Rhythms of the Road

Take a musical journey through America’s Heartland featuring locations that have played a role in the evolution of American music. This fun vacation starts with two nights in the vibrant city of Chicago, then travel south via St. Louis to the capital of country music, Nashville. Take a city tour that includes seeing Centennial Park with its reproduction of the Parthenon, then that evening, enjoy reserved seating at a show at the Grand Old Opry where country music legends like Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson have graced the stage. Have time to take an optional excursion to RCA Studio B, birthplace of the “Nashville Sound”, and explore the Country Music Hall of Fame, filled with the stories and memorabilia of country’s biggest stars. Continue on to Memphis, the city known as the “Home of the Blues” and the “Birthplace of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, stopping along the way in Brownsville to visit the Tina Turner Museum, housed in the one-room schoolhouse that a young Anna Mae Bullock (a.k.a. Tina Turner) attended. Arrive in Memphis and take an orientation tour that includes historic Beale Street and learn about its role in the birth and development of blues music. Join an optional excursion to legendary Sun Studio and stand in the same spot where Elvis first recorded. Tour Graceland, Elvis’ lavish home and see his favorite cars, custom jets, and the memorial garden where he and his only child, Lisa Marie, are laid to rest. Then on to Indianola, MS to the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center which tells the story of this music legend and the region that gave birth to the Blues. Spend time in New Orleans, where you’ll enjoy guided sightseeing of all the major sites in “The Big Easy”. Enjoy free time to explore the French Quarter, try some of the culinary treats that New Orleans is famous for, like beignets, po’boy sandwiches, and gumbo, and perhaps join an optional swamp or plantation tour. And what better way to complete your musical journey than on an optional Mississippi River paddleboat dinner cruise with live jazz! The perfect ending for this music-filled, value-minded vacation!