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Published: December 5th 2006
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Our home in Ohio
Russ outside 'our' downstairs apartment. Well, I'm glad to say that Russ and I are back on the road again. Woohoo!
We spent 2 great weeks in Ohio, the time to rest and catch up on things as well as brain storm where our next pit stop would be was definitely appreciated. Our vehicle was returned to us on the 28th November so we went out that night with Jose's friends to celebrate which put our departure day back to the 30th after having too big a night. I think it was just part of Jose's plot to get us to stay a bit longer 😊 On Thursday we went back to the transmission place and had them check that the transmission wasn't leaking fluid and to disconnect our drive shaft and with an Adios Amigos we farewelled Jose' to head to Memphis, Tennessee. We chose a miserable day to leave, strong winds and rain teamed with rush hour traffic meant it was a bit slow going to start but we were soon cruising only just not as fast as we planned due to the weather. We drove a few hours and decided to pull over at a rest stop for the night. We were
Farewell Drinks
Jose, Jimmy, Steve, Russ and Myself early on in the night. about 30 miles north of Cincinnati and I think every truck in the state had pulled over but we managed to snare a spot on the side of the off ramp, it was that packed! We spent the night getting rocked back and forth, the winds were that strong. Midday, Friday came around and the winds still hadn't let up so we decided to brave it after waiting as long as possible to see if the weather would change.
Friday was spent driving through Kentucky which I must say is absolutely beautiful. Very hilly on the interstate and very, very cold as we found out when we stopped to refuel. Russ was all rugged up and he refuses to layer unless it is absolutely, positively necessary so that is saying something. We ended up driving straight through Kentucky to the first rest stop over the Kentucky/Tennesse border where we spent the night. We're loving these free rest stops.
Saturday brought sunny skies with cold winds but driving wise, it was perfect. I love the Tennessee scenary, green fields and blue skies. Gotta love the accents too, it's amazing how you cross a border and it suddenly changes. We
Graceland
This is probably one of the better photos I got of the actual house. There are shuttle buses constantly arriving/departing and I could only go in certain areas..insurance you know. had a smooth sailing trip to our campsite, "Agricenter International" in Memphis and we found a nice site with no neighbours to park our RV. There's 300 sites there so it wasn't that hard as I'd say about 100 of them are occupied.
Sunday we got up nice and early (although we travelled back a time zone so it probably wasn't that early) and made our way to Graceland, the home of the King, Elvis Presley. We got there at about 11am and were there until 3pm or so so we definitely got our $30 worth. The tour is self guided so they give you headsets and you listen to facts about the house from Elvis, Priscilla and Lisa Marie. We both really enjoyed it though I must say, it did seem weird standing in the home of Elvis Presley. I can't say much for his style, though, I will give him credit as it was probably stylish in the 70's. Only the bottom floors of the actual house is open to tours. Elvis would greet his guests on the lower level and the upper level was his private sanctuary so it remains that way to this day.
Graceland
The back of Elvis' house With our admission we also got to check out the Elvis Presley Automobile Museum which contains, you guessed it, cars. Russ was looking forward to this part of the tour and he wasn't dissapointed. The only thing that would have made him enjoy it even more was if they had the specs of the cars included at each car stand.
Next up we were treated to the 'Sincerely Elvis' exhibit. Each year they do a different exhibit in one year of Elvis' life, this year it is 1956 so we got to see thin Elvis 😊 They had lots of different tidbits including a bank statement from 1956 where one month ending he had $125,000 or thereabouts which would have been an astronomical amount back in those days.
Last but not least we checked out Elvis' personal planes, the 'Lisa Marie' jet and the 'Hound Dog II' jetstar. Again, the decor is very 70's but if updated to today's tastes would be one of comfort and style.
We left Graceland feeling a sense of accomplishment and made our way back to our home where the excitement of the day caught up to Russ and he promptly fell
Graceland
Lounge room asleep.
Upon waking on Monday the 4th we discovered that temperatures had gotten down to -8 degrees celcius and we had icicles on our RV, a good enough reason to ensure that we left Memphis that day. The day was still cold but we didn't have the bone chilling winds that plagued us the day before. We made our way into the city and checked out Pyramid Arena which appeared abandoned but it just may be 'out of season'. This is an entertainment and sports arena, it is taller then the Statue of Liberty and the Taj Mahal and sits on the Mighty Mississippi. Next stop, Beale St, Home of the Blues and where Elvis Presley and BB King apparently got their start. We lunched at the Hard Rock Cafe on Beale and I decided if you can't beat 'em, join 'em and enjoyed a $9 hamburger with Russ. A quick journey in our Durango down Main St ensured that I aged 10 years at least. Memphis has trams and most of Main St is paved so along with the tracks, it appears that nobody uses that section of the track and I wasn't so sure that we were
Graceland
Want to see where the King's food was prepared? meant to be driving on it but it all ended well.
Russ had no problem disconnecting the driveshaft and we made our way out of Memphis in the afternoon and we are currently on our way to Florida via Atlanta. To warmer weather and sunny skies we go!
I've attached a fair few photos this time. We weren't able to use a flash inside at Graceland so I've attached some of the good ones that aren't shaky. Next update will be from sunny Florida.
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hayles
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Graceland
That is awesome guys - Deb you could write travel articles for mags!