We crossed the Mississippi River from Memphis into Arkansas and we quickly discovered that tractor-trailers ruled the road on Interstate 40 - Nancy remarked that the trucks looked like a traffic "fjord" as we cautiously weaved between them. We were on our way to one of the lesser-known National Parks - Hot Springs: the second smallest National Park and the oldest one maintained by the National Park Service, which earned it the honor of being the first to be featured on a US Quarter for the "America the Beautiful Quarters" coin series.

Our journey west took us through two Tennessee cities renowned for their live music scenes - Nashville and Memphis. Sadly, with the onset of COVID-19, both of these towns are temporarily "on mute" - their live music venues shuttered. Still we had memorable visits that encouraged us to return in better times. 

On September 6 we settled into our Richmond AirBnB, located on the controversial Monument Ave - recently in the national news for protests that brought down a number of Confederate monuments. We were walking distance to some of our favorite Richmond haunts - the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) and "Carytown" - a funky street filled with great restaurants, cafes, and shops. We stayed 10 days in our daughter Laura's adopted home town and enjoyed many visits with her and her husband Mark.