The plan was a simple one - Jo loves food and music - so why not combine her two loves by visiting the Southern States which are renowned for their food, whilst taking in the 3 cities famous for music - Nashville for Country music, Memphis for the Blues and New Orleans for jazz. So began the formation of a plan !
We awoke in Turks and Caicos on the morning of our departure to the ongoing heavy rains and winds of what was then Tropical Storm Hanna (later to become hurricane Hanna) and wondered not for the first time if we would even get off the island. The flight was delayed and then we sat on the runway for a long period waiting for a break in the weather to enable us to takeoff – out the aircraft window the fire engines sat, lights flashing, just in case ! The take off was hairy with a steep ascent and heavy turbulence as we attempted to get above Hanna – and the fire engines following us down the runway didn’t improve confidence one bit ! However, we were off the island, and would later discover we were the last flight off the island for a number of days ! The delay meant we missed our connecting flight to Nashville, so instead flew to Washington (we spotted the National Mall and Capital Hill from the airport in the distance and then flew over it) and then onto Nashville.
We were staying not too far from the main streets for music and in the evening walked the couple of blocks, taking in ‘Printers alley’, ‘Downtown’ and the Honky Tonk bars, all of which had live bands. We wandered into a honky tonk at random, called ‘Roberts Western World’, where you guessed it they had a Country band. We soaked up the atmosphere and concluded that they sure spoke funny in these here parts, and there was an overabundance of cowboy hats and boots.
After a few beers and a healthy dose of music, we headed to BB Kings as we had heard good things about both the food and music – we were not disappointed with either. I had my first taste of deep fried catfish, which is great when seasoned properly, although it tastes slighty muddy (BB’s served the best catfish I had) and Jo had pulled pork which was amazing. We then sat back and enjoyed the resident 5 piece Blues Band. All in all a good start to the holiday
The following day we walked back to Downtown. We had not really experienced an American City before (in Vegas we stayed on the main strip). There were a weird and wonderful assortment of people on the streets, quite a few down-and-outs, and ‘panhandlers’ (beggars), I still think one of the more bizarre sights was seeing a man sitting on a bench with a small mirror and scissors cutting his own hair ! It soon became evident that there was more to do in the evening than during the day – we walked along the waterfront, window shopped (there are lots of stores selling cowboy hats and boots of varying styles) and saw the Tennessee state capital building. We then caught a bus to Opry Mills ( a shopping Mall) and window shopped before heading to the Grand Ole Opry for the Tuesday night show.
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music radio show and concert broadcast live on WSM radio in Nashville, Tennessee. It is the oldest continuous radio program in the United States, having been broadcast on WSM since October 5th, 1925. In many ways, the artists and repertoire of the Opry defined American country music and as such is a mecca for country music fans. The show ran for 2 hours, during which we saw 8 acts (15 minutes each). This is great because if you don’t like an artist, then 3 songs later they are gone ! We experienced a range of music, including traditional country, Cajun and bluegrass.
Day 3 and our first stop was the library (great for free internet) to check on Hanna, which had now become a hurricane and was battering Turks & Caicos with heavy rains (and hurricane Ike following in its path).
This was our last day in Nashville, we booked our Greyhound bus tickets to Memphis, then headed back out to the Mall, saw ‘Hamlet 2’ at the cinema, shopped for clothes (Levis 501 $37 !) and were left speechless when we found the boardgame ‘Bibleopoly’ (Players start 'In the Beginning' and journey through Bible cities, 'Meditation', 'Community Celebration' and occasionally 'The Abyss'! Players earn a 'Cornerstone' by helping a fellow player, or doing 'Community Service'. They then make offerings in order to earn the bricks and steeple required to build a church. Instead of ‘Go to Jail’, there is 'Go Meditate'. Good deeds are rewarded, but look out for the 'Faith' cards - you might end up as the new caretaker of Jerusalem...or be swallowed by a great fish !).– well we were in the Bible belt! We spent the evening in a great bar called ‘Tootsies’, which had a great country band and a real good vibe, although too many ‘John Deere’ t-shirts.
The Greyhound bus was an icon of America travel and freedom, so I thought it would be great to travel on a greyhound bus, I should have remembered that the world moves on. The station was crowded, full of people from all walks of life (there were a couple of Amish families, traditionally dressed which caused a few stares), who used the greyhound out of necessity and not nostalga. There was a long queue of impatient people waiting to get on the bus, made no better by the fact that it had been overbooked so that not everyone got on. Jo sat between a large, mad black women (who mumbled at her continuously) and a redneck whose 4 front teeth were gold – it made my day, but I did think Jo was going to kill me ! The countryside during the journey reminded me a lot of the UK – it is very green with lots of trees. We passed a lot of single storey wooden houses, either in need of repair or boarded up. The journey to Memphis took 4 hours and we found our hotel and chilled. We ate at a diner on Beale Street (officially declared as the 'Home of the Blues' by an act of congress in 1977), called 'Pigs on Beale', it had good reviews, however, both the food and service left us underwhelmed.
We spent our first full morning in Memphis orientating ourselves, we made good use of the trams, which are cheap ($1 per journey) and a great way of seeing downtown Memphis. We went to the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jnr was assassinated on April 4th, 1968. It is now the National Civil Rights Museum, the exhibits of the museum tell the story of the struggle for African American civil rights from the arrival of the first Africans in the British colonies in 1619 to the assassination of King in 1968. The museum was well laid out and quite an eye opener. The museum also has its own controversy - the last resident of the motel was forcibly evicted in 1988, in order that the project could go ahead, and has been protesting this decision ever since, maintaining a vigil near the museum.
We headed back to Beale Street and ate at the ‘Blues City Café’ (which I highly recommend). We had a local dish called Timpala, a kind of savoury mince wrapped in suet and steamed, they come wrapped in baking parchment and can be served with Chili. Ribs followed, which just fell off the bone, and finally fried pie (served in a sizzling hot skillet with butter and ice cream) Mmmmmmmmmmmm. The evening was spent in Beale Street, which we found to have a confused identity (in comparison to Nashville), the music was generally not of the same quality and the area generally had a different vibe to it. The place is definitely busier than Downtown Nashville, more of a weekend party place, emphasised with police operating at both ends of Beale Street. We got on the tram to head back to our hotel to be approached by an old black guy offering to draw our picture, he then showed us his bone carvings around his neck, before finally standing on his head ! As our days progressed we became more and more aware of the obvious poverty in America and a very real feeling that America only looks after those who look after themselves !
The following morning was a lazy one, we ate at BB Kings, where I had a deep fried shrimp Po Boy (sandwich). We then took a cruise on the mighty, muddy Mississippi river. In the evening we went back to BB Kings, where we had the most amazing fried dill pickles (they have to be tried to be believed) and the pulled pork. This was the night that Ike made landfall on TCI, we had made the right choice by returning to BB Kings as we were rewarded an amazing Blues Band. We raised a toast to friends on the island then spent 3 hours drinking, soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the music.
We came to admire even more the resilience of people, all the bands we saw over the entire holiday play for tips only, and it is amazing what many people will do to try and earn a living. In BB’s there are attendants in the toilets, they turn on the taps, pass you paper towels etc all for tips. Yes we are all quite capable of doing this ourselves, but you have to admire there work ethic - their paychecks are your tips, and nothing more. I am sure we all know people who simply choose not to work because it is too demeaning a job or too poorly paid (hell you can live off the State in the UK) – maybe they should take a leaf out of the books of some people we met !
The following morning we got a call from Kes & Sarah to let us know that Hurricane Ike had passed and everyone was safe. The hurricane changed course at the last minute, sparing Providenciales its wrath, sadly its path took it over Grand Turk, Salt Cay and South Caicos, all of whom took considerable damage. Though saddened by the damage we were greatly relieved that our friends, dogs and home were safe. The holiday 'lifted' a little at that point, now that the threat had passed.
Once we collected our hire care, we headed for Graceland – the home of Elvis Presley. The death of Elvis made an impression on me as a child, as it is the first time I remember by mum crying as she heard the news of his death on the television ( I was 8 at the time).
Graceland is the second most visited house in America, with over 600,000 visitors annually. Elvis purchased Graceland in early 1957 for approximately $100,000, the Graceland grounds include a museum containing many Elvis artifacts, like some of his famous Vegas jumpsuits, awards, gold records, the Lisa Marie jetliner, and Elvis's extensive auto collection. Graceland was not as large as I was expecting, nor was it as oppulent, however, I appreciate I am viewing this from a 2008 perspective, back then it may well have been out of the ordinary. Elvis Presley has an amazing (albeit brief) story, from paying $4 to have his first record pressed, he became (and still is) the highest selling artist of all time, in addition to staring in 31 hit films. His generocity is legendary and there are walls and walls of cheques that he wrote to a wide range of charities and institutions during his lifetime. We walked around his home, his car collection (including the pink cadillac), his jumpsuit collection and also his final resting place, known as Meditation Gardens. He died at the estate on August 16th, 1977, aged 42, and is buried along with his parents Gladys and Vernon Presley, his grandmother, and his stillborn identical twin brother.
Graceland was our final stop in Memphis, before commencing our roadtrip to New Orleans.
