Graceland & Arrival

Hi Guys we made it to Memphis and the home of the King - Gracelands.

We had a wonderful morning reminising music, fashion and furniture.

I was surprised at the exterior of the the house - very classical lines

The house was not in the least tacky but try imagining a house with 1950-60s decor looked after by the National Trust.  Grass green shagpile carpet on the floor.....and the ceiling! 

All the silver and gold records presented to Elvis.  Its a pity that you never hear of all the charitable donations made to local causes or the charitable concerts that he gave.

All the fancy stage costumes that Elvis wore, look a bit unfashonable now but would have been all the rage at the time and of course for Elvis impersonators eversince. 

Cannot see David wearing one, but then David cannot sing, and they were out of his waist size!

Our first sight of the Gulf of Mexico. Wonderful to be at the ocean.

 Raw oysters and yummy fish platters. In the words of the song 'the shrimp boats are acoming' tied up along the quay in Apalachicola, in the Florida panhandle.

 In the 1860's this small town handled shipping to the value of $14,000,000.  It was also the home of the inventor of the compressed gas refrigerator.  The great grandfather of the fridge in your kitchen.

Deep South is a wonderful experience. Folks here just want us to keep talking (Angela has no problem !!) They love our accent - Angela sounds like Princess Di!

We have avoided chain restaurants where poss. and have enjoyed some really good simple food in Mom & Pops places.

We have arrived.  3200miles /  5100 Km.

Good to be here for a few days and will keep blogging

7 days into our trip

A bit cross as one of the places we wanted to see- Boys Town in Omaha, we both thought was in St Joseph's and didn't realise until we were 120 miles past it - "if all else fails, read the instructions"!
Instead, we had a day off from driving and had a game of golf, and a tour around the stables of where the Pony Express which ran from St Josephs to Sacramento in California. Very surprised to learn that it only lasted 18months.

Yesterday we drove from St Josephs to St Charles - we are still in Missouri.

On the way we stopped for gas at a little town called Marceline, which is the birth town of Walt Disney. In Disney World there is "Main Street USA". Walt Disney replicated his home town, which stands exactly as it was when he was a boy.

 St Charles has lots original 140 year old buildings which have been well kept or restored. We had supper in a quaint house / restaurant called Mother-in-Laws Tongue, which was furnished in Edwardian style, served by an elderly gentleman in very Edwardian fashion with a very classic menu - perhaps Mrs Beaton's!

Couldn't resist this one

St Louis is a huge city, an area of the old waterfront buildings were demolished, the arch and surrounding park created. Couldn't believe I was walking along the side of the

 Misissippi.

The Gateway Arch is 630 feet high at the apex. We took the trip to the top where there is an observation platform, and back down to the museum which explores the world of the American Indians and the 19th century pioneers who helped shape the American West 

The baseball diamond as seen from 630 feet up.                                                         

We finished our day with a trip to the Budweiser brewery, and a glass of their finest!!

On into South Dakota, Iowa and Missouri

We had to take a visit to Wall a one horse town, which rose to fame in 1931 when the drug store owner advertised on the main highway "free iced water" - Google - Wall, South Dakota for the story. The restaurant still charges 5 cents (3 1/2 pence) for a cup of reasonable coffee!!

We toured around the Badlands of South Dakota. Formations from millions of years ago when a huge part of America was under the sea. One can see why it was called the Badlands.

Drove on past acres of sunflowers, to be harvested as seed for human consumption or cooking oil.

Sioux Falls is interesting, the beauty of it being spoiled as far back as the late 1800's

The sun has not managed to come out so pictures are  not very bright. Part of the Interstate highway we wanted to use was closed, but every cloud has a silver lining - the roads we had to take took us across rolling farm land, reminiscent of southern England ,except for wheat there is maize; thousands upon thousands of acres for the manufacture of Ethanol.

Found a great hotel, for the night in St Josephs, three free drinks each - so excusssse the spelling.  Thanks to Coralea for this one, Drurys Hotel.  Will see if we pass any more.

Mount Rushmore & Crazy Horse

Yesterday the temperature dropped to 6 deg C. The eternal optomist - Angela kept on her crops and sandals!! Did add a couple of sweaters though.
Today the temp. has gone back up to mid 20's - she told you so!
Mount Rushmore is interesting and well worth a visit. Very clean and scenic. Not as big as we expected it to be.
Memorial to Crazy Horse was disappointing, the carving on the hill will take many more years yet to finish it to look like the white picure which is 1/34 of the actual size. Lots of tourist nic nac shops.

First Days travel - North Dakota

Most of our journey of 600 miles to Rapid City was on single carriageway, taking about 11 hours with a couple of pit stops. We crossed the border at Fortuna, about 2 1/2hours from home, very quick and painless, we were the only car in the line.  North Dakota is a very green, agriculural state with lots of undulations, making a change from the flatness of the prairies.

The Day Actually came

We headed off from Regina with Kathy recording the event, of us not agreeing on left or right, good start!!