April 2002 |
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Thunder & lightning kept us awake a good part of the night making it harder to rise early for our 400 mile trip to Alabama. Just a few minutes into the journey Linda sighted a black bear crossing the road in front of us, but Wullie missed it as like a good navigator should he had his eyes buried in the map. There are a few black bears in Florida but we never expected to see one. On the same road a pair of turtles meandered slowly across the road but this time Linda was not going to stop and help them to the other side. During the journey we changed time zones to Central time which we would stay on until our return home to Scotland. We arrived at Lake Lureen State Park on a sunny and clear, if slightly cool, afternoon. There were lots of birds, particularly mountain bluebirds and cardinals, around the RV park. Yet another lovely State Park, our site was on the edge of the lake, lots of trees, and a deck over the lake complete with a picnic table - isn't life tough at times?. All the sites are pull-through and have lake views and we were told the fishing is good. Went for a short hike on one of the many trails in the park before retiring to the warmth of the RV as the sun went down in central Alabama.
Our journey did not start very well. Linda wanted to take a few photo's of the lake before we departed - Wullie as ever, desperate to please? pulled in near to the lake. Unfortunately neither of us noticed the branches overhanging the RV, which ripped the cover off the refrigerator vent. While Linda took her photo's it was out with the ladder and duct tape to replace the cover and make it as waterproof as possible. Later we discovered a cracked small bedroom window presumably caused by one of the branches whiplashing as it slipped of the roof. This was our first accident to the RV whilst travelling in 3 years so we accepted it quite philosophically. During the journey we passed numerous Catfish farms and Belzoni which holds the world Catfish festival in April.
Leroy Percy State Park - This is Mississippi's oldest state park and the only one with a wildlife preserve, which includes alligators in their own enclosure. We camped next to the large pond amongst lots of trees which seemed full of birds. While Linda trooped off to the office to pay Wullie did all his outside chores. On her return he told her that the alligators from the pond had been using our mat for sunbathing but Linda was not about to believe that. We went for a walk later alongside the large pond and it's still not been determined who got the biggest shock when we spotted Alligators swimming across the pond! will they come and sunbathe on our mat? We hung out the birdseed, then noticed hummingbirds had arrived so out came their feeder as well. We had a few visits during our stay.
Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge - This NWR comprises 5 separate units and covers 75,000 acres located in the heart of the Mississippi River Delta region. Being on the Mississippi flyway for migratory birds the refuge attracts lots of feathered visitors. It is famous around this time of year for nesting Wood Ducks in their hundreds, but it seems they have not arrived yet as we can't find them. We did add the Pileated Woodpecker and Carolina Chickadee to our list. Whilst walking back to the truck we encountered a very busy Armadillo rooting away in the undergrowth and seemingly oblivious to our presence. Linda managed some good Video film of the peculiar looking creature.
We visited the Alligator ponds and saw lots of alligators including a very large fellow sunning himself on the bank. We don't know who got the biggest fright, him or us, but when he dived into the water he made a large splash sending us both into the air with fright. A local lad joined us on the trail with his Video camera, Alligator spotting. He normally hunts in this reserve but had never walked on this path before because of the alligators. He saw our truck parked and decided to join us, working on the principle that if an alligator attacked he could run faster than we two?. We saw a long snake hanging from a tree and the local lad told us that was quite a common occurrence and if you don't like snakes don't look up.
One other interesting fact concerns the corn farmers we encountered planting their corn in the refuge. They farm tax free as long as they leave 25%? of their crop for the wildlife.
After the wet day we had yesterday, we woke to one of those damp misty days in the swamps you see in the films. It was mild, all was quiet except for the birds singing high above the swamp - an eery scene.
We were on the road early just like the large barred owl perched above the swamp as we left the park. The sun tried to shine throughout our journey but never quite succeeded. We made our way to Fuller State Park which is conveniently situated for Linda's visit to (the junkie's house!) Graceland. A message on the office door advised us to choose a site and pay later, so we made our way to the campsite only to find it was closed. A park attendant advised us that because of financial problems, state politicians had decided to shut all state parks for two days a month. This seemed one of those decisions politicians (advised by accountants of course) love to make. Sure they would be saving on salaries but they were losing revenue for those two days, not to mention employee & customer goodwill.
Disappointed we made our way to Gracelands K.O.A situated on Elvis Presley Boulevard, opposite the mansion. This cost us $100 for three nights compared with the $40 it would have cost us at the State Park. We made a quick trip in the afternoon to Costco to pick-up Linda's spectacles which she had left for repair on our way back from Illinois in early March, and get some cheap provisions including petrol (gas).
Graceland - The advantage of the expensive Graceland KOA is it's proximity to everything Elvis, Heartbreak Hotel was adjacent and our RV pitch was on Love me Tender drive. 
It was only a very short walk from our RV to the ticket office. As ever the organization was very efficient. From the car park coaches carry you the short distance across the busy Elvis Presley Boulevard to the mansion. The coaches run every 10 minutes, drop you off at the door of the mansion where you commence your self paced tour around the rooms that are open to the public. Elvis purchased Graceland in 1957 at the age of 22 years. He was joined by his mother, father, paternal grandmother and Aunt.
The entire ground floor, basement and gardens are open to the public, but the upstairs are off limits as they may be occupied by employees and family. Highlights include the
Hall of gold - 80 foot room lined with his gold and platinum trophies, some of his most famous stage costumes and of course the King's music playing all around you in every room you visit.
The meditation garden is now the graveyard for Elvis, his mother, father and paternal grandmother. After the return coach trip to the car park you can visit the Auto Museum which includes the famous pink Cadillac and some restored Harley Davison's. A separate enclosure houses a display of Elvis aircraft including the Lisa Marie, the luxury aircraft used for trips.
There is lots of Elvis memorabilia for sale and the company, Elvis Presley Enterprises, now own all of the property and control the quality of souvenirs. When she returned to the RV Linda was beaming at the end of a most enjoyable day, pleased that it had been extremely well presented without being vulgar or garish.
Memphis Grizzlies V Portland Trailblazers - The people of Memphis are lucky - the Blazers are in town! Lucky insofar as they get to watch a superb basketball team but unlucky as they will suffer a heavy defeat from a team already qualified for the playoffs. We make a trip to their stadium in the early afternoon to get tickets and suss out a likely sports bar for a pre-game snack. Linda decides she will push the boat out and buy us expensive seats (I didn't mind not visiting Graceland!) as it's not every day we get to see the Trailblazers live.
The appointed time arrives and we make our way to the chosen sports bar for a very good meal and a few beers- all is well so far. Inside the stadium the first signs of trouble appear, nobody has change for $20 as Wullie tries to buy a program. Eventually a nice young man at the Pizza concession takes pity and provides change so we now have a program. The Blazers played the night before in Dallas and lost narrowly but worse than that Scottie Pippen (Brain of the team) was ejected and automatically misses tonight's game. Without Pippen maybe the defeat won't be as heavy as first thought. We make our way to our seats and find we are seated next to Blazer fans from St Louis, a good omen? We start poorly (not unusual) but work our way back into the game by halftime, 5 points behind. Again we start poorly but come back to parity in the fourth quarter, thats when the good teams put the game away. Unfortunately someone forgot to tell the Memphis Grizzlies that they are the poorer team and they finish much stronger to win the ball game. Linda is despondent and vows never to go to a live game again as her nerves can't stand it. Wullie is more philosophical, it was on the road? the coach rested some of our better players for the playoff's? Memphis deserve some luck having to put up with all this Elvis stuff? Where did it all go wrong, the expensive seats? too many beers before the game? no change for $20? who knows, but one things for sure we still love the Blazers.
This was a very short trip on Interstate (Motorway) all of the way with some occasional light rain. Our RV park was chosen for it's proximity to Opryland. We had made our reservations for the Opry and "The Legends Of Nashville" show when reserving the RV park
Grand Ole Opry - There are 3 weekend shows at this time of year, 1 on Friday evening and 2 on Saturday evening. We had chosen the Friday evening (7.30 p.m.) show before knowing who was performing that weekend. 
When we discovered Willie Nelson was appearing in the early Saturday evening show we were slightly disappointed to miss him. After attending the show we were no longer disappointed by anything, it was a truly amazing experience. The Grand Ole Opry show is live on radio and is split into 5 segments, each with a different sponsor. Every few minutes the announcer on stage would read out the sponsors advertisement while the performers talked amongst themselves. Sponsors included Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Dickies Workwear, Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, Folex Instant Carpet Spot Remover and Vietti chili Beans. It might sound weird but it actually added to the whole experience. Artists included Porter Wagoner, Bill Carlisle (90's with Zimmer), Jim Ed Brown (Member of the Browns- Just a lonely bell was ringing, in a little valley town, twas farewell that they were singing, to the baby Jimmy Brown), Holly Dunn, "Llittle" Jimmy Dickens, Chris Ledoux, Bill Anderson, Jeannie Sealy, Jean Shepard and Charlie Pride. Everyone was top class (to be expected) and the backing musicians were outstanding including several steel guitar players. One interesting facet of the Opry was they allowed you to go to the front of the auditorium & take pictures of the performers as long as you stayed low not obscuring anyones view and only stayed a few seconds. It worked quite well and the performers "posed" for the photographers. Linda was so proficient at keeping low that I am entering her for the world Limbo dancing championships.
Nashville & other Sights - Visited downtown Nashville which is city like but it does have at least two Brewpubs one of which provided us with lunch. Did some window shopping and visited the Charlie Daniels (The devil went down to Georgia) museum. On the way back from the city we called into the Opryland Hotel. The hotel has
2,883 guest rooms, 85 meeting rooms, 5 ballrooms, 30 retails shops, 10 lounges and 3 swimming pools. Its the largest combined hotel/convention center under one roof in the world.
Three indoor gardens total nine acres and a 1/4 mile indoor river meanders through the gardens. As ever in the USA you are free to wander through the hotel sightseeing, taking photo's and eating/drinking at the bar/cafes. The hotel is well worth a visit and if you are into shopping there is a mega mega shopping complex adjacent to Opryland called Opry Mills.
Legends Of Nashville - This was a supper show, a buffet supper (reasonable) followed by two hours of super entertainment. The performers were up & coming or hadn't quite made it big but were immensely talented. The energy and sheer enthusiasm of the cast made for a great evening.
All week the weather people had forecast thunderstorms in this area, and our move today was also forecast to be wet. We had just a few sprinkles during our 100+ mile move, and arrived early afternoon in brilliant sunshine with the thermometer in the low 80's which we were to learn later was about 15 degrees above normal for this time of the year.
Singing Hills Campground is a Passport America site i.e. inexpensive, something we have not had in our last two sites.
The lady owner of the RV park was a lovely old dear, very helpful and kind. Linda needed to make a phone call and inquired as to the location of the nearest public phone (cell phone - NO SIGNAL). She was offered the use of the office phone as she had a 1-800 phone card. In conversation the lady asked Linda if she had experienced a power cut that afternoon to which Linda replied she hadn't noticed. You must have she said as we had one and it blew a fuse. Do you know what causes that she asked and Linda replied no. Well it's that new Space Station, every time they open the door it blows a fuse on our RV park.
Mammoth Caves -
Established as a National Park in 1941. Before that it was privately owned and tours were offered to the public, but in those days it took hours to walk thorough this cave.
With over 350 miles of surveyed passageways, Mammoth Cave is at least three times longer than any known cave.
With numerous cave tours to choose from we decided on the Grand Avenue Tour and unknown to us we were to be accompanied by a school party from Cincinnati. They turned out to be quite well behaved, probably better than Wullie at their age. This 4 mile hike took us through four separate aspects of cave formation. After one hours hiking we came to the Snowball room where we could purchase lunch - a strange phenomenon for a national park to have private caterers selling food underground. They have even constructed a lift from ground level down into the cave for transportation of the food. After our rest and information on the part of cave we had already visited we continued with our tour. This part of the cave was more strenuous and interesting. This tour included the entire Travertine tour and part of the Frozen Niagara tour where most of the spectacular features were seen. In addition to the caves the NP offers 70 miles of hiking trails mainly north of the Green River.
This is our final move before the RV goes into storage. We left Cave City just after 8 a.m. and the temperature was already in the mid 70's - another hot day. Passed Fort Knox during our 300+ mile journey that took us through Louisiville, Indianapolis and onto Rantoul, Illinois where the temperature soared to the mid 90's. Was this the frozen north we were heading for? Luckily we had both decided to wear our shorts.
Over the final 50 miles the wind had gradually got stronger. When we arrived at the campground it was really strong - lucky we had stones in our pockets or we may have been blown off our feet when we first got out of the truck.
This is to be our final stop before putting the RV into storage at our friends in Waltham, so it was important to get somewhere where we can clean out the tanks thoroughly, wash and wax the RV and prepare the interior for storage. We were hoping the following three days would be dry. The weather forecast gave a tornado warning for Southeast Illinois (that's why we were getting these strong winds), and the temperature was to drop to the mid 60's with continuous rain. Will we manage to get all the chores done?
On Friday evening we were advised by the camp host that severe thunderstorm warnings were in effect for the next hour. If it got really bad, everyone should take shelter in the washrooms. Luckily it missed us
Arrived to a very warm welcome from the entire family. As Evie our 90 year old hostess had recently suffered a stroke we visited her everyday in the nursing home. Saw a fair bit of improvement during our 5 days there. Went out for supper every evening with different members of the family. Our last evening was aptly spent in the Curl Inn where we had a meal with the family and friends, before heading for the curling rink (no ice) where we all relaxed and chatted. Wullie and Dale continued their good fortune by winning yet another $10 each at euchre- good old Charlie! Since the weather was mainly dry at Waltham we got the interior cleaning finished before parking the RV in Dale's barn which he had cleared out. We told him it could have sat outside as it has never been under cover since it left the factory but these guys are so good to us they wouldn't hear of it. Dale & Donna ran us into Chicago airport for our flight to Edinburgh via Amsterdam. All flights home were on time and we were met at Edinburgh Airport by Wullie's sister and brother-in-law who deposited us at friends in Lochgelly where we shall stay for the next two weeks. It has rained every day so far but May, may be better?
Roadside Signs:
Finding God - that's easy.
Ignoring an itch in your cast - thats difficult.
Local election placard in Kentucky - Vote for John English - Jailer
NEXT SIX MONTHS: For the next six months, we will be staying with friends in Scotland for a few weeks, before travelling to England where we will spend a few weeks visiting friends and relations, and another few weeks taking a well earned break. We also hope to do a bit of touring in Scotland, weather permitting.
Miles travelled this month: 1,980
Accumulative miles: 74,955
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