Jim & June's Odyssey 090412
Trip Start
Aug 25, 2008
1
42
57
Trip End
Ongoing
Memphis, Tennessee, United States
Sunday, April 12, 2009
After departing Hot Springs, AR we drove through the Ozark mountain foothills to Little Rock. From there to the Tennessee border, the land is VERY flat and it's where they grow cotton. Surprisingly we crossed several wide rivers and drove on numerous elevated causeways over the shallow bayous - some were several miles long.
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE: Birthplace of Rock-n-Roll, home of the Blues and Elvis. The Tornado Warnings continue to be issued in SE Tennessee including Memphis. There were 18 in the area when we arrived but were moving away from us. We've been unable to connect to the internet for three days because the tornados knocked out a few towers.
Visited:
· Historic Memphis - Confederate Park on Mud Island (in the middle of the river) marks the site of the first battle of the Civil War in 1962 between fighting ships known as Steam Rams. Residents watched from the shoreline as the ferocity of the fight turned the waters red.
· Downtown Memphis - A picturesque contrast of very new and very old buildings blending together on clean, gently rolling streets lined with trees. Very nice.
· Elvis Presley's Graceland - Up until now, we thought that Graceland was where he lived - NO! it is an entire complex of shops, restaurants, artifacts, his cars, motorbikes & aircraft museums where they play non-stop Elvis music and streaming videos. We stayed at the Graceland RV Park (on Jailhouse Rd & Heartbreak Lane) behind the "Heartbreak Hotel."
Their self guided audio assisted tour is very good and chronologically runs you through Elvis' extraordinary life.
He was a millionaire at 21 so he bought the Graceland Mansion (across the road) as a gift to his parents when he was a year later. It is spectacular - a long curving driveway leads to massive columns supporting a grand entrance and doorway. Inside, the rooms are decorated in a 1970's style and have all of the electronics and appliances that were top notch in that era. The family room is decorated with 350 yards of a paisley print in shades of blue - even the ceiling is completely covered with folds of fabric that meet in the centre of the room. In 1974 he built a "jungle room" and furnished it with ornately carved chairs, tables, accessories and had them upholstered with animal prints. Shag carpet covers the floor and ceiling to make it acoustically appropriate for recording - it also reflects his love for the Hawaiian styles and themes.
The basement has a long hallway with a hundred gold records leading to a games room, recording studio and more leather/mirror clad relaxing rooms. State of the art cassette & 8-track players, record players, radios, speakers and headsets are found in every room.
Other facilities on the property include a large carport for his various cars and motorcycles, a swimming pool, flower gardens, statues, fountains, a 2 acre corral for his horses, firing range, and a model of the house he grew up in at Tupelo, MS. Across the street there's a museum with several other cars (Lincoln, Corvette, Mercedes and a couple Thunder hawks)/golf carts/trikes and a race car driven by Dale Earnhardt, his two planes - a 40 passenger Corsair called "Lisa Marie" and a sleek 10 passenger Jet Star called "Hound Dog II." Compared to President Kennedy's Air Force One plane of the same era, this one had it all - plush leather sofa's & chairs, fine wood, regular bed, gold plated sinks & seat belts and glass tables compared to Kennedy's military green metal, hard plastic benches and bunks.
Besides starring in 31 movies, he recorded 141 songs which attained gold or platinum record sales. Elvis's original racquetball building has been converted to display all of his awards (they completely cover 4 walls 20ft high). The playing court exhibits all of his jewel studded outfits that he wore during performances. He relished the lifestyle that allowed him to bestow fantastic gifts to his band members and others close to him - he gave lots of it away to charities, too. Now, this complex makes more $$$ in one year than he did in his life. Whether you like him or not, his amazing success story is worth the visit.
Elvis is buried in the Meditation Garden on his property where a never ending flame burns at the gravesite beside his parents and his beloved grand-mother. A small marker has also been placed beside the grave in memory of his twin brother Jesse who was stillborn. Every day, Graceland receives flowers and keepsakes from fans - they are placed on his grave.
· Beale Street is famous for its restaurants, bars, outdoor patios, vaudeville theaters and shops that are dedicated to keeping the blues alive. Loud music blares from every doorway - the smell of BBQ ribs, beans and Creole cooking lures you into the little cafes. One bar advertises "First Chance for a Beer - Next Chance 25ft." A restaurant sign says "Get some South in your Mouth." We ate at the best rib place in the world - "City Blues Cafe" and then went for a beer in BB Kings Blues Club across the street because Johnny told us to. Johnny Johnson is an interesting & friendly guy who knows this street AND played drums in one of Elvis' movies - even had a photocopy of a 40 yr old black & white picture to prove it. Sure enough, he was the black guy beating on the drums on a stage behind an Elvis impersonator, see?? At least he had a sense of humor!!! Besides, the food was good and the beer was cold so he wasn't a complete liar.
If there's a vacant spot between buildings, a group of guys are jamming the Blues. Horse drawn (frilly Cinderella bubble style) carriages carry newly-weds away from chapels. Big brass musical notes are embedded in the sidewalks and have the names of numerous folks who shaped the musical landscape including Isaac Hayes, BB King, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding and several others. It's a very active pedestrian-only street where you can wander along the cobblestones & bricks, drinking a Big-Ass-Beer while shopping for voodoo charms, distinctly Southern artifacts, Memphis souvenirs and experiencing the Blues atmosphere. We had fun! The 4 block long street really comes alive at night with big-name bands, street performers and acrobats until 3AM.
· Mississippi River - It is ½ mile wide with fast flowing muddy water and forms the border between Arkansas and Tennessee.
· Memphis Queen - The famous paddle wheeler (with its twin smoke stacks) takes tourists on scheduled trips down the river and around Memphis.
· The Pyramid - A huge glass structure that was THE sports facility in town until the new FedEx Forum became home of the NBA Memphis Grizzlies.
· Victorian Village - An area S of downtown of truly majestic homes built in the 1800's. Most are 3 storey structures constructed of concrete or block with massive pillars, grand entrances, stone fences, iron gates, cobblestone driveways and are situated on and acre of land with oak trees 5ft in diameter.
· Statues of Elvis & BB King - Located in the Tennessee Visitor Info Center
Observed:
· Most of the vehicles are silver, gray, charcoal or black - other colors are rare.
· Several people in Memphis drive like color blind maniacs - pedal to the metal from one red light to the next - it's like following a slinky!!!!
· The people here are very friendly and easily strike up a conversation - problem is, they have such southern drawls that we can't understand what they are saying ½ the time.
· When it rains, it pours and frequently a severe downdraft from a dissipating cumulonimbus will strike with gale force winds. The sudden impact is always startling.
Things we Learned:
· Although Elvis was nominated for 14 Grammy Music Awards, he won three - for gospel albums.
· Americans from the Deep South don't know anything about Canada because it's never in the news. Everybody (us included) watch local TV and listen to local radio because they provide information about severe thunderstorms, flooding and tornados - you don't want to miss the warnings and mandatory evacuation notices.
· The location of a tornado is identified by the county it's in and then the "Parishes" that it will cross next. We now pay particular attention to the parishes in our vicinity. In the past 3 days there were 70 tornados - a record for April.
· If that's not enough, we watched a documentary on TV which stated that the most prominent fault line in the USA is NOT the San Andreas Fault in California but the one that runs under the Mississippi River. The most likely epicenter of an eventual earthquake will be right here, in Memphis and when it hits, it will be so violent that everything for a 100 miles around will be demolished and the windows in Toronto will chatter. Currently, there are about 200 seismic recordings per day on the activity 2 miles below.
June's Comments:
Our couple days of touring Graceland and Memphis were very enjoyable. While walking from the riverboats to Beale Street, we were approached by an elderly African American man who was handing out newsletters about the Civil Rights Movement and informed us that the underground is still actively involved in obtaining rights for his minority group. (I wondered which rights have not been satisfied. Isn't the President of the US an African American?) Anyways, while accepting his Newsletter, he told us that he was a blues musician and actor that appeared in an Elvis movie. From his duffle bag, he withdrew his Blues CD and proceeded to give us his sales pitch - after all, it was only $20.00. I told him that I had never really listened to blues and would return after visiting Beale Street to buy one if I liked the music. Disappointingly he said, "You don't hear blues there anymore - it's been taken over by Country!" The sales pitch continued.... he would throw in his comedy CD for free. Jim thought it was a hell of a deal so he bought the tape, received the free CD, obtained an autograph that read, "To Jim and June, my friends from Canada, from Johnny Johnson, Actor" and got his picture taken with a REAL actor - WOW!
