Ch 14 - Western Tennessee

Travels with Jake – 2012

Chapter 14

Western Tennessee Mar 25-28

Hello again. With our satellite radio tuned to the Elvis channel we slipped into Tennessee at its south-western corner and into the suburbs of Memphis. Elvis' home Graceland has been the attraction, or perhaps more correctly the pilgrimage destination, for thousands of visitors for many years. The GPS unerringly directed us along Elvis Presley Boulevard then down to the end of Lonely Street, past Heartbreak Hotel to the Graceland RV park. I'm not kidding – it was all too perfect! We backed into a site that had a huge open grassy area for our hound dog where our new Ontario neighbours even supplied a border collie for Jake to play with. Everyone around here seemed to be in a good mood and having fun with the idea of being rock and roll groupies for a day. Arriving early in the day, we got a good start on the tour of the mansion which lay across the busy road from us. All of the predictably tacky souvenir shops and “museums” were quite separate from the house, where we were taken by bus in groups of 30. The home itself is perfectly preserved as it was at his death there in 1977 and we were surprised to see that it wasn't particularly large and apart from the Jungle Room, the decor not over the top. His record collections and players were intact (turntables and big speakers), and the 70s TV sets were about as high-tech as it got. Although Elvis often had many people hanging around Graceland, the 2^nd floor was private to him then and is still off-limits, so we didn't get to see the legendary golden throne. The recorded tour commentary via headset was comprehensive and kept people suitably silent. After the first five rooms of the house, you were free to move at your own pace through the office-shed, a squash court now displaying his famous jump suits, and hallways covered with gold and platinum records – it was all there. Tennessee walking horses in the paddock behind the house complemented the semi-rural atmosphere. It really was a pleasant place to live, with a decent separation from the neighbours. I could live there! The tour finishes out past the pool at his meditation garden, which has been augmented with the graves of his parents, grandmother, and the King himself. It is all tastefully done, as is the rest of the site, and you come away with a fond appreciation of the character that was hiding behind the glitzy facade. Back on the other side of the street we saw a collection of his cars, went through both of his jets (one the size of a 707!), saw some concert videos and bought a few trinkets. All in all, the estate is doing a good job and most people were pleased with the experience. Afterwards, we got together with the people next door to sing a few Elvis songs (poorly) and Jake got into a noisy property dispute with his new friend Tucker. Dog toys are pretty important in his world, particularly ones with a functioning squeaker and he did get it back OK. It was a good day.

Heartbreak Hotel offers a free shuttle downtown, provided you are happy to stop for a one-hour tour at Sun Records. It was fun to stand in the studio where Elvis made his first recordings that had won me over at age 11. I recall finding an old broken guitar in an alley on my way home from school, back when kids actually walked places. I repaired and painted it and went out at Hallowe'en all dressed up like Elvis (Mom helped) with a glittery jacket and glued-on sideburns. Very cool I was, but I've been getting progressively less cool ever since. The point is, for some reason, Elvis made an impact on millions of people. Later on in Nashville, we bumped into him, complete with white sparkly jump suit and wearing his distinctive shades. A sighting! The guy was getting tips from tourists to take his picture and he confided that he was amazed at the number of people (dare I say older?) who would make a point of thanking him, touching his sleeve, for keeping it all going. Interesting.

After Sun Records, we got deposited at Beale Street in downtown Memphis and strolled down to the river for a look. There was an old trolley car line that took us on a scenic loop then back to the action, where we started ducking in and out of the many bars trying to select a suitable place for dinner. The place we ended up had a blues band just setting up and a huge collection of signed guitars hanging in the rafters. The food was good and the band was better. With lots of brass and very polished vocals they performed brassy New Orleans style blues and we had great seats to enjoy the show. Apart from the fact that the band were northerners from Minnesota, it was perfect, but Memphis is Mecca for blues musicians, so they come from all over. The city fathers have wisely blocked traffic from a few blocks of Beale Street, and people wander back and forth, drinks in hand, poking their noses into the open windows of the music bars. It somehow contrasted favourably with a similar scene in New Orleans by having fewer drunks and no girlie shows, just lots of blues and rock and roll. There were a few street musicians and we came upon a group playing pretty good reggae in a park, so of course we danced a bit.

Leaving Memphis, we dipped down into rural Mississippi again to make our easting to a significant civil war site called Corinth. The National Park Service built a large elaborate interpretive centre that detailed the civil war actions in the region, but the information presented probably costed out at thousands per fact – a good example of government over-spending, crowned by a silly memorial garden full of symbolic but unattractive features. Small wonder that people around here don't like big government too much. Since the weather remains hot we can't leave our furry friend shut in for too long, so we soon moved back into Tennessee to the site of the Battle of Shiloh, a very bloody event in the civil war. Back in 1862 the Union forces were moving south towards Corinth where the two main railroad lines of the South intersected. When the southern armies tried to stop their advance at Shiloh, about 20 miles to the northeast, the battle lasted two days and one of every four soldiers on each side became a casualty. The area is forested with some open pastures, and the Park Service has kept it as it was during the battle. The armies had little idea where the other side was until they collided, and the calvary was ineffective in the dense treed areas. When we took the driving tour around this very large area and read the information boards it was easy to visualise the soldiers facing their foes in their desperate struggle. The Confederates lost and retreated to Corinth where they were eventually driven out after a siege, giving control of the rail crossing to the North. The day was drawing to a close so we made our way to nearby Savanah, Tennessee for the night before rejoining the relaxing Natchez Trace road towards Nashville. We'll meet you there.