29. Day 24 – To Graceland, Memphis Tennessee

Friday 8 September 2006

We had a particularly early start – we were off at 8.00 am because Dick had looked on the internet the night before for details on Graceland.  Yes, he had even found the address.  3717 Elvis Presley Boulevarde and keyed it into the GPS.  It was going to take us right to the front door of Elvis’ house.  The other highlight for Dick would be standing beside the Mississippi River.  On Dick’s flight around the world in 1982, he landed the helicopter on the banks of the Mississippi River and ran down and cupped his hands full of water.  He was told later that the Mississippi was severely polluted and it was fortunate that he didn’t get sick.

Sadly, just before we left we received an email saying that Peter Brock had been killed.  This was so sad.  First of all Steve Irwin in our first week of driving and now Peter Brock in our second.  Dick knew Peter well and had even been driven around Oran Park with him at high speed.

Once again, it was a beautiful day – 64°F as we set off.  We heard on CNN in the morning that it was raining heavily in The Rockies.  We had been lucky – 24 days of driving and not one rainy day. 

We are now only 500ft above sea level.  We noticed both sides of the road were bordered by trees and that much of the area was cleared for farming.  We crossed the border into Arkansas at Fort Smith and headed south east towards Little Rock.

After stopping at Maccas for a quick refresher, Pip took over the driving.  Unfortunately for Pip the road started to turn into some of the most badly built concrete road that we had ever experienced.  At 60 mph the Earthroamer tended to buck and jump in synchronisation with the bad concrete.  It was similar to very long corrugations – quite unnerving.  Fortunately this bad section of road only lasted for about 20 minutes.

At about 10.30 am we drove past Little Rock.  Of course Little Rock is famous for President Bill Clinton, who was the Governor for Arkansas for many years.  Little Rock was also infamous for the race riots in the 1950s.  Even when President Eisenhower decreed that the schools should be de-segregated when black students tried to attend the central high, the State Police were brought in to stop them.  There were weeks of court battles and racial tensions before Eisenhower finally intervened and gave the students armed protection so that they could enrol.

It’s great to see that things have moved ahead.  The school itself is now integrated and from what we saw in the southern states, which have high numbers of black people, there seemed to be no racial tension at all.  Then again, what can you see in such a short time?  Behind the scenes the situation may be very different.  Our tribalism seems to be a fundamental part of our human nature.

As we headed east, the leaves were just starting to turn yellow and there were crops with wheat, corn and cotton fields.  Yes, our first cotton fields.  Cotton was the staple of the South and the fundamental reason for the American Civil War.   The North, not being dependent on cotton and slavery, had rightly decided that they should follow Britain’s lead and abolish slavery.  The South would not have a bar of it and decided to secede.  What happened is now history, the result was one of the most democratic and incredible countries on earth.

We have never seen so many trucks in all our life!  We didn’t think it possible that the number of trucks could increase from what we saw in Texas – but it did!  As we came over a rise you could see 15 – 20 trucks in one direction and 15 trucks in the other direction.  Once again, more trucks than cars.  All of these vehicles were shipping enormous amounts of freight from one side of the country to the other, or as they would call it in Papua New Guinea, shipping cargo.

At last we crossed the Mississippi River into Memphis.  We were now down near sea level. 

We followed the GPS reading for Graceland and at 3.00 pm we arrived at the carpark just opposite the Graceland Mansion.  For $30.00 each we had a self guided tour with a recording device and headset.  It was very well done.  The Graceland Mansion was smaller than we thought it would be but the grounds were larger.  The Mansion itself, which was built in the 19^th Century, was of a beautiful and stately design. 

Inside was quite different, very 1950s and very much Elvis.  Dick loved it however Pip thought that it was rather kitsch. 

In the back yard there was a small building that was used as an office and where Elvis’ father Vernon, assisted by others, answered letters to fans.  This reminded Dick of Slim Dusty’s back yard where a building had been added with a flat underneath for a valued auntie and upstairs was a room where Joy and Slim’s daughter Anne could answer letters (and now emails) to fans.  They both looked very similar even though they were at least 30 years apart in time.

We quickly had to find a place to stay and what could be better than an RV Park called “Tom Sawyer’s”.  We drove back over the Mississippi River and pulled up right on the bank of the River. 

Eric from Earthroamer arrived by air from Denver with the exchange inverter and within an hour he had it fitted and everything was working again – that is all the AC equipment such as the air conditioner, microwave oven, power points, the electric kettle and the toaster.  Of course all the 12 volt equipment, such as the satellite TV, radio, etc had never failed – Dick said “thank Heavens”.

Pip sat outside on the banks of the Mississippi watching barges going back and forth while she wrote emails.  She literally covered herself with mosquito repellent – there were plenty of mossies around!  It was still warm at 7.23 pm and still light.  There were lots of cicadas around which made it almost feel like home.

We purchased “Viva Las Vegas” DVD at Graceland so we watched Elvis and Ann-Margaret.  It was quite nostalgic and a lovely way to end our day. 

623kms Today  10,216kms Total

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