Saturday 22 / Sunday 23 November 2014

Today is our last day in Memphis. After breakfast, we lined up with everyone to get our boarding cards and have our phots taken for on board security. We then had to wait in line for our dinner seatings. All was going smoothly and reasonably quickly until a tour director decided she needed to place all her tour members together. So 45 minutes later we could confirm our seats and then decide what we were going to do until 4pm when we caught the bus to the American Queen Paddlewheeler!

I thought we'd go shopping until I found out that the Mall was a $50 taxi ride away (each way). So we decided to walk over to Mud Island which was a museum on the Civil War. As we started to walk over the bridge we were met with a steel gate.. It was closed for the winter! So we walked back to the hotel to see if we could get an earlier bus to the boat but they were all filled so were told we could get a taxi if we wanted to go over earlier. So several hours to still fill in until 3pm when we could board so we thought we'd walk along the Main Street Mall. Saturday morning and you could shoot a cannon down the street and hit no one. 

Not only was the city deserted, there were so many shops that were empty. And yet we were told the place is doing so much better than 15 years ago. So we came back to the hotel to have a coffee shop as we couldn't find a decent one on Main St and met up with Bill and Diane. We decided to ride the bus around the part of town we hadn't yet been to as we had a free pass. Not much better than the rest of town that we had found unappealing for most of the way and then we passed some new looking units to the south of downtown but that was it. Back to the hotel for a bite of lunch and then we decided to take the free bus to the wharf. That worked out great as we got there before any of the hotel busses and could board without the crowd as they were expecting 400 on the boat! They had a brass band playing as we boarded and we were met by the captain and about 15 staff offering some savory snacks. 

We thought we would be next to Bill and Diane as we have consecutive cabin numbers but it turned out they were on opposite sides of the boat. 

After the obligatory fire drill practice 

and after I unpacked, we went to explore what was on the boat. The interior of the rooms (dining, lounges and saloon) is beautiful! Our cabin is a decent size with doors out to the deck and nicely decorated.

We have opted for the early sitting for dinner at 5:15 which is a bit early but better than the 7:45 which is certainly too late! Dinner was 4 courses and several choices of each. Everything was excellent. I had the best, most tender steak I've had in a long time. But we decided we can't do 4 courses each night!

After dinner we went to the Grand Saloon for a Bluegrass show...2 groups of sisters performing together and they were terrific!

We sailed at 9:30pm for Vicksburg, Mississippi. I don't know how far it is but we will be cruising the river all day Sunday.

We woke up to a rainy and foggy day...a good day for lazing around! After breakfast we had a tour orientation to give us an overview of the procedures for docking and the Hop on Hop off bus. They also gave a short description of the optional tours and costs.

We then got in line to book one of the optional tours before heading for the dining hall to have a small lunch. I had a half cup of delicious cream of broccoli soup, a very small salad and the smallest brownie I could find! Rob had a bacon and cheese hamburger...I don't know how he did after the huge breakfast we ate.

Headed for the room to read for awhile but when I went to the bathroom, the room had a couple centimeters of water over it that was seeping onto the carpet. So, rang the pursers office and it only took a few minutes for someone to come. Evidently the toilet needed a new water pump so the guy went off to get the new part. After he finished another guy came to vacuum up all the water and disinfect the floor. We now have a blower drying the floor!

Dinner again was great, Rob had 4 courses (again, don't know where he put it as the rest of us only had the main meal with dessert. Hard to resist as the desserts are so good!

After dinner we watched the "Bourbon to Beale" show, "a musical journey from New Orleans to Memphis to celebrate the musical heritage of these cities." Again very good!

Friday 21 November, 2014

Warming up, 6c when we set out and probably got to 10c. Never thought I'd be excited to see 10c!!

Today we walked several blocks to catch the hop on hop off bus and we waited, and we waited and we waited. Thankfully we were at an information centre and they rang the dispatcher who said it would be about 20 min more. The driver was apologetic and said he was sent to pick someone else. He dropped us off at the Saint Blues Guitar Factory. 

 

They even had some guitar like instruments made of cigar boxes. They said that they were kind of like a guitar, banjo and ukulele! We then walked down to Sun Studios where Elvis started his recording career. Diane and Bill stayed on to go on the tour while Rob and I walked about a mile or so to see the National Civil Rights Museum.

Martin Luther King was killed at the Lorraine Hotel. After his death the hotel fell into disrepair. There were many people who felt that it was such an important place that it should be preserved so a public private partnership was formed with the city and the result is an amazing museum about the history of the African Americans and their struggle for equality. It was horrifying to see how poorly they had been treated.  I recalled reading about many of the scenarios as I was growing up.  It was extremely well done with lots of visual displays, videos, murals, theaters and simulated scenarios. They even had kept the room that King had stayed in as it was. 

Across the street they also kept the bathroom where they felt that the shot that killed King had come from. The displays showed the timeline and the investigation into the murder of King. It also had all the forensic information and several scenarios that they thought were plausible. To this day, they are still not sure if James Earl Ray killed Martin Luther King by himself or if it was part of a conspiracy.

We then walked to Beale Street to get a bite to eat. 

Can't say I am impressed with Beale Street or Memphis for that matter. 

Everywhere we have walked, we have been met with beggars or pan handlers as they call them chatting and being very friendly then asking for money.  I feel I need to look over my shoulder wherever we walk. Streets and footpaths need repairing and cleaning. So many of the shops are empty. Memphis has an unemployment rate of 10%. There is no building going on...quite different to Nashville which was clean, friendly, active and there was construction happening everywhere.

We looked at several of the "dives" on Beale St and ended up at an Irish place called Silky's. They had a pretty good live band and the food wasn't bad either.  

Stopped at another place for ice cream cones on the way home! 

Waited 15 min for our hop on hop off bus ( another disappointment) and ended up taking the city bus home ( very cheap at $1 a ticket!) 

Wednesday 19, Thursday 20 November, 2014

Wednesday was by far the coldest day we have had. It was -12c while we were packing the car! There had been frost the night before which made pretty patterns on the car. 

We headed off about 7:30am after a quick breakfast as were on our way to Memphis and we were told it was an 8 hr drive. Rob did a great job of driving...we stopped for a coffee just before Nasville at a MacDonalds no less as that is all we could find!

Diane's blogging friend Betsy suggested that we eat at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant at some stage, so just before Memphis we found one at Jackson. what a cute place. They have lots of knick-knacks for sale in the shop but the meals were amazing and so cheap! Very much like home cooking and the meals were huge. I had a tasty trout dish, Rob and Bill had Reuben sandwiches while Diane had chicken. The total bill was less than $40!

We made it to Memphis by 3 and checked in at the Memphis Downtown Sheraton as the American Queen Paddlewheeler tour puts you up for one night here before the trip so as we didn't want to change hotels, we decided to stay all 3 nights here. Rob and I then took the rental car back to the airport and then taxied back to the hotel.

As we were all tired from the long drive, we had dinner at the hotel and had an early night.

This morning, Thursday, we took a hop on, hop off bus to Gracelands, home of Elvis Pesley. We were disappointed with the bus as usually you receive earphones and there is a running commentary about the city and the places you drive by. Not on this bus. But passes are good for two days and can be used on the red and blue lines so we should be able to do a lot of sightseeing!

The tour of Gracelands was great. Didn't realize Elvis had a twin brother that was stillborn nor did I remember that he died at 42. He gave so much money away to charities and to people.  He was quite a philanthropist. The house he lived in was vey opulent for the time, he earned so much money and spent so much.

This was only one room of the many that displayed Elvis's clothes and memorabilia. They also had the gold, silver and platinum awards for every song that sold over 500,000 copies that were given to him by the record companies.

Then we saw the collection of some of his cars..wow!

After wandering through all of Gracelands, we got off the bus at Beale St to hear the music. Must have been too early as there wasn't much music but we really felt that it was a street we didn't want to be on. So many homeless asking for money and this sign in all the windows!

We then walked to the Peabody Hotel. This hotel is known for its ducks. For over 80 years they have had ducks that live on the roof in a "penthouse". At 11 am the duck master brings the ducks in the elevator down to the lobby so they can swim in the fountain. At 5pm every afternoon the duck master returns, rolls out the red carpet, puts the red carpeted stairs near the pond and while the music plays, the ducks climb out of the pond, walk down the red carpet stairs and cross the red carpet to the elevator and up they go to their "penthouse" for the night! Hundreds of people gather to watch this show every day!!

Monday 17 November/ Tuesday 18 November, 2014

Lots of layers today as it was going to be about -2c. We took off after a lovely breakfast again to the Mountains, travelling along The Little River Road. First stop was a walk to see Laurel Falls about 2.5miles return. 

We walked steadily uphill past laurel bushes, pine, oak and maple trees. The walk is so pretty. The waterfall wasn't anything to get excited about but it was certainly better than the Cataract falls that we saw yesterday. We then drove to a small town, Townsend and found a great coffee shop. We had coffees and hot chocolate and couldn't go past the apple fritters and caramel chocolate slices made by a local lady! 

In the car again and followed Laurel Creek Road to the Cade's Cove Loop. A cove in Smoky Mountain is a flat valley between mountains or ridges. It has some great cultural treasures that the Southern Appalacian Mountains have to offer. Cade's Cove was a farming community of about 125 families. We saw many of the 80 historical buildings, the first one being the home of John Oliver who bought the land in 1826. 

The workmanship was very impressive for that time, using mules, muscle, simple tools and neighborly help. The parents slept on the ground floor with the daughters while the sons slept upstairs.

The Primitive Baptist Church was built in 1827 and replaced in 1887. It was closed due to the Rebellion and they felt the Rebels were too strong. 

They had a cemetery behind the church where some of the early settlers were buried and relatives of those settlers more recently.

Elijah Oliver, son of John (the first house we saw) had a much bigger house and several buildings, including a spring house to keep milk cool, a smokehouse, corn crib (store corn for grinding) and a barn. 

(Playing with the filters on my camera)

They used logs to build the houses as there was no sawmill nearby to cut the logs.

Continuing on the ring road, we stopped at the Cable Mill area...like a small village!

We also saw a grist mill (for grinding corn) 

several houses, smokehouse, corn crib, and a sorghum mill where sugarcane was crushed and boiled down to make sugarcane! 

Did see a bit of wild life...was hoping to see a bear as they have been quite active.

We were going to stay in on Tues as it was -9c when we were having breakfast and there were some snow flurries. But it didn't stop the birds outside the breakfast room window!

Dan, the B &B owner told us about the outlet mall so we decided to visit it! That way we could stay warm in the shops and only have to brave the cold between shops. It never got above -5c today. 50% of the US has snow and when I looked at the weather map this morning, only Calif and the very south of Florida and Texas had temperatures above 0C - unheard of!  Treated myself to new thermals and gloves, don't know how long this cold is going to last.

Spent the afternoon in front of the fire catching up with this blog and downloading photos onto my Ipad. So relaxing!

Sunday 16 November, 2014

These bed and breakfast places are not good for the waistline. Today we had apricot Danish, baked apple oatmeal and link sausages! Rob and Bill had individual quiches...everything was so good!

After breakfast we headed off to the Great Smoky Mountains. 9 million people visit the Mountains each year and usually the road is bumper to bumper cars! Route 441 travels North to South from the Tennessee side to the North Carolina side. It has lots of pullout areas to stop and enjoy the view. As it was about 0C we didn't do a lot of walks...we were quite content to enjoy the drive! We stopped at a picnic ground to have a look around. Each area had a car park, table and bar b que. Lovely outlook. As usual, Rob had to check out the water...freezing cold!

Next stop was to view the Chimney Tops at 4700ft.it is named for the chimney like hole through one of the peaks.

Also saw some pretty icicles along the road!

We followed New Found Gap road to Mortons Overlook then 

to Clingmans Dome Road where we walked to the viewing tower which has a 360 view of the area.

 Clingmans Dome is the highest peak in the Smokies at 6643 feet. It was a very uphill walk and warmed us up only to be met with freezing winds at the tower. It was about 0C  but I'd hate to think what it was with the wind chill factored in! Robs face says it all!

The dead hemlocks have been killed by an insect, the hemlock wooly adelgid, native to Japan and China. The Fraser firs have been killed by the balsam woolly adelgid but conservation staff are working diligently to eradicate these pests and they have noticed new growth that is not affected by the bugs.

All rugged up against the cold, we walked for about 2 km on the Appalachian Trail. Some people walk the nearly 2200 miles from the start in Maine and finish in Georgia!

Mingus Mill was built in 1886 but they have restored it and it now works. They have demonstrations daily, unfortunately we missed it. They had a pot belly stove going to keep the place warm. You can buy freshly milled whole wheat flour and corn meal.

We then headed to Cherokee and had hot chocolates and coffee before the ride back. We were going to take a loop back but the road was closed for winter so we headed back the way we came. We had missed a short walk to see a waterfall on the ride into the mountains so thought we'd stop as it had stopped raining. It was such a pathetic looking waterfall!

Huge meals again tonight. Have a look at Robs $9.00 appetizer of pulled pork nachos. 

He couldn't even finish the meal...none of us could finish our meals. It is sad to see so much go to waste.

So many of the houses here are decorated for Christmas and the B & B is no exception. It has some great decorations!