local beer.

On the way to our next stop we passed Carter guitars. June Carter married Johnny Cash.

We walked on to our next stop which was Party Fowl where we were the night before and where they serve hot chicken. The story behind the hot chicken is that a man called Prince cheated on his wife and to get revenge she made him some chicken and made it really spicy. Unfortunately Prince really loved it and spent four years working out what his wife had used as she had left him by this time. He then opened up a restaurant serving hot chicken. Mark and Steve just about managed. The frozen margarita helped wash the heat away.

On the way to our final stop we went past one of the murals where a lot of the bachlorette parties have their photo taken.

We also walked past a really nice car.

Our final stop was a bar / restaurant called Sambuca. Here we tasted a fruit cobbler and a champagne cocktail.

As we were sipping out cocktails our guide told us about Fisk University which was set up in Nashville for black people in 1866 once slavery was abolished. In order to finance thr University the founder established the Fisk Jubilee Choir which toured around the world. They ate believed to have bought the song ‘Swing low sweet charriot’ to England. They met Queen Victoria who was heard to say “they must be from the music city”, hence Nasville is known as the City of Music.

As we were already in town we decided to walk down to Broadway to try out some of the bars. On the way down we passed the ‘Batman’ building as well as the First Baptist Church.

Broadway is full of lights and is party central.

We decided to go to Tootsies Orchid Lounge which is the oldest and most famous honky tonk bar in Nashville. It was owned by Hattie Louise ‘Tootsie’ Bess from 1960 to 1978, hence its name.

From the rooftop bar at Tootsies you had some great views over Broadway- we watched the sunset and the moon come out.

As the night progressed it became busier and the streets were full of party buses.

After a while we left Tootsies to meet Mark and Steve at another bar- Jason Ardens. We watched a couple of bands through the open windows as we walked along – everywhere had live music.

There was a band playing at Jason Ardens so Ali. Sherrien and I decided to stay and dance. At this point a lot of the group went home.

Jim had met up with a couple of his friends and was in another bar – Whisky Bent Saloon, so we walked over there to meet up with him.

We had a beer and a dance and then Jim’s friend told us that the Coyote Ugly Bar was close by. On our way over there we passed the horse and carriage which looked really pretty.

The bar was really busy but had a great atmosphere. You could get up and dance on the bar- Ali and I did. There is a video of this but probably not for public consumption.

And after all that it was time to go home. On leaving the bar much of Broadway had been closed off to traffic so it took us ages to get an Uber.

We were all awake and up fairly early. Sadly we had to say goodbye to Mandy and Maria as they were heading home.

Once we had all had breakfast we packed up the bus and started the journey to Nashville.

As we were actually pretty prompt in leaving we decided to make a stop in Knoxville which was the first capital city in Tennesse.

We had a little wander around looking at some of the buildings. One of the buildings we saw was Blount Mansion which was one of the first wooden frame houses built in the area in 1792.

The view out over the Tennessee River was nice too.

On the way back to the bus we stopped at the rowing man sculpture to take a photo.

I noticed a pharmacy opposite so decided to have a look. It was really cool with a cafe and a real pharmacy.

On the way out of Knoxville we saw the famous sunsphere. This was built for the 1982 World’s Fair. Over 11 million people visited the fair between May and October of that year.

It was around a 3 hour drive from Knoxville to Nashville so we had time to chat, sleep and drink.

On arrival we were a little bit too early to get into the accommodation so we just waited outside on the street. We made friends with a stray dog.

Once inside we had a look around and watched the sunset from the rooftop area.

It was then time to head out for some food. We are a little bit out of town so ordered a couple of Ubers to take us to Party Fowl.

I ordered the fried hot chicken at a mild level and that was just about at the limit of spice I could handle! It came with collared greens which tasted a bit like sauerkraut.

After dinner we walked to Station Inn which was also in the Gulch area. The Station Inn is a music listening room and has live music almost every night.

As we arrived the band had just started to play. They were amazing and were playing pure bluegrass music.

Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to get up and dance as the venue was too small for that, so we sat and drank our beers.

After a little while we headed home and had a nightcap in the kitchen.

It was a lovely sunny start to the day.

After a delicious breakfast of fruit and yoghurt we chatted for a while and decided to do a hike to one of the tallest points in the Smoky Mountains.

Bob drove us up to Clingmans Dome which is 6,643ft high and is the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The views on the way up were amazing. It was a little bit chilly when we arrived and it was also a little bit hazy.

We headed off down Andrews Bald trail through the pine forest. It smelt so lovely, just like Christmas.

After a couple of miles of up and down hiking we made it to Andrews Bald. From here you had a 360 degree view across the mountains. The photos really don’t do it justice as the views were stupendous.

We stopped at the top for our lunch in the beautiful sunshine.

The way back seemed longer for some reason but was still a lovely hike.

Once we were back at the top the mist had cleared a bit so I took some more photos of the views.

On the way back down we pulled into a lay-by for a beer stop.

I tried to take some photos out of the window on the way down but they didn’t come our that well.

After arriving back at the lodge, Ali, Sherrien, Sarah and myself decided to get an Uber into town so we could have a look around. The town is all decorated for Halloween.

We stopped off at the Ole Smoky Moonshine bar to do some moonshine tasting. We were given 9 different moonshine to taste and I liked them all apart from the nutty ones.

We ended up buying 6 bottles between us! Moonshine is a high proof alcohol that used to be produced illegally, and in some places it still is. It used to be distilled at night to avoid detection which is how it got its name of moonshine.

America’s first legal moonshine distillery was launched in 2005. The origins of moonshine can be traced back across the Atlantic to Scotland and Ireland where making and drinking whiskey were time-honored traditions. When Scottish and Irish immigrants made their way to Appalachia, they used local corn to distill whiskey for their community to enjoy. Around 2009, changes in Tennessee state law paved the way for the creation of legal moonshine.

We felt we needed a beer to wash down the moonshine so we headed to the Ole Red bar.

We had a bit of an issue getting back to the lodge as there were no Ubers available and some of the taxi firms were going to take over an hour to pick us up. Eventually we found a taxi that could come and pick us up within 10 minutes but it was expensive.

Jim cooked us all a curry which was delicious and we headed to bed shortly afterwards.

I actually had a lie in this morning as I didn’t wake up until 7am. Unfortunately the sun rises behind the trees so we don’t get such a good view at this place, although it’s still a lovely outlook.

After we figured out how to work the coffee machine – it took about 5 attempts for me – we had a light breakfast of bagels and jam.

Bob had to work today.  The ladies decided to do a walk. We dropped Mark, Jim and Steve off in Gatlinburg town – which is quite large and always busy – and Marie drove us in the bus to the start of the Rainbow Falls Trail.

Almost as soon as we started walking we saw some chipmunks. They are very fast and really hard to photograph but Ali managed to get a picture of one of them.

The hike up to the waterfalls was through the forests and a gradual incline.

We passed a small waterfall on the way and stopped for a photo.

There were obviously other people walking the trail and we got chatting to a couple of American women, so we asked them to take a group photo.

We had to cross a couple of rivers too but luckily they had stepping stones to get across.

Just before we got to Rainbow Falls there was a smaller waterfall.

After just a few more minutes we came to Rainbow Falls. The waterfall is 80ft high and on sunny afternoon you can sometimes see a rainbow produced by the mist from the falls.

Sid and I decided to climb up to close to the top of the waterfall.

We stopped here for a few snacks and shared a bottle of wine.

As we were eating a couple of red squirrels made an appearance.

It was then back down the same way we came up.

As we got back to the bus we were all a little disappointed that we hadn’t seen any bears but decided it wasn’t meant to be. The traffic going out of the car park down to the main road was really slow – and then all of a sudden we saw a black bear by the side of the road.

We were all so excited and amazed we had actually seen a bear. And then, a couple of hundred metres down the road we saw another one.

And after a few seconds she went up on her hind legs and 3 little bear cubs ran across the road to join her before they all disappeared back into the forest.

The rest of the drive home, via the supermarket, was not so eventful.

Once we got home, unpacked and started cooking, we were sitting in the lounge when Mandy suddenly spotted a bear on the driveway. We all rushed outside to see it walk away up the drive.

This was the biggest of the bears we had seen and was probably around 280lbs. Black bears are the smallest of the bear species in North America and can live to 20 years in the wild. The black bears don’t actually hibernate in the same way as other bears. Their heart rate does drop but they remain slightly alert and active.

So after all that excitement we continued to make dinner.

The menfolk arrived home – a little bit merry – and after dinner the party continued.

It was the early hours of the morning before the party stopped but I was still awake early and up to see the sunrise.

It had rained in the night so it was a bit of a misty morning.

We made a lovely breakfast of pancakes and bacon with eggs and maple syrup. And then we packed everything up and loaded up the bus.

We headed off and went onto the Cherohala Skyway. This is a 43 mile scenic highway that was built in 1996. Its name is a mix of Cherokee and Nantahala, the two national forests through which it passes. It was a beautiful, and sometimes, windy road.

After a while we made a stop to do a short hike to Huckleberry Knob.

Huckleberry Knob is the highest peak of the Unicoi Mountains at an elevation of 5,580 ft (1,700m). It’s a beautiful walk through shrub and meadow land and also a bit of a forest.

On the way up we passed the grave for Andy Sherman. Back in 1899, Andy and his friend Paul O’Neil, left Tellico Creek to get to Robbinsville for Christmas. They never made it. Their bodies were discovered in September 1990, along with some whisky jugs. It appears they froze to death as they were lost and drunk. Paul’s bodies was donated as a medical exhibit but Andy’s body had been badly mangled by wild animals so was buried on the trail.

At the top you had a 360 degree view, which was amazing. We stopped in the sunshine to have a picnic and take in the views.

We sunbathed for a little while before heading back down to the bus.

It was then quite a bit of a drive to our new lodge, Otter Ridge, in Gatlinburg. This lodge is gorgeous and sleeps all 13 of us.

We had a quite night in with takeaway pizza and I think most of us were in bed by 10pm.

Another early morning awakening and another beautiful sunrise.

After a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and muffins,  with lots of coffee we drove a short distance to the Ocoee River to go white water rafting.

On arrival we all had to don wetsuits which were not the most flattering!

Ryan, one of the guides, then gave us a safety briefing which was pretty humorous but also quite scary.

After putting on splash jackets and helmets and picking up our paddles we drove down to the start of the 6 mile white water rafting course.

The Ocoee River is 37 miles long and the word ocoee means apricot on Cherokee as there are lots of wild apricot vines in the area. There are 3 hydroelectric dams that control the river and the white water rafting course starts at dam 2.

The Upper Ocoee River is made up of part natural stream bed and part man made whitewater course.  The man made section of river bed is one of a kind and was built for the canoe and kayak events in the 1996 Olympics. It is the only white water course built into a natural stream.

Part of the time the white water rafting section is drained and the water diverted via the powerhouse to produce electricity before being released back into the river.

In our raft we had Mark, Jim, Ali, Sherrien, myself and our guide was Acacia.

As soon as we entered the water we had a grade 3 section. The course is made up.of several grade 2 and 3 sections and also three grade 4 parts.

At one point you could jump into the river and just float which was amazing. We practised our rescue techniques getting back into the raft.

Around 90 minutes later we came to the end of the course. It was brilliant and luckily nobody went overboard.

We got the bus back to the wildwater rafting centre where we all had a nice hot shower and put on some dry clothes.

We then hopped back in our bus and drove a short distance to the Cherokee National Forest. We hiked a short distance to the Benton Falls.

By this time it was around 130pm so we stopped for some lunch.

The waterfall was beautiful and Sid, Steve and Nod went for a dip.

After lunch we scrambled up the mountain a bit further to another waterfall which was also stunning.

After our hike we headed home via the supermarket. Mandy and I were in charge of dinner and we made 3 chillies – veggie, mild and hot.

It all tasted really delicious and following dinner we had a bit of a party including a dip in the hot tub.

It was the early hours of the morning before we went to bed.

I woke up early again, around 530am, so decided to write my blog. But the advantage to waking up so early was that we could watch the sunrise, which was amazing.

Unfortunately we found a little bird dead on the decking – I think it had flown into the massive windows. It looks like a hummingbird as it was tiny but I wasn’t sure.

After a quick shower we popped outside again and we saw some birds of prey, most likely hawks, flying over the mountains.

I am still so amazed at how beautiful our lodge is.

Everyone came to ours for breakfast. We made pancakes with eggs and flat sausage and lots of coffee.

We then drove the bus a little further out into the mountains to Chattahoochee National Forest where we parked up to do a small hike to Long Creek Falls.

The hike was around a mile and was not too strenuous.

Long Creek Falls tumble over 50 feet and have an upper and lower waterfall. We did consider a quick dip but the weather was decidedly cooler than yesterday so we decided not to.

We did walk up to the top of the waterfall.

We walked the same way back to the bus and then drove a short distance up the road to a car park. Here we picked up the Benton MacKaye Trail. Benton MacKaye inspired the Appalachian Trail as he wrote about the trail in an article in 1921.

A little way along the trail we came to a point where there was a really lovely view so we stopped here for some lunch.

Outdoor lunch with wine is always so tasty!

We continued on the trail which was a gradual uphill climb for around 2 miles. We came to a point where we then merged on to the start of the Appalachian Trail on Springer Mountain.

The Appalachian Trail is 2,194 miles long. It starts in Georgia and goes to Maine and passes through 14 different states. It claims to be the longest hiking only trail in the world.

We made it to the top of Springer Mountain.

We took a different route back which was a slightly steeper descent but a bit shorter.

We then drove into Blue Ridge for some refreshments.

The houses were all just as I imagined American houses to be with the front porch and the white picket fence.

Our destination was The Boro Inn, an Irish Pub run by a Scotsman. The Deco was weird but interesting.

I had a pint of Wexford Creme Ale which was really smooth and delicious.

As we were sitting at our table one of the locals, Eddie, treated us all to a shot of caramel moonshine which he made himself – it was actually really smooth and nice.

Around 7pm we headed to the restaurant where Sid, Steve, Nod and Sarah joined us. Catherine, Bob and Cindy’s daughter, and her boyfriend Cain also joined us.

We shared some starters, including some fried green tomatoes and I had shrimps and grits as my main.

After dinner we headed back home and straight to bed as we were all really tired. I’m still waking up around 5am each morning, my body clock hadn’t adjusted yet.