Kentucky and Tennessee
Old Man River, Father of Waters, “body of a nation,” Big Muddy—by any name the mighty Mississippi cuts a mythic figure across the American landscape.
Most of the GRR’s 60 mi (97 km) across Kentucky are quite scenic, populated by only a handful of small towns, none of which has been overrun by tacky commercial strips. Continuing south across the Tennessee line, the route retains its rural, slow-road feel as it winds along the cultivated bottomlands around earthquake-created Reelfoot Lake.
Midway to Memphis, the GRR comes back to the modern world, crossing the I-55 freeway then rejoining four-lane US-51 as it races to downtown Memphis, passing pine woods and cotton fields mixed with mobile homes, suburban ranch houses, and gas stations.
