We get up again around 8 o’clock, have breakfast, and prepare ourselves, and the apartment where we spent two fantastic days, for our departure. We leave at half past nine, with destination the Storytellers Hideaway Farm, or The House Johnny Cash Called Home. He lived the last 33 years of his life on this farm, which is about 54 miles west of Nashville. Once there we turn out to be the only visitors, and after we have paid the entrance fee, we are left all alone in his house. Much has remained in the same condition, and we can, for example, sit in his favorite chair without any problems. We enjoy a lot, and take plenty of pictures. After a while we leave the house and, on the advice of the woman who sold us the tickets, walk to a shed further on, and more surprises await us there. First of all Mark Alan Cash, a nephew of Johnny (son of Johnny’s younger brother Tommy) is present in that shed, who tells us all about the artifacts present there, but also treats us to a private concert. He sings three songs by his uncle, a song by his father, who was also a musician, and one by himself, about his uncle, the song is called Uncle Johnny. But in addition, part of the house of Colonel Parker, yes, the manager of Elvis Presley has been rebuilt in that barn, the office part where Tom Parker has Elvis sign his contract. And even better, there is a beautiful Cadillac of Elvis (with ELVIS on the license plate of course), and Bernard is as happy as a child when it turns out that he can just sit in that Cadillac. It takes a lot of effort, for several reasons, to move on, but in the end you have to. We set off for today’s next destination, the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. This is a location affiliated with NASA where people are trained, but also a number of rockets are set up. including lifelike copies of the Saturn V and Saturn I, and there is an interesting exhibition about the US Space program as a whole. When we leave this museum we decide to drive an hour further west so that we are already on our way tomorrow. We decide to take a hotel in Muscle Shoals, AL, and we eat at Rick’s Barbecue about 400 meters away. Now typing this blog, and then going to bed on time.
Video of the day, this is the song of Johnny’s younger brother Tommy that Tommy’s son Mark Alan sings for us. With this version of Johnny the circle is full again.
