Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina

---

31 Jan 18

Today was pretty much spent driving to Memphis. We left Dallas before 8am and travelled by interstate across Arkansas. At about 3.30pm we crossed the Mississippi and found ourselves in Memphis. What we first noticed was the difference in the buildings and a distinct lack of vehicles on the streets. We had to check the day of the week as I felt it was a Sunday or so a public holiday. No it was a typical Tuesday in Memphis. We are staying in what is called Midtown Memphis in an AirBnB place. It is an old house (105 years old apparently) with wooden floors in most rooms. It is very cold here. A quick check on the temperature and it was 12 degrees C. It surprised me as it felt colder than that.

1 Feb 18

Today Memphis is cold and overcast. We check the forecast and find that it will most likely rain later. Great … today we have our BBQ tasting tour. We decide to head into Beale St early and have a look around. Our tour is to start at 2pm. We decide to catch a bus into town. I dressed for a rainy day. My major error was I dressed for a rainy day in Brisbane. Over the course of the day it got colder and colder. We left the house and it was about 13 degrees. By 4pm, it was 7 degrees and I was freezing cold. As we did not have the car, I did not have access to any gloves or beanie or scarf. The BBQ tour was wonderful, the food delicious, but I was still pretty chilled the whole afternoon.

The temperature continued to plummet – at midnight it was -1. Thank goodness for the heating in this place. There are gas or electric heaters in most rooms.

2 Feb 18

Woke today to another cold one. At 7am the temperature was -4 degrees. We were meant to go to Nashville today for a bus tour but they rescheduled it as the weather was terrible. We decide to see Graceland today instead.

The day is rather beautiful; Sunny, no clouds but pretty cold. We headed out to see the March of the Ducks at 11am at the Peabody Hotel. It was -1, but sunny and not too windy. We got to Graceland about 11.45 and it was 0 degrees. It stayed pretty cold all afternoon and when we left it was about 2 degrees.

The Ducks at the Peabody hotel was really cute. Enjoyed the spectacle. It was free to go into the foyer and watch this parade too.

I was really impressed with Graceland. No I am not an Elvis fan, I missed that era by about 10 years. I always did appreciate his music though and of course his moves. Graceland is set up as a shrine to him, and there was not much negative in there. I know he must have had some flaws, but they were not on show here. I think that was the only disappointment in the whole exhibition, the fact that they did not show all sides of him. They had many aspects of his life such as his cars, planes, costumes, army life and so on. There were some really great insights into Elvis for me. The quote I liked most of all was “I always felt that someday, somehow, something would happen to change everything for me, and I’d daydream about how it would be”. This is creative visualization in action. He visualized his success.

3 Feb 18

It took about 3 hrs to drive to Nashville. It was cold and damp, but we thought as we were n a bus it would be OK. This tour was the best bus tour I have ever been on. We boarded at about 11.30am. It was a full bus – about 40 people. The tour consisted of 2 “guides”, a driver and a musician. The guides, Jessie and Jennie, were incredibly funny. No-one on that bus was safe. They poked fun at every one. The people who got most of the jokes were the “Yankees” in the back, and the “rich” people. They could tell they were rich as they wore nice perfume and ironed the collars of their shirts. Everyone just cracked up with the way these 2 were “communicating” with the guests. I didn’t expect them to keep it up for 2 hours but they did. The bus drove around Nashville and the guides pointed out various sights including where some famous Country artists lived. They shared a lot of information about each of them. So it was interesting as well as hilarious.

The musician on the bus was a guy called Devon Heath. What a talented fellow he is. He has just recorded some music for release so maybe he will become appreciated more widely.

We went into Beale St for dinner after we came back from Nashville. What an amazing area that is. So full of colour and music. We spent most of our evening at the Blue City Café. It was loud and my ears were going crazy but it was so good.

4 Feb

Today was spent driving to Stone Mountain Alabama. This is just outside Atlanta. It is an historic area relating to the Civil War. Looking forward to learning more about those turbulent years in US history.

5 Feb

Checked the weather and decided to go down to Columbus Georgia today. I was keen to see the Civil War Naval Museum as well as checking out their Riverwalk.

The museum was really well done. There were all sorts of displays and dioramas and videos re-creating the life during the Civil war in the Confederate states. It wasn’t until I was in Memphis did I even discover that the Civil War had big naval battles. Seems odd that it did not occur to me before, but as I explored this museum it became obvious that it was an important military strategy. It was during this war that the first submarine took down an enemy boat. Really enjoyed this town, Columbus. The riverwalk is also amazing. The Chattahoochee River is the border between Georgia and Alabama. At Columbus, the city across the river in Alabama is Phenix City.

We have noticed that there are a few places in the USA that have a large city on each side of the river where the river is the state or country boundary. We saw El Paso and Juarez(Mexico) very close together with the Rio Grande in between, San Diego and Tijuana very close together (no river), Memphis is on the Mississippi which is the boundary to Arkansas. Also there is New Jersey and New York separated by the Hudson River. Augusta in Georgia is also on a river that separates Georgia from South Carolina. Savannah is also on the border (the Savannah River) between Georgia and South Carolina.

6 Feb

The day today was meant to be sunny but it ended up cloudy but no rain on Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain Park has been developed over time to be a memorial to the confederate efforts during the Civil War. It was promoted by the Daughters of the Confederacy early in the 20^th Century.

As it is winter, there was very little open in the way of attractions. The Cable Car and Train was closed as was most Museums and eateries etc. We were able to walk up the mountain though as well as wandering around the Memorial Gardens. The gardens were rather nice and gave us so much insight into the Confederate story I did not feel the need to go to a Museum to find the details out.

I was pleased to read about various aspects of the civil war. I have learned quite a lot here. Things I didn’t know before was:

· The Confederates States of America existed from 1861 – 1865. The president was Jefferson Davis.

· The first confederate flag was called the stars and bars and was very similar to the US flag. So much so, that during the heat of battle it was difficult to distinguish it from the enemy flag – so they changed it – 3 times. The flag started with 7 stars as there were seven states to start with. That number grew to 13 by the 1865. The second flag was called the Stainless Banner and the 3^rd – the Blood Stained Banner.

· The three men depicted in the carving on Stone Mountain was Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis.

· The carving on Stone Mountain was a Daughters of the Confederacy initiative

· The KKK was re-activated in 1915 at Stone Mountain.

The walk up the Mountain was challenging (code word for really really tough). We got to the top and were very impressed by the views as well as being pretty pleased with our efforts. It was one mile up and back and most of that scrambling over rocks. There was a small section where a metal railing had been put in place so you could pull yourself up the mountainside. Once we got to the top we were well rewarded with stunning views.

7 Feb

Off to Charleston South Carolina today. We arrived at about 1pm and spent the afternoon looking around the historic areas of the city. It has seen quite a lot in the last few hundred years. Charleston was originally called Charles Town in honour of King Charles II. Finally the temperature is now in the high double digits!

---

Photos

Oversized guitar Beale St Memphis
This guitar recognises Johnny Cash. It will be auctioned off to raise funds for charity later this year

Peabody Hotel Ducks
The ducks have marched, via the elevator from the rooftop, and jumped into the fountain in the lobby

One of the rooms inside Graceland
This is one of the ways Elvis enjoyed his downtime