Hi, my name is Ester, and I would love to win the Ultimate Adventure. Join me as I tell the tale of the temporary destruction of the beautiful state of Tennessee.

The rules say that I'm supposed to write about my "ultimate trip". I could write about one that hasn't happened yet, but instead I'm going to tell you a few things about the ultimate trip I went on this past June. A friend and I stormed the state of Tennessee for a week, after which we went to an amazing music festival called Bonnaroo. Aside from the more exotic places I've always wanted to go to (read: crossing the equator or ocean), Tennessee has always been on my list, as strange as that might seem to people: as someone who has always been obsessed with the history of popular music, Memphis has been my mecca ever since I knew it existed. The home of rock 'n' roll. Then there's Nashville, otherwise known as Music City. You don't have to be a country music fan to appreciate a town with bands playing in every bar, even on a Tuesday afternoon.

We had several goals before setting off:
1. Go to Graceland.
2. Go to Dollywood (yes, Dolly Parton has a theme park - wouldn't you go?).
3. Go to Sun Studio, the birthplace of rock 'n' roll (Elvis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and many more recorded here).
4. Go to the Lorraine Hotel, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot.
5. See the Mississippi.
6. Eat the following cuisine: BBQ (Tennessee is the BBQ state), grits (not popular in Canada, where we're from), Mexican food (not authentic but much more so than we get in our frigid wasteland of a home), and anything else that came our way.

We spent one day in Nashville. This day summed up everything I'd like to emphasize about my travel style: we didn't have a plan, but we talked to everyone we met (particularly the airport shuttle driver) to find out what the locals had to say. We were pointed to a pedestrian bridge, and off we went. The day was random and amazing - we ate BBQ pretty much immediately, sat on a dock by the river, ate ice cream, wandered the main street, and dozed on the grass by some fountains.

After Nashville, we took the Greyhound bus to Knoxville. Suddenly it was more humid and fragrant, and we could see the Smoky Mountains. Now I'll emphasize the next characteristic of my travel style that makes me a Gold Star Traveller: adaptability. Our time in Knoxville was centred around an admittedly middle-of-the-road goal, going to Dollywood, but we absolutely had to get there in order to fulfill our dreams of novelty. As soon as we arrived in Knoxville, things went awry. The hostel we were booked at didn't answer their late-night phones or door, so we slept on the porch. The hostel owner had agreed to drive us to Dollywood for a fee, one of the reasons we chose to stay there, but he decided when we arrived that he couldn't follow through with driving us on the first day, and we would have to wait another day. Then, he backed out on the second day and sent us off with a group of French exchange students, who didn't understand what we meant by "theme park" and dropped us off in the middle of no-transit nowhere. It was a lot of hassle, honestly.

I would like to point out that this entire time, we stayed positive and dealt with the roadblocks as they came. Adaptability is key when travelling! There's no way to expect everything to go as planned. So, instead of going to Dollywood on the first day, we used that day to go to a farmer's market and appreciate the beautiful, environmentally-friendly town of Knoxville. We smoked shisha at a hookah bar! (Very random.) I even saw my first fireflies, a life-long goal. Then, when we'd been dropped off in the middle of nowhere, we had a picnic by a river and fed some baby geese instead of freaking out. Those were some of the best moments. Oh, and Dollywood? Hilarious.

Memphis was next. We went to Sun Studio - very cool. We also went to Graceland - what a dream! I'm not even the biggest Elvis fan, although he was dead sexy in 1968 and nobody can tell me otherwise, but it's such a classic place to go for music afficionados. The whole trip, I listened to Paul Simon's Graceland in eager anticipation. I even finally had grits in a cheesy breakfast restaurant, and Mexican at a little hole in the wall with about a thousand types of tequila. We saw the Peabody ducks, a group of ducks who have walked the red carpet that stretches from the elevators to the main fountain twice daily since the 1930s. We did all of the touristy things you do in Memphis and more, but the best moments are always unplanned:

Unplanned Memphis moments round-up:
- After wanding the (quite short) Beale Street, we found a bar with a "beer bust": all-you-can-drink beer. Oh, America. I like talking to people and finding out their perspectives, so we ended up hanging out with a group of improv actors who got us nicely tipsy and took us to an independent comedy club. By the end of the night, I somehow ended up doing some pretty amateurish stand-up (which, for the record, I have never done before). Seize the day!
- We almost got mugged near the Lorraine Hotel, but survived to tell the tale. One more reason for me to win: I'm a survivor.
- We went to a baseball game! Again, I really wanted to take in the culture and experience life in Tennessee. I figured there was no use in wasting the precious time we had, so we randomly went to a baseball game. It was loads of fun.
- Upon arrival in Memphis, we spotted the most utterly ridiculous horse and carriages from time to time along the street. Think Cinderella. Think a dome-shaped carriage. Think lights all over the dome. Anyhow, earlier in the trip, my friend and I decided that it felt like we were on a honeymoon, so we'd unofficially married ourselves in Dollywood (under Dolly's glowing robot eyes). Yeah, I am a little odd, but I'm proud of it. Anyways, after going to the baseball game, we were exiting the stadium when we saw one drive by, and we looked at each other and ran. No price is too high to fully celebrate our honeymoon in Tennessee! That spur-of-the-moment decision paid off, and we rode with the most eccentric English woman who showed us buildings where they filmed Silence of the Lambs and Ghostbusters, and dropped us off at our trashy little motel in style. The juxtaposition nearly killed me.

Finally, we went to Bonnaroo, the music festival that we came for but by that point was only part of the amazingness of our trip. It was quite an experience: insane wind and rain that nearly destroyed our tent, 100,000 people to deal with, and music all night long. It was trying, but it was a crazy, visceral experience that I will never forget. There were a couple of moments where I questioned being there, but that happens - I managed to keep slugging through and am glad I experienced it all. After four days of sun and rain and sun and rain and rain and rain and rain... we hopped on a plane, coming home to dull ol' Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

So, that's the story of my Ultimate Trip. In conclusion, I'll say that I really love to experience life, talk to everyone and love hearing their opinions about the world, and keep a positive outlook (although yes, I am a human being who sometimes cracks when tents are collapsing around me). I know that the trips I could win are quite different from going to Tennessee, but I would love to have the opportunity to apply my crazy, spontaneous, no-holds-barred attitude to somewhere a bit further away. Vote for me, you'll make my life! I guarantee I'd be a worthy recipient, and would enjoy myself as much as possible. Then again, everyone says that, I'm sure.

Thanks, everyone. :)

• tennessee
• ultimate adventure
• ultimate adventure blog
• memphis
• knoxville
• nashville
• dollywood
• graceland
• bonnaroo
• music festival