Kerry & Sandy on the Road

12th January, 2009

On Tuesday we stayed at Elvis Presley Blvd RV Park approx. 2 blocks from Graceland.  This was not the best of RV parks – very run down and the lady behind the desk was not very friendly.  She displayed a sign on her desk, “Wingeing will cost you $5.00″.  We only stayed here to received the half price deal for one night with American Passport.  Tomorrow we will pack up and stay at Graceland RV Park located just behind the Heartbreak Hotel in Lonely Street.

We took the Tour of the  “Graceland Mansion” on Wednesday as they close on Tuesdays during Winter.  We paid for the Platinum tour which included  Graceland, his Motor Vehicle Collection,  the 68 Special comeback concert and Elvis’s Air Planes.   We took the shuttle across the road into the open gates of Graceland.  A trip of  only 100  meters.  Then we entered the front door of the mansion.  We were given audio headsets so we could self-tour the mansion and the grounds.  We were told that we could take photo’s without the flash, they had people standing behind you to make sure that if your flash went off  they would yell at you immediately.   They yelled a LOT.  Amazing how many people don’t know how to turn their flash off.

The tour takes about two hours.  The Mansion is not that big by today’s standards.  The walls and some ceiling’s were covered in colored shag carpet.  Big in the seventies – but usually on the floor.  It looked surprisingly good in some area’s – particularly the Jungle room.    Elvis’s 75th birthday was last Friday.  We saw lots of flowers around his grave – even an Australian Flag.  It was nice to watch old film clips of his day-to-day activities with his family,  Pricilla and Lisa Maree.

Elvis was not one for alcohol.  On board his planes, they made sure they had plenty of different flavors of soda’s.  Everyone thought that Elvis was lonely, however his close friends believe that he needed new challenges, as he got bored quickly.  Elvis never wrote any of his own material and he could not read music.  However he was able to direct his musicians to develop the sound he wanted and was able to make his version of the song unrecognizable to the original.

After the Mansion tour, we took another tour to “the Birthplace of Rock N Roll” – The Sun Studio.  This was a 45 minute tour which cost $12.oo.  Our tour guide explained in enthusiastic detail just how Elvis got started back in 1955.  Standing in the recording studio was exhilarating.  Everything was exactly the same as it was.   I could not resist getting my picture taken with the microphone Elvis held for his first recording.  ( Well!! I want to believe this is true!!)

We took a walk around Beale Street, the heart of Rock N Rock and the Blues back in the 50’s and 60’s.  Big artist such as Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee & Roy Orbison, Ike Turner, and the famous BB King are just a few of them.  A Trolley took us around town to see the sites, then along the banks of the Mississippi River and back.  You can buy tickets at the Fed-X Arena to see their home  Basketball team called The Grizzles.

11th January, 2010

Well what can I say about Lebanon.  Not much unfortunately.  We stopped here  because we needed somewhere to stay for the night and catch up on our daily chores etc…  The RV park was only 2 stars and it shows.  Most of the campground did not have water due to the freezing conditions.  Fortunately they found one site that had water and gave it to us.  The nice old lady behind the counter had a habit of answering all my questions with “Yes Ma’am”.    We were able to get the night for half price as we have membership with Camp Club.  It was still bitterly cold, however we went for a walk and found a car for sale.  It was a beauty, but decided to resist temptation and walk away from it.  Just about 200 meters up the road was a factory outlet complex.  Part of our entertainment is window shopping.  Normally we would not go in but it was cold and we wanted to warm up quickly.

We also walked past another fast food outlet called Sonic.  This brought back memories of Happy Days  (the show) when you drove up in your car and the waitress came out with your order on roller skates.

Hopefully tomorrow will be warmer!!!

9th-10th January, 2010

Mike, Ann, and Pauline gave us the grand tour around Tullahoma.  Ann loves a good bargain and collects all the sale coupons from all the stores.  Coupons are very big here in the USA.  We had a lot of trouble getting up in the mornings.  The temperature was below zero (night and day) for over 6 days.  We had a small electric heater, our propane furnaces and the electric blanket running continuously.

On several occasions we heard very large noises coming from outside/ inside if you know what I mean.  Sandy had a look in the underneath compartments and found that the extra cartons of cans of soft drinks stored there were frozen solid.  The noise came from several of the soft drinks exploding.  Thank goodness the pipes containing our fresh water and sewage stayed intact.

Ronnie and Max are long-time friends of Ann & Mike.  They are members of the local Country  Club.  They invited us to have Lunch there.  I ordered a Lemon, Lime and Bitters.  The young lady returned with a glass of ice-water, sliced lemon and lime and a small dish containing the bitters.  How cute was this!  We take things for granted sometimes – obviously this is not a common drink request in America.  The waitress returned with a glass of lemonade and I was able to make it for myself, it was delicious.

We said our final good-byes to Ronnie and Max as we are leaving tomorrow.  The weather forecast is finally changing and we should start to warm up next week.   The snow has started to melt.  We have been experience record low temperatures of approx. 20 degrees below normal.

4th – 8th January 2010

It took about five hours to drive from Georgia to Mike and Ann’s  place in Tennessee.  It was very cold.  The weather was not looking good for the next week or so.  The heater was on full blast but we could not feel it.   I was wrapped up in a blanket in the front seat looking out the window.

We stopped briefly at Atlanta.   This is a BIG city. Sandy maneuvered George through 5 lane concrete highways, under and over several busy motorways  until the bitch found a Wal-Mart for us to stop and re-load.  The one memorable moment was when a loud indescribable noise surrounded us.  The earth began to shake under our feet.  We looked up and saw the belly of an Army plane just above our heads coming in for landing.  We both experienced a short anxiety attack – until we realized that the army base and airport runway was directly across the road from Wal-Mart.

We could not believe it.  Large blocks of ice hung on the side of rock walls like frozen waterfalls.  We have never seen anything like it.  We drove to the top of the mountain only half an hour away from Tullahoma when light fluffy snow began to fall.  We pulled over, went outside and walked around in circles jumping up and down with excitement.  Our excited passed quickly when we our face and fingers started to turn blue and ache from the  freezing cold winds.

Mike and Ann’s  new house is warm and cosy.  Most of the time we stayed in their lovely house enjoying the warmth of the fireplace and playing Farkle.  The first night the water in George froze up.  That meant that we could not shower,  wash the dishes and worst of all flush the toilet.   Working outside in these freezing conditions is extremely painful.   Sandy tried to unwind a frozen garden hose.   Ha! Ha! what a joke.  The bottled water and soft drinks also froze.  Every now and then you will hear an explosion from the front of the RV, only to discover that some of the cans exploded.

We were invited to Dinner at Davy Crockett’s Roadhouse Restaurant with Mike, Ann, Pauline, Ronnie and Max.  When you enter the restaurant, we saw several stuffed animals and a giant Grizzly Bear.  The food was excellent – large portions and reasonable prices.  The front seat of Ann’s car is heated.  It felt really good, at first I thought that I had be naughty and wet myself.  Thankfully this was not the case.

Wednesday we  went into Nashville – the home of Country Music.  It was approx. an hour drive from Tullahoma.  Ann gave up the front seat to Sandy hoping that he would help Mike navigate safely into Nashville with the GPS.  Ann sat in the back with Pauline and I.  Unfortunately Sandy was not doing a good job and Ann had to navigate from the back seat.

Near to Tullahoma is Lynchburg – which is the home of Jack Daniel’s Bourbon.  The distillery was established in 1866 and run tours daily.  Lynchburg is part of  a dry county, therefore no samples are given on this tour and you cannot purchase their product from the factory (or even nearby)  What the!!!!

We drove past the Tennessee Parthenon and Grand Old Opry.  Grand Old Opry runs shows twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays at 7.00pm.  Opry Country classics presents 80 years of country music history and live  performances, and best of all you will experience intermission, just like you did in the old days.

Most of the day we spend wondering around the beautiful Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, the first Phase was built back in 1970 know then as the Grand Old Opry, sold and re-named in 1977.

Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center is the largest Non-Casino Hotel in the World, with a total of 2,881 rooms, five Ballrooms and the largest Conventions center in Tennessee.  Opryland is located on a triangle tract of land.  Cumberland river on one side, Briley Parkway on the other side, and the Opryland Hotel was on the third.  Opryland Theme Park opened in 1972, approx. 2.5 million people visited the attraction every year, unfortunately occasional flooding occurred and many of the exhibits where destroyed.  They decided to close the Theme park in 1997.  The last show was called Christmas in the Park.  The Theme park was demolished and they built a Shopping Mall called Opry Mills Mall which opened in October 1997.  You can park in the Shopping Mall and walk over to Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center for free, or park in the designated car park and pay $18.00.  Of course, we chose to park in the shopping mall.

Hundreds of rooms have balconies overlooking a Atrium and Garden Conservatory enclosed by acre’s of glass allowing guest to experience the outdoors, indoors which is very unique.

.     MAGNOLIA     600 guest rooms plus the Hotel Lobby and signature Retail Store’s

.    GARDEN CONSERVATORY was added in 1983, 1067 rooms were added, Weddings are held here next to the Lion head Fountain and the Crystal Gazebo

.    CASCADES was added in 1988, 1891 rooms were added, plus a ballroom, waterfalls, gardens, second atrium, adjacent to the main registration desk.

.    DELTA RIVER  was added in 1996, 922 rooms were added, for $9.00 you can ride the Delta Flatboat through the guided tour of the Atrium.

We walked through the grounds of the hotel – which are all under cover and marvelled at the work and expense involved in building and maintaining the beutiful tropical gardens and the difficulty in heating the whole structure.