Memphis

22 April – Last night we watched the movie “Apollo 13” again and it is very close to what we saw yesterday at the Houston Space Centre. We left south Houston and drove over a bridge to the coast at Galveston (Houston’s port). We are now on the Gulf of Mexico. Galveston is an island (access by bridge or ferry) and our camp was a State Park 11 miles out of town. On the bikes and a ride down the beach to the next populated area of Jamaica Beach. This whole area was affected by Hurricane “Ike” in 2008. The island is very flat with no sand dunes, so any rough sea will go straight thru. All of the houses are up on stilts 15ft high.We rode thru a flash water canalled suburb before returning to “Ernie” for a sit on the beach and a read. The mosquitoes are pretty bad as there has been a lot of rain in the passed couple of weeks.

23 April – We drove back up the Galveston Island and did a shop at Wal-Mart before driving thru the lovely old ‘downtown’ area and onto the ferry back to the mainland and our trip east. We stopped at a nice beach for lunch and on thru some

huge oil refineries and over a couple of big bridges out of Texas and into Louisiana. These oil refineries get their oil from the off shore oil rigs. We could see 5 from our RV park at Holly Beach. We can not get over how flat and vulnerable all these beachside areas are.

24 April – Along the coast road to another ferry to cross another huge inlet. Because the land is so flat there are these inlets which we either cross by ferry or over large high bridges as there are barges working on them. There are also a lot of fishing and shrimp boats. We turned inland and drove thru very poor looking towns until the ground rose and the houses lost their stilts and became “normal”. The towns also became better. The skies darkened and it

started to rain very heavily. For many miles we drove in near darkness with lights on and lightning, thunder and rain. The unmentioned thought of tornados spring to mind!! Eventually the sun came out and we stopped for the night at a great free forest park camped under lovely dogwood trees. What a contrast to earlier and we enjoyed a read in the dappled sunlight.

25 April – As it was raining heavily in the morning we waited for an hour before setting off again working our way north thru Louisiana. The towns either are very poor or very rich with many southern mansions in the style of “Gone With The Wind”. The churches are all huge. Just south of the Louisiana/Arkansas border we stopped for the night at another forest park on the banks of Lake Corney. The weather was perfect and we basically had the place to ourselves.

26 April – We got of to a bad start today as the road we were to follow was closed. This resulted in a 30 mile detour. Eventually we started making progress north until we came to a flooded area and closed roads again resulting in a larger detour. The flooding, we discovered, was caused by the Little Missouri River. We abandoned the back roads and used the I-30 to get us north to the National Park at Hot Springs. We had travelled over 200 miles on a trip that should have been around 143 miles. After checking into the N.P. camping ground we decided to walk a great track to the town about 1.4 miles. This is the smallest National Park in the USA and was formed to protect the hot springs that flow out of the mountain.

We went to the park visitors centre which is in one of the of old bath houses. We will return tomorrow for a better look thru the town and the bath houses.

27 April – It is now cold and it rain heavily in the night. We had porridge for breakfast and are in our track pants. The rain stopped mid morning and we changed into shorts and walked some of the forest tracks for a view of the area and our return to the town. We were surprised at the end of our walk to find that the only way into the town on the track we were following was thru the very posh Arlington hotel foyer!  The town is fascinating. These hot springs were developed like a European spa and in the 1900s had 10 flash spa resorts vying for rich clients. The major city of Little Rock is only 55 miles away and many came by train to “take” the waters.

The National Park visitors centre is in one of these ornate bath houses, in original condition, and we spent some time exploring the features. It seemed very scary to us, especially the steam baths and the old mechanical and electrical massage equipment. There are only two bath houses now operating but they are nothing like Hanmer Springs!! Another bath house had been converted to a brewery and we enjoyed a beer and a nice lunch before our walk back to our camp.

28 April – It was raining again this morning so we waited a while before hitting the I-30 around Little Rock and onto the I-40 towards Memphis. We are now at an RV Park in Forrest City only about 40 odd miles from Memphis. We walked the short distance to the local shops and will shop there before setting off tomorrow. The camp owner is very hospitable and has recommended some places to visit in Memphis.

29 April – After a shop for supplies we drove the short trip on the I-50, crossing the muddy Mississippi River into Tennessee, to Memphis and our RV Park at Graceland, Elvis Presley’s home. The camp is at the rear of the Heartbreak Hotel with all the Graceland Mansion and Park next door. The streets in the camp are all named after Elvis hits like Teddy Bear Lane, Hound Dog Way and Shook up Lane. We booked a shuttle into Beale Street, the main music and bar area. They left every hour and we passed the motel where Martin Luther King was shot before being dropped at the start of the pedestrian area. It just happened to be bike night when the bikies can park their beautiful machines down the road. What a sight with people everywhere! We walked the length of the strip and were immediately drawn into the Jerry Lee Lewis Bar where a band was playing the Eagles, “Takin it Easy.

 With a beer, we sat at the bar listening to a variety of Rock and Roll. Our next club we stopped for a meal and a drink at was the legendary BB King Club. The band was 4 big black guys playing and singing the blues in the style of the great man himself. Back on the street and the crowd had thinned a bit so we went to the Rum Boogie Club where a great blues band played soul music with a fantastic harmonica player. We caught the last shuttle back to our camp after a fabulous night.

30 April – Today we explore Graceland. After purchasing our tickets ($40US) we hopped on the shuttle to the Graceland Mansion. We were issued with an I-Pad which gave us a commentary and lots of extra info. The house is very original and the tour was great. The last part is Elvis’s Grave and there were a few damp eyes (not Val or I however). Graceland Park is a little strange with the Mansion on one side of “Elvis Presley Boulevard” and the Park on the other. You get transported over

the road in shuttle buses which we seemed to have to wait for on every occasion. We walked back to “Ernie” for lunch and returned in the afternoon to see Elvis’s Aeroplanes, and cars. All very interesting but there are many souvenir shops selling every conceivable Elvis Memorabilia. You can print the Elvis image on every possible thing imaginable! All a bit tacky! After dinner we walked across the car park to the Rock and Roll Café where an Elvis impersonator was performing to a full house of ardent fans. We found a seat and enjoyed him very

much. He did all the Elvis greats and probably was better than Elvis in the latter stuff. So now we are totally Elvised out!!

Tomorrow we head south towards New Orleans.

USA 2015 - Back on the road again!!

16 April – Kate dropped us off at the airport for the start of our 3^rd year exploring the USA and Canada. Nicola and Celyn had arrived home from Cambodia the night before, and with Riley, they met us at the airport where they told us of their adventures. Eventually it was time for us to board our flight to Auckland. We had an upgrade for the Auckland to LA leg of our trip but unfortunately we were in an older Air NZ plane with uncomfortable seats. I had to grovel around on the floor to fix the foot rest on Val’s seat. The TV screens in our row were also faulty so our viewing was a bit haphazard. The food was great however! We had a short layover in LAX before the last 2 ½ hour Virgin America flight to Dallas. A taxi took us to the storage place where we found “Ernie” in great nick ready for our next six months adventure. We asked the taxi driver to wait while we started the engine but we were on the road to our RV Park in no time at all. On the way we picked up a pizza and bread for dinner and breakfast. We had booked into the same RV Park as we were in last year but it seemed like only yesterday. We went straight to bed and slept until 8:30am.

17 April – There is a list of things to do so we will not leave Dallas until tomorrow. We set out at 11.00am to get our cellphone up and going. Unfortunately the AT&T shop we first went to could not supply the package we required, so we had to drive 10 miles to a main shop where the helpful staff sorted us out. On the way back we passed a Tyre Discount place so we hooked a “u” turn and called in for tyres, the next thing on our list. “Ernie” needed 3 tyres (around US$100 each) and while they were being fitted we walked to a “Taco Bells” for lunch. This was our first experience of this fast food and it almost felt healthy. It certainly tasted good. Back on the road with new rubber, and back to the place we had given “Ernie” a wash before storing it last year. $7 later and with all the dust of the six months washed away we went to Wal-mart for a huge grocery shop. It was 5:30pm when we arrived back at camp exhausted, packed away the groceries, and at last sat outside for a beer. The weather is warm and overcast. Our route to Houston, Memphis and New Orleans took some planning as it’s not that straight forward without some back tracking. We eventually came up with a route that will allow us to see lots of this southern area. We were driven inside by torrential rain and an electrical storm which lasted till bed time.

18 April - The sky has cleared and we are off on a major ring road around Dallas/Fort Worth. This is a huge urban area and we drove about 60 miles around it before heading south towards Houston, our first major city this trip. We will take 3 days for the drive and have stopped for the night at a great Texan State Park, Purtis Creek. Lucky as usual, we got the last site available. It is the weekend and there is also a Scout camp here. After lunch we rode the bikes along two short tracks stopping at the lake to watch the locals fish in muddy waters for Bass. Nothing caught!! After dinner outside we walked around the camp and as we returned there was some lightning. Back inside and the skies opened. If we thought last nights rain was heavy, this storm made it look like a light shower! The hail on the roof was deafening. We looked out and you would have sworn it was snowing but it was just the leaves from the trees being shredded. No harm however and after an hour it was all quiet again.

19 April – The trip today was thru the very green and pleasant countryside of Texas. As usual we are driving the back roads south passing many small towns and huge Baptist churches, all with full car parks as it is Sunday. Our stop is just outside the urban sprawl of Houston at Huntsville State Park. The park was very busy with day visitors but very few camping. We spotted this sign on one of the fishing jetties.

 

20 April – The whole of today’s trip is along the I-45, the major interstate going thru Houston (4^th largest city in the US). The urban area started about 20 miles into the drive, so we drove 65 miles along huge multi-laned roads thru many spaghetti junctions and intersecting the concrete jungle of downtown Houston all at 60mph. Our main objective in coming here is to go to the Houston Space Centre. The RV Park we are staying at is only a short distance from it on the south side of Houston, right beside the I-45. Lots of traffic noise!

21 April – It was a short drive to the Houston Space Centre where we spent 5 hours looking at and experiencing the various NASA exhibitions. After a short movie we entered an area containing the various space vehicles starting with the first orbiting space craft and going thru the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, the

Lunar module and finishing with the Shuttle. Significantly these are not mock-ups or models but the real thing including the charring of re-entry. The astronauts must have been super brave as the older Mercury and Gemini modules were tiny. We saw the original moon buggy prototype and lots of moon rocks. Val even touched a bit of moon rock. Next on our tour was a tram trip around the space centre which is still very operational and covers a huge area. We looked down on the training area where the present day astronauts practise in the International Space

Station and the new generation space craft. Surprisingly we were allowed to take photos of everything. USA and Russia co-operate so I suppose there are no secrets now. Next we stopped at Rocket Park where all the older rockets are on display. The Saturn V rocket used for the moon missions is huge! The second tram took us to the Mission Control building and up to the old control centre used for the Apollo missions. It looked just like the movie “Apollo 13”. We even sat in the visitors’ seats.

To our surprise the present day control room was one floor down and controlling the International Space Station at the time. We were not allowed in there! All in all it was a great day and well worth coming to Houston to experience.