SCA Neon Canyon Road Trip Report
The warm, Southern hospitality of Nashville welcomed the SCA’s 2024 Road Trip with open arms, amazing food, and a world’s showcase of neon signage. The 56 attendees during the weekend of Sept. 20-22, travelled here from 15 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada.
It all started with food and Willie Nelson.
Monell’s, Nashville’s iconic Southern cooking restaurant had prepared an ample buffet of its traditional dishes ready for our crowd as they arrived, including its famous Chess Pie squares and mini buttermilk biscuits with country ham. Registration and opening reception were at the Willie Nelson & Friends Museum, next to the grand Gaylord Opryland hotel complex.
In addition to great music and neon signage, the city is probably best known currently for its tasty and unique Nashville Hot Chicken. We enjoyed that as well on opening night, direct from the original hot chicken joint, Prince’s Hot Chicken.
That first evening of music, local food, beer and wine perfectly set the stage for SCA’s much anticipated (and sold out) “A Walk Through Nashville’s Neon Canyon” road trip. The first-ever SCA event in the Music City.
Saturday, our first bus day was quite a diverse adventure and had something for everyone.
Our first stop for historic signage of the day was The Dive Motel, which also turned out to be the biggest surprise of the day. The owner, dressed in 50s-garb and burning a smudge of sage, came outside to greet us and invited us into the lobby to look around.
Originally known as the Key Motel (1956) it was a popular stay for the likes of Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams during its heyday. It was rejuvenated in 2019 into its current retro 50s theme, each room complete with a disco ball and “party” switch. The original neon sign has been altered to signify the new name, but has kept the key-shaped frame work.
Once we reached downtown, the tour began with the symbolic architecture of the Country Music Hall of Fame’s exterior, we then had time to shop and admire the works of the legendary Hatch Show Print before we toured the city’s first indoor shopping area, the c-1903 Italian influenced Arcade just several blocks away.
On our way to the Lane Motor Museum, we stopped at the quintessential 1940s establishment, The Drake Motel. With a vintage sign out front that proclaims “Stay Where the Stars Stay” we all enjoyed the photo opportunity, but quietly wondered when the last star actually stayed there.
The catered lunch on Saturday was provided by the renowned Martin’s Bar-B Que Joint, which featured its pulled pork, smoke turkey breast and hushpuppies. It was served during our tour of the Lane Motor Museum where we looked over the country’s largest collection of European vehicles, ranging from kayaks to motorcycles to flying (and floating) cars, all inside a former Sunbeam Bakery building, c-1951. By the way, in the follow-up survey of attendees, Martin’s food was our group’s favorite food of the weekend.
Our next stop was Marathon Village a vibrant creative community of eclectic establishments including Antique Archeology (American Pickers TV show), souvenir and gift shops, distilleries and breweries, a radio station, photography and video studios and a whole lot of local automotive history. The complex of Marathon Motor Works buildings (1910-1914), housed the first auto manufacturing factory in the South. The museum building showcased several Marathon cars and original manufacturing equipment was on display, extant, throughout the entire complex with signage and photos lining nearly every wall.
We approached the day’s namesake destination, “The Neon Canyon,” just before the hour of the pearl, right on time to start capturing the beautiful glow of the hundreds of signs mounted mostly on restored 19th-century buildings, reminiscent of a brick canyon lined with neon.
While we made up the moniker Neon Canyon, the area is also called Hillbilly Highway, a five-block area of downtown with its 50-plus Honky Tonks, dives, souvenir shops, ice cream and candy purveyors, and boot stores, all displaying some of the most colorful, imaginative neon signage in the country.
We were on our own for dinner with more than 75 places in the area offering up about every style of eatable one could want. Our group quickly spread out choosing everything from typical pub grub to steak dinners to vegetarian cuisine. This place has it all.
Most notably, several went to Robert’s Western World, one of the canyon’s original Honky Tonks and partook of its famous “Recession Special,” a fried bologna sandwich, bag of chips, a Moon Pie and a PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon beer), all for $6.
Many of those sampling numerous Honky Tonks reported back that it was hard for them to believe that top notch quality bands were playing at each bar, all with no cover charge. “They could be stars in my hometown,” was heard several times. It was rumored that many of our group also enjoyed the dancing and the adult beverage opportunities the bars offered.
Our sign-loving SCAers were captivated by the main reason we were in the canyon: to enjoy the immersive experience that allowed them to enjoy the dozens of neon signs as they were meant to be enjoyed – in a natural entertainment environment. It’s a unique experience that you can’t find anywhere else.
While the weekend was planned around that unique and colorful happening, there was much more for the diversified SCA group to ooh and awe.
SCA history was made Sunday morning.
Our first stop was to visit the 1930s-era art deco bathrooms of the historic Hermitage Hotel, the state’s first million-dollar hotel, built in 1910. The men’s room is a member of Bathroom Hall of Fame, and the women’s was a finalist in the 2024 voting. Who knew there was such a thing as the Bathroom Hall of Fame? The men’s room proved to be a popular photo op in front of the lime green urinals.
After a ride through Music Row, the epicenter of Nashville’s entertainment industry, we visited the largest guitar in Tennessee. It was originally the huge scoreboard for the city’s minor league baseball team but was restored and is now an iconic beacon for a newly gentrified neighborhood.
Once the group photo was taken in front of the guitar, our next stop was the world’s only exact replica of the Parthenon. When built for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial Exposition, this amazing edifice symbolized the city’s nickname of “Athens of the South,” due to its 20-plus institutions of higher education.
The warm hospitality of the famous Loveless Café, a true Southern legend and a beloved eating establishment among locals, tourists and country music celebrities was our lunch stop. The calling cards here are the famous award-winning biscuits, fried chicken, country ham, and the iconic neon roadside sign. And we enjoyed it all!
Following a couple additional stops to enjoy ice cream at a 1950s-era “dairy dip,” and to look at an amazing 15-story tall mural portrait of a man on the side of a grain silo, we visited the campus of Tennessee State University (TSU), one of the city’s four HBCU institutions.
Our pause here was to photograph the artistic 46-foot-tall Olympian Statue, which pays homage to Ed Temple, the TSU girls track coach who coached his teams to 34 national championships and who coached the US Olympic female track and field team for several years, bringing home a combined 26 medals.
Not far from the university, we stopped to see and photograph the sole reminder of the Green Book era in Nashville, the once-prominent Eldorado Motel. The colorful sign is nestled next to a railroad track in a stand of trees that luckily has kept it partly sheltered from the elements and allowed it to maintain its vibrant colors. As we pondered why it was in its seemingly hidden location, we also wondered how it escaped demolition following the closing and demolition of the motel in 2012.
As we disembarked the bus after a short ride back to the hotel knowing it was time to go home, we were amused by our jovial bus driver Rickey, who sent us all off with a “Y’all come back now.”
There’s so much more to see in Nashville, Tennessee: the home of the “Neon Canyon.”
