Andy & Gillie's Big Adventure!: The King is Dead, Long Live the King. OR How I Learned to Love Elvis…

Well, it’s been a while. Hope you weren’t holding your breath, reader, but so much has happened!

Starting this blog in a cramped (but cheap) little campground in New Orleans. Don’t know when it’ll be posted yet – hopefully at the weekend when we have had more adventures. Almost breathless from the hectic pace we have lived over the last three weeks. This could be a long one, so gird your loins…

To continue from where we left off, we spent a couple more days cruising down the magical Blue Ridge Parkway, taking zillions more pix, before coming off and experiencing our first-ever refusal at a Walmart – in Appomattox (I could say something smart about Confederacy of Dunces and all that, but…). Undeterred, we found another one about 30 miles further on and had a very pleasant night. Sort of. If you check our route on the map, you’ll see that we are now heading south-east, having dog-legged from a south-westerly direction. If not, well I’ve just told you.

So, we end up at Virginia Beach, where we managed to miss the rain and had yummy beef burgers for lunch in a sports bar, which was showing about 10 different ball games at the same time. Nightmare! Cycled three miles back though, so felt worthy.

The reason we went east was that Gillie had noticed what looked like a pencil mark on our map of Virginia, which turned out to be this delightful strip of land called The Outer Banks. Check it out – it’s a hidden gem of long thin islands connected either by bridge or ferry (free and toll). Absolutely wonderful. There had been huge storms so some of the roads were closed, but we spent three days driving, camping and waiting for ferries all the way through Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands down to Morehead City.

While we were in Ocracoke, we met a lady who was looking for a bar (aren’t we all?) where she was meeting her son and his girlfriend. We went our separate ways and found a paradise bar on the waterfront, where we could watch literally, Red Sails in the Sunset. Then the bar closed. At six (?) So we thought we’d go in search of the bar mentioned by the lady we had met earlier. Ocracoke isn’t a big place, so we found it quickly and proceeded to have a hugely enjoyable couple of hours with Janice, Wren and Heather, who are now FaceFriends! Great!

Myrtle Beach – a kind of shabby Pompano Beach (private joke, sorry) – just detained us long enough to have a couple of great fires and an afternoon in the sun, then on to Charleston – The Jewel of the South. We found a great campsite just outside the city in a county park and spent a day just cycling around, watching them put up loads of lights for their ‘Holiday Festival of Light’, which we sadly missed. Then we toured Charleston. Only a small city but with lots of ‘history’ and some very picturesque areas, as well as a dark slave-past. In fact, much of our tour around the southern states has been informed by the causes and consequences of the Civil War, or The War Between The States – as the recidivists would have it.

We also treated ourselves to some real southern cooking – shrimp n grits, sort of a shrimp stew on a bed of semolina-type stuff, but very tasty and filling.

Leaving Charleston, we headed northwest again, to the Swamp Rabbit Brewery and Taphouse in Travelers (sic) Rest, North Carolina, which had been recommended to us by Susan and Jamie – our hosts in Cohasset. Anyway, they had a quiz on and – well, bit of a confession – we didn’t win, even though I told FaceFriends that we had. Mea culpa. It was a stupid quiz anyway, with loads of questions about American tv shows and sports stars. I mean, who knows that stuff anyway? And, more to the point, who cares?!!!

Continuing in our habit of foisting ourselves on people across the globe, we had the very good fortune to discover that former neighbours of ours from Dorset had returned to their house in North Carolina for the winter, just a couple of weeks previously. So, in our well-oiled freeloading way, we invited ourselves to their lovely house in the mountains for the weekend. It was quite exciting getting Molly Too up the winding hill, missing all the low-hanging power cables, into the sloping narrow driveway, and then executing a 26-point turn to make sure she was pointing the right way for the task of getting her OUT again!!!

Needless to say, all went off more or less hitchless, thanks to the expert signalling and beady eyes of our hosts Brendan and Laurel. We had a lovely weekend with them seeing more of the Blue Ridge Parkway, local arts, crafts, apples, wine, ribs and other stuff as well as some delicious food. Thanks again for making us so welcome after such a long time.

Proceeding in a stately manner from lovely Lake Lure (home of B & L), we started our music pilgrimage. A quick Walmart in Knoxville, then we reached Nashville. As the Crowded House song goes – ‘Always take the weather with You’. Well, we left the sunshine in Lake Lure. If you read our post about Washington, you’ll know that USA doesn’t take any prisoners when it comes to rain. And boy, did it rain.

Undaunted, we made our way into the centre of Nashville and visited the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Now, we’re neither of us great fans of country music, but you can’t help but be carried along by the sheer importance and significance of this place.

We spent an intriguing couple/three hours in the CMHFM, before hitting the Strip – Nashville Main Street. After gawping at $400 cowboy boots (and secretly/stupidly lusting after a pair – they ship as well!), we went variously to Tootsies – the most famous bar on the strip, Honky Tonk Central, Legends Corner and Rippers. In each of which beer/wine had to be drunk and Johnny Cash had to be played – to raucous applause each time. ‘I Walk The Line’ is now embedded in my psyche, almost as much as ‘Jackson’ and ‘Nashville Cats’. WTF?!

It’s live music Jim, but not as we know it!!

Next, it was the Home of Blues (or one of them) via Jackson – Lee and Nancy (or Johnny and June) have got a lot to answer for! We actually camped at the Graceland RV Park, which was right behind Heartbreak Hotel and a five-minute walk to the Graceland ‘Estate’ (read loads of gift shops and restaurant/money-making opportunities, interrupted by bits of the real thing).

But I’ll come onto that anon. Last Friday 30^th Oct, we took the shuttle bus (great institution, lots of campgrounds offer this) to Sun Studio. What can I say? It’s a tiny, grotty little building where history was made. And we were walking in the footsteps of genuine Legends. Not just any old Tom, Dick or Harry who picked up a guitar, but we actually stood on the spot where Elvis, Carl Perkins, Howlin Wolf, Jerry Lee Lewis, to name but a few, recorded. Mofo! I mean, words literally fail. Ike Turner and his band recorded the first ever rock n roll single – Rocket 88 – in the room where we stood.

Now, it may be that thousands, if not millions of people have seen these things, done this tour, walked these paths and touched the actual mike that Presley used, but that don’t make it any less – genuinely - awesome!

To move on. We then went in to the city centre and walked a couple of blocks to the National Museum of Civil Rights. We expected to spend a couple of hours tops there, but were completely engrossed and humbled for more than four hours. Apart from telling the story of the struggle for justice and rights from the early days of slavery to the present day, what we didn’t realise was that the museum and its annex have been built around the Lorraine Motel and the boarding house opposite where Dr Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated by James Earl Ray. You actually walk almost into the room and onto the balcony where King stood when he was shot and then into the room from where Ray fired the shot. Made us think.

We needed sustenance after that, so we headed back to Downtown Memphis. And Blues. We saw some awesome bands (and some shit), but had a great time overall.

It rained the next day (surprise), but we had decided we were ready for Elvis, so we walked across the carpark from our campground and booked into to the Graceland Experience. Please excuse me if you detect a hint of cynicism occasionally, but there’s no doubt that the whole Elvis thing is geared up to taking as much money as possible from the humble tourist/fan. And as Americans put shopping as a hobby (!), that’s not always very difficult. But we showed ‘em. Spent about $5 max!

Never been a great fan of the man, his music or his ‘legend’. But. This is Elvis FFS. We walked around Graceland and its outlying territories (exhibits) with mouths slightly agog and inane grins on our faces for the most part. The choked bum, the weight gain, the letter to Nixon, the divorce from Priscilla and the hold Col Tom Parker had on him are glossed over or ignored (Parker only mentioned in passing a couple of times on inconsequential displays), but you can’t ignore the importance of Elvis in the history of the world. The Holy Trinity – Elvis, Dylan, The Beatles. Nuff said.

Still tingling the next morning from the whole experience, we went for another big deal. Lonely Planet had mentioned this and we thought, what a crack. So, leaving in good time, we set off and arrived on the stroke of 11.30 at the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church. Pastor Bishop AL Green. Amen!

Well, we sat through an hour of evangelical bible study with about a dozen fervent and devout souls, thinking ‘how can we slope off without being rude?’ Then about 12.30 – a bit late we thought – in comes the congregation, with Bishop AL and various Deacons. That’s when it all kicked off. The choir was in excellent voice, the bish gave it large with some sermonizing about fracking among other things, sang a beauty and everyone had a blast – few testifyins and some rapture – what a way to start Sunday!!

Walmart that night and a quick chat with Holly, then, when we pulled up the next night, it dawned on us why the mobile phone had kept getting the time wrong. We hadn’t realized that the clocks went back on the 1^st November (Sunday morning), so we had been living for two days an hour out of sync with the rest of the world. Time literally doesn’t fly…wotthehell, archy, wotthehell

More back roads – we avoid the interstates as much as possible – brought us to N’Orlinz, Louisiana. We arrived the day before Gillie’s birthday and after receiving a much-coveted Elvis pencil (gold) as her birthday present (complete with eraser) as well as many lovely digital good wishes and a lovely Facebook post from Holly (and Emily), we set off into The Big Easy.

Now, there’s been a lot said about New Orleans. Bush’s fly-past visit after Katrina was a low point in the city’s history, but it’s definitely alive! It was a bit alarming how many people had given us warnings about being in the wrong neighbourhood at the wrong time. And it seemed like any time when the police weren’t around was the wrong time and any place where there wasn’t a big police presence was the wrong place. Hmmm.

We caught the bus into the centre, which you have to change onto a streetcar (sadly, not named Desire, but St Charles) to reach and while on the bus we asked a very nice gentleman about walking from the streetcar stop rather than catching it (the streetcar). This was in the middle of the day, mind. His response was ‘I wouldn’t walk if I was you. It’s a bad neighbourhood – it ain’t worth getting a knock on the head for 50 cents (cost of transfer). Eeek! We waited for the streetcar.

Small world moment. You may or may not recall, dear reader, that we met a lovely young lady named Lymaris and her son Isaac in Bar Harbor, Maine, some months back and became FB Friends. Well, whilst surfing, or trawling or some other such nautical thing on the net in NO, we discovered that she was also in New Orleans, so messaged her to arrange to meet up. Walking around our cosy, but inexpensive, campground five minutes later, we discovered their camper no more than 30 feet away from where we were! Small world indeed.

Anyway. Having survived public transport into Downtown NO, we proceeded to have a great day, starting with beignets (doughnuts to you) and jazz in a courtyard café-bar on Bourbon, followed by gin and tonics on a balcony bar, then lunch on the only paddle steamer – The Natchez – which took us to all the best industrial areas of the Mississippi (it is a working river after all and either the third or sixth longest river In The World – depending on which tour guide you listen to). We spent the rest of the day finding bars and drinking and listening to jazz. Mmmm, nice.

Part two of Gillie’s birthday was mostly spent on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour, plus walking tours of a cemetery in the Garden District and the French Quarter. All very interesting and worthy. Kept us out of bars, too. Dinner was going to be on a balcony listening to a jazz band in the French Market, but as we waited for our food, Gillie spotted A RAT! On the balcony !!!@!@£$%^&*. ‘welcome to N’Orlinz’ said the unfazed waiter. We ate inside and quickly made our way to Frenchmen Street for more jazz and wine.

So now we’re in Biloxi MS. It’s very hot and humid. Why had I heard of Biloxi before we left UK? No idea. Anyway, if you’ve made it this far, you’re up to date. Well done, prizes will be awarded on our return. Stay well, promise it won’t be so long before the next post, nor will it be as long…

Lots of love (stay safe, as they say in NO) Andy xxxx

PS. Wow, now a pause for breath before I start!! I’ve just been doing some housework (or camperwork), it’s not all fun and games you know, there’s the shagpile carpet to brush etc. etc… A word about Biloxi, I’d never heard of it, but it’s gorgeous!! There’s 26 miles of the whitest sand you’ve ever seen and the road runs alongside it, with views of the gulf of Mexico all the way along. We’re only here for two nights so will be off on our bikes soon to explore further.

Now about petrol (or gas) stations. They must be one of the friendliest places around. It’s probably because of our California plates, but everyone wants to chat and find out about the trip. If there’s no-one about when filling up (we do this often, when doing 8 miles to the gallon!) we can watch tv, as there is a screen at every pump in many garages! How weird is that? Lastly, the price of fuel!! The cheapest we have seen is $1.68 a US gallon (3.78 litres). Which in real money is about 35p a litre!!. Every one is telling us it’s a good time to be travelling.

As Andy has said, we loved Memphis, it’s such a cool city with a great atmosphere. The Civil Rights Museum knocked me out, it was so thought provoking and moving. However the icing on the cake was the visit to Graceland. We couldn’t believe we were staying a five minute walk from the mansion. When Elvis bought it in the ‘50’s for $100,000, it was in the middle of the countryside, now of course it’s surrounded by ‘stuff.’

We went there because you can’t visit Memphis and not go, but we couldn’t believe how excited we were: I was a big fan in Elvis’s early days, I remember going to see ‘Loving You’ at the Aberdeen cinema in Scarborough and sitting through it twice (do you remember Christine and Smuth??)

We are still laughing about our experience at Al Green’s church, when we were complaining to each other about everything being an hour late… but nobody told us!!

Finally a quick note about the change in our itinerary. We’re staying in Florida until 9^th February in order to have a decent time to sell Molly. We will then spend just five weeks in South America, as we were concerned about security and financial aspects of buying and selling vehicles over there. So we’re basing ourselves in Lima, Santiago and Buenos Aires and then doing organized trips from those cities.

Time to go, the bikes are calling. Thanks again for all the lovely, lovely birthday messages. I had such a fabulous time in New Orleans and loved nearly every minute! Thanks Andy for making it so special.

Love to you all

Gillie xxx

PPS. The girls are really well. Holly is loving her new job at the Flight Centre, only 3% of applicants get through to the training and only 5 out of 9 were successful at the end of a gruelling 3 weeks!! Emily is burning the candle at both ends (as usual) with her fitness and yoga classes, as well as her full time café management role! Well done to both of them. xx