Memphis and Graceland

I had purchased tickets to Graceland (Elvis Presley's home in Memphis) several weeks before we left on our road trip.  I picked 4 PM, as that time was pretty late in the day and would hopefully give us enough time to get there from Atlanta without having to leave at the crack of dawn.  It was a good 6 1/2 hour drive.  We ended up leaving Janet's at about 7:30 Saturday morning.  Fortunately, traffic in Atlanta is light on early morning weekends, so we were able to get out of town easily.

On the way to Memphis, we passed through Alabama and Mississippi before crossing into Elvis territory - Tennessee.

Elvis' birthplace - Tupelo Mississippi

We rolled into Memphis a little after 2 PM - our campground was right next door to Graceland, convenient, right?!  We checked in, found out site, put up our tent, and then walked over to the checkin buildings to pick up our tickets.  Since we were early, they put us on the 3:30 tour, which was great.

Graceland is nothing like I imagined.  I guess I thought it was this ginormous house when in fact it is really not all that big  - well, with all of the additions and outside rooms it is pushing 18,000 square feet, but when you're in the house (we only got to tour the downstairs) it seemed almost small, when you think about the larger than life Elvis living there.  Here are some pictures of the home and the outside yards and gardens.

 Front of house

 Living room

 Dining room

 Kitchen

Back yard

Office

Pool

Meditation garden and graves - Elvis, his mom, dad, stillborn twin brother and grandmother are all buried here

It truly was a great experience to visit Graceland.  Our tickets also allowed us in to see his collection of cars and archives.

For dinner, we opted to visit a restaurant called Marlowe's.  It's a popular BBQ place nearby to Graceland, and recommended by the manager of the RV park.  What I didn't tell Adrienne, was that Marlowe's will pick you up in a pink cadillac limousine.  I let her know that we were being picked up at 6:15 at our campsite and I have to assume SHE assumed it was going to be a taxi.   She was SO surprised when this pink cadillac pulled up onto our gravel road and stopped at our campsite!!!  It was a hoot and a half to be driven to and from the restaurant!  And the food was simply scrumptious! We split brisket and ribs and a couple of sides and it might have been the best meal yet.

Atlanta

Our time in Savannah was now over.  It was a great 2 1/2 days, a great birthday, and a bittersweet memorial for my mother.

Time to head up the road to the Atlanta area where Adrienne's cousin Janet lives.  We were going to spend the afternoon and overnight with her at her home in Norcross.  OMG, was traffic ever horrible!! We timed it as best we could so as to not get stuck in Friday commute traffic, and we really didn't, but the drivers there are totally cray-cray, and lots of road construction mixed in with that and you get seriously wiped out mentally.  Adrienne was a great co-pilot and we made it to Janet's without incident.

We spent a great evening there with Janet, catching up on family news, etc.  One of Janet's closest friends came to spend part of the evening with us too.  I enjoyed seeing Janet again - I hadn't seen her since we were teenagers and it was nice to meet Deb, her friend.  Here's a great picture of the 4 of us.

Left to right:  Me, Deb, Janet and Adrienne

Lyons

The whole point of this road trip was so that I could bring my mother's ashes to the family plot in the cemetery outside of Savannah, in a small town called Lyons.  My mother was born here, and spent her early childhood here.  Later on she moved to Savannah and then beyond from there.  She died in April 2014, was cremated, and I've had her ashes, waiting for the proper time to bring her "home."

My Dad died a few months ago, and I had purposefully waited until after he passed away to make the trek to inter my mother's ashes.  My father was too ill to make the journey and I really didn't want him to sit home knowing that I was off doing something this important without him being able to go. He knew I would "get around" to taking her home, but it was something that we didn't discuss after she was cremated.

I spent some time thinking about what I wanted to say, and I was so pleased that my cousin Nik made a 6-hour drive up from the Tampa area to participate and pay his respects.  I love him so much, and I appreciated the family support he provided.  I had arranged with the funeral home person to have the plot ready to accept her ashes on the 17th of September at 11:00.  This is another reason the trip was plotted and planned so that we would be in Savannah on the right day, etc.

Everything was ready for us when we arrived at about 10:30.  It was a short but sweet ceremony - I played my mom's favorite song - Alley Cat - sung by Peggy Lee, and then I read a letter to my mother, while Adrienne and Nik stood by in unspoken support.  Afterwards, we covered her urn with the soft Georgia earth and they poured cement over the top to set up.  Rest in peace Nellie.

Savannah

 It was raining pretty hard when we pulled into the Visitors Center right after crossing the state line into Georgia!  We'll do pretty much anything to make sure we get some sort of picture, however!


It was a very long drive from New Orleans into Savannah.  Over 11 hours, most of it on Interstate 10.  Nice drive, though.  The weather was sunny, blue skies and puffy white clouds along the way (until, of course we crossed into Georgia....see above....).  But the landscape was really pretty.

It was almost dark when we got to the hotel, The Planters Inn in the historic district of Savannah.  A nice old Southern hotel.  Tall ceilings in the rooms, quaint 4 poster beds.  A non-HD flat screen TV that Adrienne couldn't see from her bed because one of those cute 4 poster posts was smack dab in her line of sight.  That was okay anyway, since she isn't much of a TV watcher.  But still.....

There wasn't much to do after we got settled.  We thought about going out and walking around, but it was rainy and dark and we weren't all that hungry since we had lunch late.  So we stayed in our room and got caught up on emails and plotted out our plan for the next day.

Woke up early - and today was my birthday!  Yay me!  It was nice not to have to get in the car and drive anywhere, and had the entire day to wander about Savannah.  Although it was still overcast and drizzly out, it was a bit cool which was perfect for wandering about.  We had decided to take a trolley tour around the historic center so we walked down to the Visitors Center, got our tickets and hopped aboard.  These trolleys and hop on/hop off tours are a quick and easy way to both see and hear about the highlights of a city, but also a good way to get to know your surroundings in terms of how the city is laid out, what you'd like to see later on, on "foot", etc.

Savannah is called the Hostess City of the South and is the oldest city in Georgia.  It was established in 1733 and was originally the first state capitol (now it's Augusta).  It's always been a very important seaport and today is no different.  In fact, I learned that Ikea has one of its largest U.S. distribution centers here in Savannah, due to the strategic nature of the port.  Savannah is also home to the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts of America.  We visited her home and enjoyed browsing through her gift shop and small museum.

The Waving Girl is a famous statue of Florence Martus, who lived in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Her father worked at Fort Pulaski on Cocksure Island and Florence took it upon herself to be the unofficial greeter of all ships that came and left the Port of Savannah.  For 44 years she didn't miss a single ship.  She waved a handkerchief by day and a lantern by night.  Legend says that she waved at arriving ships because she had fallen in love with a sailor and wanted to be sure he would find her when he returned.

These two shots below are from inside the Congregation Mickve Israel.  Beautiful stained glass windows.  It is the 3rd oldest synagogue in the U.S.

My cousin Nik on the right, Adrienne on the left.  Birthday girl in the center!  Getting ready to visit the Olde Pink House for a special birthday dinner.  It was very good and a lovely evening.

This Spanish moss hanging from the live oaks trees in Savannah's many squares, or parks, is not really Spanish moss, but it is.  It's really a member of the pineapple family and also contains insects including the nasty little chigger (think bed bugs....).  Ewwww.

Some more city sights below

Typical Savannah district home

This one above is the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist

New Orleans

We got on the road early and drove about 5 hours to New Orleans, stopping at a What A Burger for lunch.  What A Burgers are very popular throughout the southwest and southeast.  I have to say, they were pretty good.  I had a cheeseburger (they are famous for the burgers on 5 inch round buns) and it rivals that of our California beloved In N Out burgers.  That and an order of fries and a chocolate shake (also delicious), we waddled out of the place and back into the car for the rest of the drive.

We found gas even lower than this later on.......

 







Arriving New Orleans and into the French Quarter on a Sunday afternoon was interesting.  Very busy, people walking around everywhere, HUGE potholes in the streets, one way streets and lots of road construction going on.  Yikes.  I felt a bit like a salmon trying to swim upstream - getting to the hotel was a bit of a challenge, but we got there.  We stayed at the Omni on Royal Street right in the middle of the French Quarter.  I thought it would be fun, and knew that everything was walkable.  The location proved to be a great choice.  It's a lovely hotel and we were quite comfortable.

We had 1 1/2 days in New Orleans plus during that time I needed to get Indie over to a Toyota dealer for her first 5k mile service.  Since we weren't even at our trip's halfway point yet, I thought it best to try to get the service done while we were settled somewhere for a day or two.  It was either New Orleans or Savannah, so I opted for New Orleans.

We decided to take 2 walking tours - the first that evening - a ghost tour.  It was tons of fun!  Our guide gave us all sorts of entertaining and insightful stories about the history of New Orleans and some of the sadder stories of mayhem and murder.

The next morning we had signed up for a French Quarter history tour and we also enjoyed that very much.  When you walk around for 2 hours with someone showing you architecture, bringing to life the stories and history of various buildings and streets, it makes everything so much better - you appreciate what you are seeing instead of just walking by.

A big central feature of the French Quarter (besides the boozed out tourists on Bourbon Street each night) is Jackson Square and the St. Louis Cathedral.  The Cathedral is the oldest operating cathedral in the country, built in the late 1700's.  Like all buildings of that era, it was built of wood.  Well, the first one burnt down and the second one was rebuilt a few years later, this time made of stone.  In 1800, the cathedral was expanded by adding the center piece.  It's a really beautiful cathedral.

In the middle of Jackson Square is a statue of none other than Andrew Jackson.  Sitting atop a horse.  That statue is there to honor Andrew Jackson for his victory in the Battle of New Orleans against the British in the War of 1812.

In the late 1800's and early 1900's, New Orleans had a number of streetcar lines.  Tennessee Williams lived here in the 1940's and wrote the play A Streetcar Named Desire, after the actual streetcar line called the Desire line.  With a heavy French influence in the city, he created Blanche Dubois for one of his main characters.

Some more NOLA trivia - all those iron balconies you see in pictures?  They are called galleries.
Pat O'Brien's bar is known for creating the famous Hurricane drink (yes it's yummy, and yes it sneaks up on you, so one is plenty!).  Next door the Pat O'Brien's is the famous jazz club Preservation Hall.
The streets in the French Quarter are all named after French royalty and Catholic saints. Creole and Cajun foods are popular cuisine - they are very similar but Creole cuisine includes tomatoes and Cajun does not.  The cemetery plots are all above ground, due to this whole area being on a swampy land, with a very shallow water table.  If you walk around any of the cemeteries, if you notice painted tombs, those belong to cemetery workers.  They are the only ones allowed to paint their tombs.

In the middle of our visit, after our morning walking tour, I drove Indie out to the Toyota dealership and they took care of the service for us.  One short hour later we were on our way back to the French Quarter, and Indie was ready to go again, plus she had been given a much-needed bath by the dealer.  They were terrific!

We spent out last night in NOLA doing a little shopping and walking off that What A Burger meal from the day before, not to mention the Cafe du Monde beignots, and red beans and rice and shrimp dishes we had.

Jackson Square

St. Louis Cathedral

 View from our hotel

 Creole shrimp!

 Street band

 Until you've had beignets at Cafe Du Monde..........

 Notice the design???

Typical architecture of brick buildings with 2-3 stores of galleries.

Sunset from our hotel rooftop viewing area.

Thanks for a swell time NOLA!  We'll be back again someday!

Austin and Houston

The high heat and mosquito count was enough to put us off of tent camping in Austin, so we hotel'd it instead.  We arrived still early enough to be able to drive out to a piece of property that I own out by Lake Travis, in an area about 30 minutes northwest of Austin.  It's a pretty place, and development has increased around the lake, but I just can't ever see myself building a home there.  Property values have increased, so there may be an opportunity in the near future to sell. We'll see.

We watched a very pretty sunset over the lake, then turned the car back towards Austin and our hotel, and a nose for some Texas BBQ.  We found it at Rudy's, a cute place just 5 minutes away from our hotel.  Their brisket was fantastic!  They are also known for the creamed corn and we were not disappointed.  Fresh and sweet and downright decadent.  I grew up only knowing canned cream corn and to be honest, that stuff makes me want to puke right here and right now.  So I have been loathe to even consider eating the stuff as an adult.  But I am glad I tried "homemade" creamed corn.  It's like night and day.

While we were in Austin, for some reason, it dawned on me that we were in Texas (duh), and the next night we were going to be staying down near Houston so we'd get a jump on our drive the following day to New Orleans.  When I think of Houston these days, I think of Joel Osteen and the Lakewood Church.  He's a non-denominational Christian minister with a national presence, including televised recordings of his weekly "sermons."  He is not like any other television preacher, nor like any other minister, rabbi or priest that I've ever seen.  He's more like a life coach with great motivational speeches.  I just plain like him.  His weekly messages are applicable to all persons of all faiths.  Anyway, it occurred to me that maybe we could go see him, if he was in town, etc.  So I looked up the church website, looked up the schedule and lo and behold, he was in town, and was scheduled for both Saturday night services as well as Sunday mornings.  Bada Bing!  We made our plans and went to sleep that night looking forward to our tour of Austin the next morning, and our evening with Joel the next night.

Houston and Austin are about 3 hours apart.  We didn't have but about a half day in Austin, so we opted for a downtown Hop On Hop Off tour of the city.  It was a beautiful morning, and we had fun touring around on the bus, listening to some history of the city, and seeing the sights.  Austin is a hip and happening city - lots of tech companies there, lots of great music happening there.  The city is compact yet seems spread out at the same time.  It also is home to a large university and the young energy that comes with university towns was evident.  Austin is the 11th largest capitol in the U.S.  Chili is the state food of Texas, did y'all know that?  The only reason Texas became a part of the United States is because it was out of resources to fight another battle (after the Alamo) with Mexico, and it didn't want Mexico to capture it, so when the U.S made the offer, Texas agreed to join the U.S.

One other tidbit about Austin - it is the home of the original Whole Foods.  It started in early 1970's and was named Safer Foods.  In 1980 they changed their name to Whole Foods and began gobbling up smaller similar stores across the country (anyone remember Mrs. Gooch?) and expanding to become the presence they are today.

When the tour was over, we decided to head out of town, as a big college football game was happening that night and traffic was starting to get heavy, with all the tailgaters heading in pre-game, and setting up.  The LBJ Library is in Austin, and it, too, was closed because of the game.  I guess you just don't mess with college football in Texas.

State Capitol Building

 Tower on UT college campus.  This is a famous tower, where in August 1966 a shooter climbed to the top and committed the first mass school shooting in our country, killing 16 and wounding 35.

 Texas "star" pride.  Texas' star on its state flag represents that Texas was once an independent republic.

 This is Lady Bird Lake, named after LBJ's wife, Lady Bird Johnson.  It's in the middle of the city and is a very popular place to go.  The lake and bridge sort of separate old and new Austin.

 Funky Austin - home of the food trucks.

Along the way to Houston we stopped off for lunch at a roadside diner for some last bit of Texas BBQ.  More brisket and grilled sausage, the stuff is just fantastic!!!

We arrived in Houston with about an hour to spare before it was time to go to Lakewood.  The church is HUGE, and right alongside a main artery highway near downtown.  Our hotel was close by, and it only took us a few minutes to get there after we got settled in.

As first time visitors to this church, they encourage you to come down front and sit in the first 10-12 rows.  Don't think church here - think large indoor concert stadium.  This place holds - I don't know - 20,000?  A LOT.  We were there early, so we had time to browse in their bookstore.  Lots of interesting stuff laid out nicely in subject sections.  I picked up one of Joel's Quote a Day inspirational quotes books.

The service started promptly on time at 7:00 PM.  For the first 15 minutes or so, the band played and rocked out with the choir.  It was like going to a rock concert!  Even the light show rivaled some of the better bands I saw from the 70's!  Good stuff.  Later, to close out the 90 minute service, Joel spoke for about half an hour.  His message this week was how not to let strife into your life.  Because if you do, it results in disunity and discord in your home, in your life.  Like I said before, the messages are applicable for everyone, across all faiths.

After the service, we RACED upstairs to get into line to meet Joel in person.  We had been instructed earlier about where to go to line up and how you need to get there quickly, because they only allow in a certain number of people and then close the line.  We made the cut!  And we got to meet Joel.  Up close, he's a VERY soft spoken man, very very nice.  He signed our books, took a minute to shake our hands, ask where we were from, and chatted briefly.  I just got a big thrill out of the experience.
A great evening!