Day Twenty Three: Walking in Memphis...31/10/08

Another fine day in Graceland, 23 degrees today... We walked over to the Heartbreak Hotel about lunchtime and hopped on a free shuttle bus. It took us into Memphis and left us at the door of the legendary Sun Studio, where a young nineteen year old Elvis Presley took his first steps as a global superstar. In the small studio, which today looks just how it was in the 1950's, we heard how some of the other greats had also made there first recordings on the very floor we were standing. Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and BB King... This is the room where rock 'n' roll was born. It's a place steeped in music history and we heard many stories from it's fifty long years in existence. Too many to go in to so if you feel like it just look up Sun Studio on Wikipedia... It was such a cool place, and we felt privileged to be there . When we were finished, we jumped on the shuttle bus again and it took us downtown. There wasn't a whole lot else we wanted to do in Memphis so we didn't stay long. We just walked a few blocks to see the motel balcony where Martin Luther King was Assassinated. The motel now has a Civil Rights Museum attached to it, but the original building remains exactly how it was on the day he was shot. With a few fifties cars parked out front for effect I suppose... Most of the architecture in downtown Memphis is very old and in terrible shape. It's sadly a really deprived city and has one of the highest crime rates in the country apparently. As I said there wasn't much we wanted to do so we just took a walk down the famous Beale Street and got the shuttle bus back to Graceland. We put our feet up for the evening and we're back on the road tomorrow.. 7 1/2 hour drive to Dallas Texas.. The last few days have been a bit of a history lesson. Happy Halloween by the way!!

Day Twenty Two: Graceland... 30/10/08

We got up as usual and I have to say it was nice waking up right beside the place we wanted to visit. No buses, trains or subways etc, and best of all we didn't have to move the RV!! The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, a pleasant 21 degrees in Graceland today. We made our way over towards the mansion just after 11am to begin our tour. Before we began Aidan was told that he couldn't use his video camera throughout the tour and that he had to leave it in a locker. He was of course only too pleased to quietly inform the rest of us that his camera phone is "capable of making DVD quality videos", and he did manage to get a few sneaky ones. We began our tour right on Elvis Presleys front door step and we entered a house with a colourful history. As soon as we walked in the door we were immediately stunned... What a house!! Let's just say the decor is a tad louder than Gortlee House back in Letterkenny. We got to see the majority of the place, although upstairs was out of bounds. Apparently when Elvis entertained guests, which was pretty much all the time, he did it downstairs. Upstairs was private to him and his family, so out of respect that's the way they keep it. Every room we did see certainly had its charm to put it mildly,but the most impressive rooms were his TV room, his games room and of course the infamous Jungle Room. When we finished inside the mansion itself we were able to walk around the back yard where Elvis and the boys used to regularly race Golf Carts, with Elvis apparently always being the ringleader. Adjacent to the back door there is a small office where his Father and a few others conducted his business dealings and sorted his bagfuls of fan mail. It seems he liked to keep all his family and friends close to him. I guess Graceland was his sanctuary. Also in and around the back yard there is a little building where he used to keep his many awards and is now home to memorabilia depicting his entire career. We also saw his stables and his Racquetball building. The racquetball court itself now houses yet more memorabilia but on entering it there is another small room which looks down onto the court itself. There is a piano in the room (pictured above), where Elvis sat on the morning of his death and sang Unchained Melody with some friends.
I have to say it was almost eerie in a way walking around the mans house. It strange to say, but it kind of gives you the feeling that he was a very real man who lived a very real, or indeed somewhat unreal life... not just this character called Elvis Presley we've being hearing about since we were kids. As I said in yesterdays post, none of us are really big Elvis fans and I'm not saying we're all going to suddenly become die hards, but by the time we got to his grave, which is in his meditation garden at the very back of the house, it was hard not pay the man some respect. One thing we learned today, nobody will ever be as big as The King...
It only took us a couple of hours to do the tour so we came back to the RV and spend the rest of the day chllin and enjoying the wonderful sunshine... (I hear it's miserable back home.!.!.)

Day Twenty One: Heartbreak Hotel 29/10/08

We arrived in Graceland just after 3.30pm and we didn't do much for the evening. Seeing as we're parking up for 3 days we just chilled.. The only thing we did was go to The Heartbreak Hotel for our dinner. The RV park is literally right behind the hotel and a jump over the fence to Elvis Presley's 14 acre Graceland estate!! So we're in a pretty good location. None of us can really consider ourselves real Elvis fans but it's pretty cool to be here all the same. He is "the king of rock and roll after all"... We'll dander on over to the Kings palace tomorrow and go on a wee tour of the place. TCB baby!!! ...(takin' care of business).

Day Twenty: Nashville..Music City 28/10/08

I'm writing yesterdays post on the road as we had a very late night last night. I'll get to that in a minute but firstly... We started yesterday like we normally do, with an extended breakfast. We didn't go into downtown Nashville until around 12 noon. When we got in we just parked up and went walking. We were told the best places to go were 5th Avenue and Broadway so we headed over that direction. One of the first places of interest we came across was the world famous Ryman Auditorium (pictured below). It's where Johnny Cash made his debut and where he first met June Carter. It also played host to many other greats including Elvis Presley, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Dolly Parton to name but a few. It was also the original home to the longest running radio show in the world, The Grand Ole Opry. After that we payed a visit to The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. It turned out to be really interesting and we spend a good few hours wandering around taking in all the exhibits. Some of the more interesting items on display were one of Johnny Cash's' original "man in black suits" and Elvis Presleys car with the crushed diamond and 24 carat gold paint job. When we were finished in the museum we went for a walk down Broadway and just took in some of the other sights Nashville has to offer. It's not a huge city by any means, I guess it would be similar in size to somewhere like Derry, although I could be wrong. When we'd done everything we wanted to do we made our way back to the RV park. We'd heard of a place not to far from the park called Cooters. It's a Dukes of Hazard themed museum owned and run by the shows on screen mechanic, Cooter Davenport himself. We decided we'd walk it and we went about a mile or so until we came across a nice little bar/restaurant called The Caney Fork. We went in to quench the sudden thirst that came upon us all and lets just say we never made it to Cooters!! The bar closed at 10pm but we just went around the corner and found another place called Scoreboards and it stayed open until 3am. It was a really cool place and we spent the night partying with our new buddies. There was Jeremiah the Jehovah's Witness from Ohio, Susan from Houston Texas who's half Irish and half Cherokee, Tommy who has Cork blood in him and Mary Jane who has Dutch origins.. It was a great night had by all and considering we didn't get back to camp until nearly 4am that's why there was no blog post. I have to say it's extremely difficult typing on a laptop in a moving vehicle. The roads over here aren't quite as smooth as you might think. So please forgive any spelling mistakes. It's a 4 hour drive and we should be in Graceland by the early afternoon.

Day Nineteen: The Road to Nashville 27/10/08

Well, as I said last night today was going to be a day of driving, and thats exactly what it was. The first hour was tough going. Try driving a 32ft RV over 20 miles of The Blue Ridge mountains on tighter roads than the tightest roads of Creeslough!! It's a good job I had a Creeslough man as my co-pilot... After 7 hours on the road, with myself and Aidan taking turns with the driving, we arrived in Nashville Tennessee. We'll explore properly tomorrow, but the only thing we did this evening was walk up the road to a real American steakhouse. It was the rarest place we've eaten in yet. They have bowls of monkey nuts on all the tables and when people are discarding of the shells they just throw them on the floor!! So we were walking on a carpet of monkey nut shells. I saw a women spill her drink and instead of the waiter bringing a mop, he brought a bucket of monkey nuts, poured them over the spill and just started crushing them with his feet. It was a rare joint alright but man did we eat well!! Best ribs and steaks we've ever eaten.. When we were done we loosened our belts and walked the mile back to camp. We probably should have walked 20 miles to work that meal off but I don't think we could have gone any further without collapsing. We entered central timezone today so we are now 6 hours behind Irish time. We've a long day of playing the typical tourist tomorrow, so I'll bid y'all goodnight...

Day Eighteen: The New River 26/10/08

We had a bit of breakfast and went straight over to the campground office. We paid $20 each and piled into a van with a few other campers from South Carolina. We were driven 5 miles up river and they just dropped us off with a couple of canoes, a few oars and they said "have fun guys and we'll see you in a few hours". We were left to go down the river at our own pace and man was it fun!! It wasn't long until we left the folk from South Carolina far behind. The journey down river was really cool and once again the scenery was breathtaking. North Carolina is so beautiful.. Aidan and Brian were in one canoe and myself and Ronan were in another. The other two boys had a couple of hairy moments when they got stuck on rocks once or twice and were on the verge of capsizing (would have been some good pictures if they had!). Myself and Ronan were real professionals. We all made it back to camp relatively dry though, and we only wished we could have gone a few more miles. It was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Later on we went to Walmart to get some essentials and then came back to camp and did a bit of fishing. We only managed to catch a load of leaves... but they were really big leaves!! We spent the evening the way we normally do.... dinner around the campfire. We've another 7 hour drive tomorrow which will bring us to Nashville Tennessee, so we'll hit the hay early.

Day Seventeen: North Carolina 25/10/08

Well here we are in North Carolina. We're parked up on the banks of the New River which apparently is the second oldest river in the world. Beaten only by the Nile. It is also apparently one of only two rivers in the world that flows north. We're right in the middle of The Blue Ridge Mountains in a little town called Sparta, and the scenery here is absolutely breathtaking. The forecast for tomorrow is good so the owner of the RV park is going to take us on an expedition down the river in a few canoes (Deliverance style!!). None of us can pick up phone signals and our mobile broadband signal is very weak. So if anybody is trying to contact us don't be alarmed if you can't get through. We'll be here until Monday. The drive down here was grand, although it rained heavily until we got into North Carolina. It cleared up just in time for us to appreciate the scenery. Not much else to write about and we didn't get any videos or pictures but hopefully we'll have a few good ones tomorrow.

Video Blog: Amish Country + DC + Virginia

Day Sixteen: Still parked up... 24/10/08

There's not a whole lot to write about today. We did beat our record and spent 2 hours having breakfast, then we drove a couple of miles down the road to the naval base where all the fighter jets are coming from. Naturally, we drove into a restricted area and were promptly turned around. We gave up on that idea and Aidan and Ronan decided they wanted to visit the local aquarium. Myself and Brian had seen fish before so we just chilled in the RV while the boys were inside (very handy bringing your house with you wherever you go). We returned to camp and parked up for the evening. There's a "Halloween Fear Fest" in the park tonight and there's loads of hicks and hillbillies rallying around the place in golf carts and doing terrible drunken karaoke. Hilarious!! Early to bed tonight so we're ready for the seven hour drive to North Carolina tomorrow.

Day Fifteen: Still In Virginia Beach 23/10/08

We're considering this our holiday within our holiday. In other words we're not planning to do very much for a day or so. Today we spend an hour and a half having breakfast, went to Walmart to buy fishing rods, went fishing and caught nothing, had lunch, had dinner, lit a campfire, watched a movie and went to bed. There's not a whole lot to write about. I guess the most important thing is that I'm finally up to date with this blog!!! Hurray!! Oh... and we've all decided not to shave for at least a week. Yup, i guess it was going to happen sooner or later.

Day Fourteen: Virginia Beach 22/10/08

We woke up, packed up and hit the road after lunch heading south. A four hour drive later and we arrived in Virginia Beach. The weather is still fine and this RV park has potential to be the nicest yet. The only downside is that we are located very close to naval base and there seems to be fighter jets constantly flying over our heads. As if the boys weren't already sick of them considering the wonderful show we saw yesterday!! They're so loud you can't hear yourself talk! But hey.. something different, and we're kind of getting used to them already. We're going to stay here for a few days to recover from all the walking we did in DC, and apart from that we're in no real hurry anyway. We made ourselves a camp fire and relaxed for the evening.

Day Thirteen: Exploring Washington 21/10/08

After getting a taste for Washington yesterday, we got up early today and headed straight into the city. Everything we wanted to see in DC was within about 10 blocks so we just walked everywhere. We went up to The White House to see if we could get in for a tour, but apparently if you want access you need to give at least 2 to 6 months prior notice. We were content to just get a look at the place though, and it was pretty cool to see it for real. After that we headed back over towards the Washington and Lincoln memorials to get a proper look at them in daylight, and to get a few more photos.

By this stage we were getting hungry, so we took a break and went for a bite to eat. After lunch we realised we weren't too far from the Ford Theatre where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated so we went over and took a few snaps of that. (starting to feel like a proper tourist by now). This was followed by a stroll up to Capital Hill and a visit to The Air and Space Museum. We arrived at the museum late enough and we only had time to go see a show about fighter pilots in the Imax theatre. I thought it was a quite an interesting show but Aidan fell asleep twice and Brian was asleep by the end of it. Ronan was just bored... We walked our feet off today and basically it was just a lot of sightseeing so there's not too much to write about. I've included a few more pictures instead. We didn't get to see The Pentagon because it was a bit out of the way and we didn't really have time to see it before the sun went down. Overall we thought Washington DC was a really interesting city. I would definitely recommend it for anyone to go and visit.

Day Twelve: Arriving in Washington DC 20/10/08

We woke up this morning and hung around the campsite doing nothing very exciting, except of course feeding the ducks in the pond!! Ronan found this very enjoyable. Especially being chased by the ducks.. you'd swear he was a six year old. After lunchtime we packed up, battened down the hatches and made our way south towards the capital, Washington DC.

It took us just over 2 hours to get here and we parked up in the campsite in the early evening. We decided that seeing as we had a few hours of daylight left we might as well go into the city for a wee stroll around. We took a bus directly from the campsite to the metro station and then took the train straight into the heart of DC. Our first impression of DC was... wow!! This place is much cooler than New York. We walked up the street and passed the J. Edgar Hoover building which is home of the FBI headquarters. One of the guards behind the reception desk was good enough to stick his arms out and pose for a photograph... You can see him at the centre of the revolving door. I guess the FBI have a sense of humour too. We continued walking until we came to the Washington memorial. It's much bigger and much more spectacular in real life than it is in the movies. The view from the Lincoln memorial looking down over the reflecting pool, and with the Washington memorial in the background was really amazing. Most people will remember this view from the movie Forrest Gump when he's making his speech at the peace rally. The sun was starting to go down and we made or way back towards the metro station. We'll go back tomorrow for a full day exploring the city. On our way back over we were walking near The White House and we heard a low flying helicopter just over our heads. It turned out to be not just one, but three military helicopters. The first one passed over The White House, the second one came down to land on the front lawn and the third one passed over as well. I spoke to a guard on one of the gates and it turns out that it was indeed our Mr Bush coming home for his tea in the second helicopter. The other two were his escorts. I hope Mrs Bush had something nice ready for him. When we got back to camp we made a bit of dinner ourselves, lit a nice big campfire and sat around with a few beers listening to the wonderful sounds of the interstate.

Day Eleven: Philadelphia 19/10/08

Last night was Hugh and Andies final night in the RV and we woke up and got ourselves ready for the journey to Philadelphia where they'd go their seperate way. After breakfast we got some washing done and went for a stroll around the area. We were surrounded by farmland, and the Pennsylvania countryside is really quite beautiful. Midday was checkout time for the RV park so we hit the road. It took just over 2 hours to drive to Philly and we left Hugh and Andie off at a motel where they're going to spend the rest of their holiday. We've now come down to the final 4.. Aidan, Ronan, Brian and Myself(Liam), and we're signed up to sleep in this RV until early 2009!!

After parting company with Hugh and Andie we made our way to the next RV park in the outskirts of Philly to check-in. We hadn't actually planned to go into the city itself but we thought we might as well considering we were this close. We drove to the train station and jumped on the first train into the city. Philly has a bit of a bad reputation and when we got off the train in a dark and quiet neighbourhood and were greeted by a few dodgey characters we weren't keen on hanging around too long. We found a good place to eat and had ourselves some genuine Philly Cheese Steaks. When we were done we just got on the next train out of there. It was worth the trip though because the cheese steaks were damn good!! If we'd planned it I would have liked to have seen Philly in the day time because I'm sure it has it's good points. I'm not going to judge the place on the one hour we spent there.

Day Ten: Amish Land 18/10/08

As usual we were up early. Mostly beacause it's impossibe to a sleep late in an RV. As soon as one person is up, the rest have no choice! We did a bit of shopping in Wallmart and then went and explored an Amish village. For anybody who doesn't know, the Amish are people living an 18th century lifestyle in the 21st century, and their village is about as interesting as you might think. It did pass an hour or two and we had a bit of craic as we walked around the place.

We spend the afternoon parked up in a shopping mall car park making dinner before going to the cinema to see W, the new Oliver Stone film about George Bush. It was a good show and it portrayed Bush pretty accurately. In other words he came across as a complete idiot.

After the show we made our way to a small town called Strasbourg where Aidan had heard of an organised ghost tour. Basically we payed $14 dollars each so some lady could lead us around the streets for an hour and a half telling us "ghost stories". I could have come up with better tales myself, but it was harmless enough. Included are pictures of what is apparently the most haunted house in all of Pensylvannia and the grave of the women who is apparently doing the haunting. The story that goes with them is not altogether that interesting.. or indeed scary so I won't bother sharing it.

When we got back to camp most of the gang went the bed. Myself and Hugh decided it would be a good idea to sit up and wait for the Grand Prix to start at 3am. It seemed like a good idea at the time but Hugh fell asleep 9 laps into the race. As usual it wasn't a very exciting race and it was a miracle i stayed awake for the duration. When i did go to bed i woke up a few hours later and to my horror i saw a small snake slithering down the steps of the RV!! Naturally i panicked and within moments everybody was awake. After a thorough inspection by Hugh and Aidan there was no sign of any snake.. and yes i was the only one to see it. I'll swear until the day i die that there was a snake in this RV. After googling "snakes in Pennsylvania" we learned that there is 18 species of snakes there and 3 of which are venomous. So it's entirely plausible!!!!

Day Nine: NYC to Pennsylvania 17/10/08

After spending the night parked at Wallmart Jamie packed his bags and was on his merry way. He got the bus to the airport and the rest of us just hung around until after lunch while Brian and Ronan made their way from JFK to where we were. As soon as they arrived we hardly gave them a chance to settle in before we hit the road. A three and a half hour drive later and we were in Lancaster Pennsylvania... or as we like to call it, "Amish Land". Brian and Ronan were wrecked from their journey overseas so we just chilled for the evening and hit the hay early.

Video Blog: Our RV + Niagara Falls

Day Eight: Niagara Falls back to NYC 16/10/08

Today was just a day of travelling. Left the RV park at Niagara Falls in the mid morning and made or way south again. It was a six and a half hour drive and Aidan took the first shift, then Liam took over half way through. Our reasons for coming back to NYC are that Jamie needs to catch his flight home tomorrow (back to college for him), and we have to pick up Brian and Ronan too. So we're killing two birds with one stone. We found a Wallmart and parked up for the night.

Day Seven: Still at Niagara Falls 15/10/08

We had a bit of a sleep-in today and woke up with the sun shining down on us once again. We were in no mad rush to go anywhere so we just relaxed for the morning and went for a walk around the RV park and the surrounding forest. Upstate New York is really beautiful this time of year.


After a bit of lunch we drove back to the Falls themselves with the intention to walk into Canada. We walked across The Rainbow Bridge linking the two countries, showed our passports at the border and we were in Canada! The views from Canadian side were far more impressive because you can see both the American Falls and the Canadian horse shoe falls at the same time. As we've heard people say "you can't expect to come to Niagara Falls and not get wet", and for a second day in a row we proved them right with a similar experience to the Cave of the Winds on the American side.

We found out that from 7pm every night the falls are beautifully lit up. It was a bit early so we went back into the US and to the RV to get something to eat. At 7pm we went into Canada for the second time in the one day. The falls are indeed just as spectacular by night as they are by day. We were enjoying our evening stroll until we had our first bit of rain since we left Ireland. And boy did it rain, and rain, and rain!! The problem we had, was that the only place we could really go for shelter was the RV. Unfortunately the RV was in the US and we were in Canada. Our only option was to make a run for it.. As we were running across the bridge Aidan had a bit of a slip and went down hard. He landed in a puddle and managed to rip a hole in his new jeans (Hilarious). The American border officials had a good laugh at us and we returned to the RV like a bunch of drowned rats. I know "you can't expect to come to Niagara Falls and not get wet". But not like this!!! Drove back to camp and out our feet up for the evening.

NYC Video Blog

Day Six: Niagara Falls 14/10/08

We got up at early, had breakfast and hit the road. Aidan drove for the first time today. We got straight onto the interstate and followed the road for 3 hours until we got there. We were delayed at some roadworks for quite a while and we spent about $20 on tolls.

We finally made it to Niagara Falls at about 2pm. The sun was shinning and we went and had a look at the American falls first. We took a ride on the Maid of the Mist boat tour which brought us right up close to the falls themselves. It was absolutely amazing and needless to say we got very wet!! After that Liam, Andie and Jamie took a walk over to The Cave of Winds where they got to stand under the American Falls and got even wetter than they already were. Most refreshing shower ever though!



The evening was pushing on and we were getting hungry so we decided to make our way to the campgrounds. Its about 10 miles from the falls in a nice wooded area. It's near the end of the season so it was very quiet and there was only a handful of other RVs there. We setup a campfire and sat out drinking a few beers while listening to the crickets and watching the stars... We're on holidays alright!!