In Three Days

You could spend another day in Nashville, but if your trip will take you to Memphis as well, follow these suggestions to get the most out of the Music Highway that links these two great Tennessee cities. Heading west to Memphis from Nashville, take a breather from the interstate at Hurricane Mills (I-40, exit 143). Drive a few miles deep into the wooded countryside, where you can sightsee and even spend the night at Loretta Lynn's Ranch and Family Campground. Start: Leaving Nashville on I-40.

1. Loretta Lynn's Ranch and Family Campground

The poor Coal Miner's Daughter bought this Graceland-esque mansion, an hour's drive from Nashville, when she made it big as the Queen of Country Music. Guests may tour her plantation home and the new 18,000-sq.-ft. Coal Miner's Daughter Museum, which are nestled on a leafy stream within her picturesque 3,500-acre farm. There's even a log-cabin replica of her Butcher Holler home place in Eastern Kentucky.

Before you get back onto the main highway, stop at Loretta's Country Kitchen and Gift Shop for a down-home buffet of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits, and all the trimmings. For more information, or to make campground reservations, call tel. 931/296-7700; www.lorettalynn.com.

2. Rockabilly Hall of Fame

An hour east of Memphis, you can stop by Carl Perkins's old hometown of Jackson, Tennessee. The rockabilly pioneer ("Blue Suede Shoes") died in 1998, but his memory lives on at the fledgling Rockabilly Hall of Fame in the historic downtown district. In addition to the expected Sun Records memorabilia, including costumes, vinyl 78 records, photos, and instruments, a few eye-popping oddities are on display: the "paddles" from the defibrillator that supposedly shocked a dying Elvis at a Memphis hospital, and a wall of fame devoted to 8*10 glossies and newspaper clippings of game-show host Wink Martindale, who hails from these parts. For details, contact the Jackson/Madison County Convention and Visitors Bureau (tel. 800/498-4748).

3. Casey Jones Village

While you're in Jackson, tour the train museum and sip a root beer float at Casey Jones Village (tel. 800/748-9588), an old-time country store and soda fountain named for the legendary turn-of-the-20th-century railroad conductor who lost his life rescuing others in a fiery train wreck. Let the kids blow off some steam (so to speak) by climbing aboard a real locomotive. Then hop back in the car, hit the interstate, and go west another hour to reach Memphis.