Tennessee’s two largest cities, Memphis and Nashville, are known as centers of blues and country music. These city’s lay claim to helping pull up the bootstraps of acts including Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Muddy Waters, Johnny Cash, B.B. King and Dolly Parton — to name a few. Energy is not only a feeling acquired from the toe-tapping beats of these musical greats. This state’s city of Oak Ridge has been dubbed the “Energy Capital of the World.” This is because it was instrumental in the development of the atomic bomb, and has since become the hub of constant energy research.

Tennessee is known as home to the best barbecue in the world. Memphis-style barbecue is slowly smoked for a rich, fall-off-the-bone tenderness offered either “wet” or “dry.” Speaking of smoke, a similar, bluish haze of the fabled Great Smokey Mountains bring more visitors to its national park than any other in the United States.