Graceland - Elvis - you still rock!!

5 November 2011 - Graceland Day!!!   Love it all and it is so sad that Elvis has gone. The house itself was a lot smaller than I thought and was time warped in the seventies but the grounds were spacious and beautiful. It was a lovely autumn day - fog when we woke but a superb 21 degrees (70 F) later.

Elvis & his Mum & Dad

Graceland

Deep fried banana and peanut butter sandwich - and yes - it was great

I shed a tear - so sad

♫♫♫i'm gonna go to west memphis and look for my joy♫♫...♫....(Lucinda Williams)

2 November 2011 - Big drive 530 miles (853 kms) to Villa Rica (Atlanta - Georgia). During the drive we found a radio station that played only Christmas Carols - November 2nd?????   Goodness! Also as we approached Atlanta there were about 24 million billboards along the roadside. Some with very interesting messages.

 We got in late and stopped for petrol and decided this particular area wasn't where we wanted to be. The petrol station had bars around the cashier and while I was waiting for Lee to pay for the gas a guy knocked on my window and furtively flashed a Camcorder and asked if I wanted to buy one cheap. When I said no he ran off. I saw police cars flitting all around. We decided to go look for another motel and on the way got stuck in a traffic jam that went for miles - a semi trailer had caught on fire and there were fire trucks and police cars everywhere. Finally parked in Wal Mart at Villa Rica.   Bugs #1050    OLD $3.00

3 November 2011 - Today we drove on to Nashville.  I loved Tennessee as soon as I saw it but the rain was torrential and our Semi driving friends however must have thought it was a pleasant spring day. They drive like lunatics and the proof of the pudding came as we rounded a curve and saw a semi had gone off the side of the  road bridge and was down a gully. Police were there but we don't know if it was a fatality or not. For a while after that the other semi drivers seemed to take things a bit more cautiously - but not for long. :(  Stopped to take this photo - Fireworks and Petrol surely don't mix. I told the cashier she was very brave but she didn't seem to see the issue. Fireworks are legal to buy here for anyone and there seems to be factories everywhere.

When we got to Nashville we went to see the Grand Old Opry - Keith Urban there next week.

Finally managed to find a T Mobile to find why my phone hadn't been working for the last two days. The Sat Nav is very unreliable with that type of request - sending us on wild goose chases. Anyway - turned out my sim card was kaput. All fixed now and back on the air.  We went to  "Honky Tonk Row" (Broadway) and went to a couple of bars with VERY LOUD MUSIC. I had a few O'Doul beers (non alcoholic) and progressively got deafer as the night went on. My ears are still ringing 24 hours later but they are gradually getting better. The result of perforated and scarred ear drums in the past - they don't work the best when subjected to noise. One girl singer in particular hit just the note that set my head vibrating - lol - so finally had to leave.

"Honky Tonk Row"

"Tootsies"

"Tootsies"

Spent the night in another Wal Mart in Nashville.   Miles# 353.9 (570 kms)   - have done a lot of miles last two days. Bugs# 1070  OLD $3.00

4 November 2011 - Left Nashville heading to Memphis. Stopped at Jackson and saw the Rock a Billy Hall of Fame.

Took a photo of a van that looked like it could mate with ours.

The owner was Nathaniel Levi - a country singer who has done the rounds but not "made it" in his words. He seemed to be a genuinely happy soul and he gave us some of his CD's and we gave him an Australian flag sticker and some other bits. He put the sticker on the back of his van. After we left him we played his songs and they are really quite good - sort of country & gospel.  Lovely man.  We went on arriving in Memphis in the late afternoon, surprising ourselves as we didn't realise West Memphis is actually in Arkansas. Very excited that we are just a few hours away from Kae & Ang. I have known Kae for about 10 years on line and it's going to be great to meet her in person. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   :)
Had a disgusting dinner at Waffle House and have done my laundry and am showered and jammied in a motel close to Gracelands. Looking forward to visiting Elvis tomorrow.   Miles # 353.9 (570 kms)    Bugs# 1086
OLD $3.00   - it's not paying off being old so far :(

Air boats, humidity and alligators phew

1 November -Woke to a very humid morning but the day got better as we headed north.  Had a late start but I checked out the African Queen - the one from the Humphrey Bogart / Katherine Hepburn movie.It was in a pretty poor state of repair but apparently you can still go for a ride in it. It looked a bit to leaky for this little black duck!! Overall I like Key Largo - except for the humidity :)

We headed north and stopped for an air boat ride - something I've wanted to do for about 100 years. Finally did it and spotted a lot of big mean toothy alligators and petted one in the wild- which was incredibly scary. I have photographic proof of this on Lee's camera but her memory card pooped itself so we need to find a way to retrieve the shots or you wont believe me.

I loved the air boat and the Everglades - it was all just as I imagined.  Another thing off the bucket list.

After facing wild alligators - which our Indian guide said we shouldn't be too concerned about because we should be more scared of the water snakes - we started seeing the signs below popping up. WTF!  Now Larry and Robby - you have been running scared of our Australian critters but for goodness sake...alligators AND panthers. Good grief.

Spent the rest of the day heading north and am now stopped for the night at Sarasota Florida and plan a long drive tomorrow to get to Nashville the following day.

Miles # 267.7 (430 kms)  Bugs # 1027    OLD $3.00

♫♫♫ Here's looking at you kid..missing all the things we did.....♫♫♫

31 October..In Fort Lauderdale it rained all night and we woke to a flooded car park in the Motel which made it difficult to load the van. We got a bit wet :)

 

Flooded motel car park in Fort Lauderdale

We went to T Mobile to get my phone unblocked...grrrr....a glitch that stopped my phone internet for a couple of days. All fixed now. Set off for South Beach. I still prefer Daytona Beach. It was hard to see South Beach because of all the high rise housing along the coast.

South Beach

Miami itself has had a lot of flood water today and lots more rain to come. Drove to Key Biscayne and the sky turned black black black and then it absolutely bucketed down. Traffic was just crawling along and the wipers could hardly keep up.

Miami is a pastel city...shades of Miami Vice lol. Lots of high rise buildings and condos.

Miami

Nasty weather over Miami  

We drove from Miami to Key Largo. The rain by this time was so heavy we came to a bridge and it looked like it just disappeared. All good Halloween fare lol. I said to Lee maybe it just drops off to nothing...then I thought maybe it does and scared myself :(

A Bridge to Nowhere

Now at a Holiday Inn at Key Largo. Key Largo is also like you might imagine it. Most of the motels are seedy little dives...the sort of places you could imagine people on the run  hiding out in. I've got to stop this Halloween stuff hehehe. Anyway our motel has the original African Queen in it's grounds but we can't see it till daylight. It's still raining. Coming from South Australia which is the driest state in the driest continent all this rain is quite a novelty although it makes for cautious driving. 

Now we are tucked up in bed watching Jamie Lee Curtis in the original Halloween movie. Up until now the scariest thing was the high waisted jeans but I just caught myself holding my breath as the bad dude broke down the laundry door while Jamie Lee Curtis was trying to break through a window. Gonna have the screaming abdabs tonight for sure :(

Miles # 184.2 (296.4 kms)      Bugs # 1013       OLD $3.00

Florida - where the weather changes every couple of hours

30 October - left Jacksonville early and headed south. Stopped at Daytono and had a look at the Racetrack and Daytona Beach.

The Atlantic Ocean @ Daytona Beach

The beach was nice and much better than Cocoa Beach which was our next port of call. Also called in to the Kennedy Space Centre. Rockets everywhere and a surprisingly small shuttle.

There seems to be a great discrepancy in different areas in Florida - one minute we are in obviously rich areas (very rich) and next the housing is almost shanty like and very downtrodden. These areas are close together and you just seem to slip from one to another. (When we got to Fort Lauderdale we were looking for a particular Motel 6 and the area was really ratty and there were 10 Pawn shops in less than a mile so we decided to go look further lol.) The last leg of today's travel was from Cape Canaveral to Fort Lauderdale. The day started warm and sunny and as we headed south a few clouds appeared and then it got a bit cooler and then more and more clouds that got darker as we went. Then the rain began to fall ....heavier and heavier and then bloody heavy!! Could hardly see out the windscreen. We are now in a Motel 6 in Fort Lauderdale...don't fancy Walmart or RV parks in the wet. Makes midnight toilet trips a pain.
It is now very very humid.....weird....didn't think it would be humid in autumn. Tomorrow we go into Miami and have a look around.    Miles# 402.2 (647 kms)    Bugs#992   OLD$3.00