It was Monday again, and as usual, most things we wanted to see were closed. We looked at the outside of the Capitol Building, and of the Old Capitol Building, which were both very interesting, but would have been better if we could have seen the inside too. One exception to the closed on Monday rule was the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center. The building was the first public school for African-Americans, and chronicled the lives and culture of everyday people living in the South at the turn of the century.
0 Comments
Memphis; home of soul, blues, rock and roll and one hell of a party. Beale Street, is a 1.8 mile strip in downtown Memphis lined with blues clubs, bars and buskers. Blocked off from traffic, the street becomes one large outdoor bar, with establishments selling take out cups of beer or frozen daiquiris that you could buy and roam the street with. Most bars had bands and performers playing day and night, and in the evening the street became crowded with people and an electric party vibe.
In between rounds of beer, we found time to watch a baseball game. It took almost the entire length of the game (quite a long time, baseball isn`t a fast game) to understand the rules, but in the end I decided that as watching sports go, it wasn`t too bad. Of course, because nothing is done in halves here, the end of the game was marked with a large, long, loud fireworks display. Day two in Memphis was a little less merry, as we got to know a little more about the city’s history, and the struggle for civil rights. The Civil Rights Museum is an extensive collection of artifacts and stories from the 17th century to present day, housed in the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King, jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. It was a wonderful museum, and I’m sure it would take a good two days to read all the information on display. Other highlights included A. Schwab's Dry Goods Store and the Beale Street Flippers. The Beale Street Flippers are a group of buskers that flip and cartwheel down the street, often drawing large crowds of onlookers. A. Schwab's Dry Goods Store has been open since 1876 and sells everything from hats, to ice cream or voodoo powders. It is sprawled over 3 floors, and was a great way to while away the hours. We also bravely ordered 2 large portions of ribs at Interstate BBQ. When I saw the smirk on the face of the waitress, I knew we were in trouble. 1o minutes later, a gigantic pile of tender, delicious ribs arrived at the table. Once we were both stuffed full, it didn’t even look like we had touched the plate. The ``large`` portion was definitely overkill, as we had enough leftovers to last for 3 more meals. One of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, the battle of Shiloh resulted in an estimated 23,746 casualties. Early on the morning of April 6, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee, Confederate forces launched a surprise attack on the Northern Army. Fierce fighting lasted for 2 days, until late on April 7 reinforcements arrived from the North, and the Southern Army was finally beaten. The battlefield is well marked, with a driving tour that takes you around the major points of interest. During the day, park rangers give talks about different points of the battle, or about life as a soldier.
Another 200 miles brought us to Savannah Tennessee, where we stopped for a night at the local rodeo. Highlights of the night included saddle bronc (otherwise known as the bucking bronco) and bull riding. In both of events, riders aim to stay on a bucking horse or bull for a minimum of 8 seconds, holding on with only one hand. Cowboys also competed in calf roping, by chasing and lassoing a calf, then jumping off their horse, throwing the calf to the ground and tying 3 of its legs together. Surprisingly, the calves didn’t seem too upset about being lassoed by the neck and thrown to the ground. As soon as they were released, they seemed to happily saunter out of the auditorium without a care in the world. Cowgirls competed in both lassoing and barrel racing, which were interesting, but lacked the same sense of excitement, as there was no chance of goring.
From The Smokys, we tracked west to Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Chattanooga Choo Choo was made famous in 1941 by Glenn Miller and his big band hit. The Choo Choo itself is an old station terminal, which was converted to a luxury hotel in 1972, and made for a nice shady stop after a long, hot days drive.
When I think of the Great Smoky Mountains, I think of hiking, of green trees and the crackle of a campfire in the evening. Apparently though, other people don’t. Gatlinburg, gateway to the Great Smokys, situated on the boundary of the national park is one of the most hyper commercial towns I have ever been to. If Vegas, the Melbourne Show and the Circus had lovechild, this would be it. Almost all buildings in town are decorated with some kind of tacky theme, like redneck hotels, circus themed restaurants and titanic museums. There were more multi-level go kart tracks then I could count, fantasy mini-golf, Ripley’s believe it or not, an aquarium, a mysterious mansion, Ripley's Davy Crockett Mini Golf, mirror mazes, candy factories, 5D movie theaters (I’m not even sure how that is possible?) a penguin enclosure with real, live African penguins and the list goes on and on. There were also so many different dinner shows, that I lost count. We decided that this must be where actors come to die.
Unfortunately, our budget didn't stretch to watching Bill Gladwell "The Mentalist" in action, or to Hillbilly golf, so instead we laced up our walking shoes, and hit the trails in the park. Considering how busy Gatlinburg, and the picnic areas inside the park were, once you moved more than 500m up any of the trails, you had the place pretty much to yourself. In two days, we managed a very respectable 36km, up a portion of the Appalachian Trail resulting in sore legs, and a feeling of satisfaction. It was nice to get out and walk a bit after spending so much time in the car, and was also nice to camp in a national park, instead of a Walmart car park for a change. First and foremost on our list in Bluegrass Country was to visit Woodford Reserve. Since we have had litres of the stuff, it only seemed appropriate to stop and see where it was made. However, being a Saturday, lots of other people had had the same idea. It was busy!
The distillery has remained on the same sight since Elijah Pepper began distilling in his backyard in 1812. Nowadays, Woodford Reserve is owned by a multinational (who isn’t though really?) but manages to maintain an old-world feel with its beautiful grey stone buildings, and small scale production. The highlight of the day was obviously, the sampling. Next, was a visit to the Keeneland racetrack, home to the world’s largest reference library on thoroughbreds (it contains more than 10,000 volumes on the subject). While we didn’t explore the library, we did tour the track and got a glimpse of the early morning training. It was wonderful, green and tranquil, and I have a feeling I enjoyed it a lot more early one Sunday morning, then I would have, if it were a busy and bustling race day. The rest of our visit to Lexington was foiled, by being Sunday, being too early in the day, being too late in the day, not having adequate parking etc. so we decided it was time to move onto Gatlinburg and the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. First in town was a tour of old Louisville. There was street upon street of beautiful Victorian houses, almost all very well preserved. We were able to drop in and visit Conrad-Caldwell House built in 1893 for a rich tanner and his wife as their retirement residence. The house had detailed and intricate woodwork in cherry, bird's eye maple, and golden oak, completed by a number of master carpenters. Parquet floors were designed by the lady of the house in classic patchwork designs, and built in timbers matching each room. It was clear that in construction, no expense was spared. Next was a quick trip around downtown Louisville, including the giant bat outside the Slugger Museum (which is actually a water tank) and a fantastic art gallery housed in a boutique hotel.
We had noticed that everywhere you looked, people were driving hot rods and well restored vintage classics. Was there some event in town? Or did the people of Louisville just have great taste in cars and buckets of money? Upon further investigation we found out the National Hot Rod Association had a show in town, with 11,000 cars on show. As it turns out, 11,000 cars were far too many to try to admire in one day. We left with very sore feet, only having seen a quarter of the cars on show. Green grass, neat houses and a break from the crazy drivers of Michigan; a stop with family in sleepy Indianapolis was a welcome break.
It was great to see my cousins (second cousins, cousins once removed, I’m not too sure to be exact?) again, and to meet their two boys. We took a trip out to see the Indianapolis motor speedway, and the attached museum. Angus was very impressed with the crazy old cars they started racing in the Indy 500. After, a picnic lunch and a tour past the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in downtown Indianapolis. There were also a number of firsts in the cuisine department. Beer aged in Bourbon barrels (delicious!), Southern Style Chicken Dumplings (kind of like a tasty creamy chicken pasta), crumbed okra and the tastiest of all, a double chocolate fudge Coca Cola cake, a la mode. After a smashing week at Tom’s, it was time to get moving. This time, onto Austin to visit an old friend Dash, who was kind enough to let us crash at his house for a week. Our first introduction to Texas was a friendly fellow who worked as a janitor at a rest stop just after the Texan border. He introduced himself as NAME, which turned out wasn`t actually his name. He was however a very nice and very talkative guy. He liked his job, because he liked to talk, and working at a rest stop, he said people never got sick of him talking, or telling the same storied again and again.
Compared to the size of an Australian city, Austin is small. But boy does it punch above its weight! There are bars and clubs galore, restaurants and all manner of taco and tex mex shacks. Luckily we arrived on a Friday night, so got the chance to wander down 6th (hipsterville) and onto dirty 6th (trashville) and see what a night out in Austin was all about. I could spend years in Austin, and not get sick of the bars on 6th street. Good, local beer was cheap, and they looked like they knew how to make a cocktail. The White Horse was a bar where couples, under the age of 50 actually got together and danced a couple’s dance. LIKE IN THE 1950s! Apparently it’s called the Texas Two Step, and is quite popular in the area. I never thought I’d ever go somewhere where people of my generation actually knew how to dance a couples dance. Dirty 6th (the continuation of 6th Street) was all about short skirts, loud music and drinking to excess. A quick trip round on a friendly roomie’s bicycle taxi was a good end to the night. The rest of the week was spent eating delicious Tex Mex, playing Peter Pan Mini Golf, and visiting Longhorn Cavern, an hour out of Austin. Other than lots to eat and drink, Austin also has THE best outdoor pool I have ever seen. Fed by natural springs (keeping the water a steady temperature all year round) the long thin pool has sloped grass banks on each side perfect for relaxing in summer. The water isn’t salty, or chlorinated and the bottom of the pool is made of rocks and seaweed. Like the beach, only without the salt, sand or sharks. It was also our last chance to pick up any supplies we needed before leaving the USA. Our errands sent us to Cabela's for canvas weather proofing spray. While this doesn’t seem like a particularly fun trip…. IT WAS AWESOME! Turns out it’s an enormous camping and outdoors shop, that stocks a vast selection of guns and ammo (obviously) bows, arrows and arrow tips, hunting blinds, remote control decoy ducks, animal calls of all varieties and all the fancy camping gear that any outdoors neard could ever dream of. Just to get your hunting juices going (so you buy more arrow tips, turkey callers etc) they had shot and stuffed a full display of any animal you might want to hunt. An African Safari display showed off stuffed elephants, lions, warthog etc. In the centre of the store they had built a mountain to display North American animals; mountain goats, beavers, bears, moose etc. They even had an aquarium complete with (live, not stuffed) cat fish and eels. |
AuthorsThis is the story of Linden, Angus and their (not-so) trusty steed Pancho as they set off on an overlanding adventure through Mexico, Central America and beyond. Archives
April 2015
Categories |