7. Memphis Blues plus Rock 'n' Roll.

The 15 minutes it took from being on one plane from LA, just landed late in Fort Worth, Dallas, to disembark, race to the Skytrain, transfer into another terminal, check in and be seated in our new plane bound for Memphis completely absolved any previous frustrations of so many queues, lateness, and seemingly wasted time.
As we were last on, we were told to sit in the first seats we found, so upgraded ourselves to Premium Economy.  Life is good!!

Planes looking like cows around a milking shed. 

The impressive transfer at Fort Worth, Dallas, from one plane into another in a different terminal; all within 15 minutes.
The Skytrain runs like a slot car set, high up around the perimeter.   

Memphis is said to have been the birthplace of Rock and Roll as well as the Blues, and still lives up to this reputation.

Graceland and the Elvis experience gave us the chance to learn more about the one who is largely acknowledged for starting the whole Rock and Roll aspect of music, and bringing so many music types together.
We also watched videos of his rehearsals and concerts, and have a new found respect for his enthusiasm, attention to detail, and love of life.

The famed "Graceland"

Elvis had real class.
The peacock design in the lead lights, featured on so much clothing and other areas.
His TCB (Taking Care of Business) insignia also featured predominantly.  

The chandelier design is based loosely upon the chandelier we have over our toilet at home. 

The house sports 14 televisions.
Elvis had 6 TVs in this media room, as he had wanted to equal that of the White House. 

It took three men ten days to cut, pleat and hang the 350 yards of fabric to the billiard room walls and ceiling..
A woman would probably have completed the task in half a day. 

Elvis' final resting site with his parents and grandmother either side. 

It was then over the road, from Graceland, to the Elvis Experience featuring Elvis memorabilia to suit even the most avid Elvis fan.

Many of the King's twenty two cars are on display.
Two of his quotes were noted:
Life is too short for boring cars!
Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine! 

Pink!
The only colour for a Cadillac.

Most of the world's greatest musical performers paid tribute to Elvis, giving him praise for his massive musical influence. 

Countless costumes are on display teaching us all the importance of never discarding anything from the wardrobe.
Elvis can be seen leaving the building on the left. 

This is what kept him well grounded and in touch with his audience.
David Copperfield from our Las Vegas show could do with reading this!
Never get complacent with an audience or life!!

Some of the 36 movies in which Elvis starred.

Awards by the bucket load.
Even a Medal of Honour by the President and several awards from Australia. 

Sun Studio was where Elvis was first discovered, by a secretary who saw his natural skill and persona.  Roy Orbison lived upstairs above the cafe at Sun Studio; and virtually all the big names would simply drop in.  They would have been great times.
We toured the studio where Carrol got to play an air guitar, as well as use the microphone Elvis recorded with.

The cafe has kept the original decor and design, right down to some of the customers.
The staff were all evidently living the dream of being in such a place. 

Our swimming extraordinaire friend, Sharon, would not want to buy this original record, especially at $3,500.
Each time she races at carnivals she seems to break records. 

The Million Dollar Quartet.
L to R: Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.
An impromptu recording session on 4th December, 1956, but not released until 1980.
The wall and ceiling panelling is original as per the photo.

One of the many museums to music in Memphis.
As we read "Hall of Fame", there has been a "Wall of Flame" back in Australia, where we have heard more than one million hectares of bush has been burned in the recent devastation.  

Lansky's is known as the Supplier to the King, having outfitted so many of Elvis Presley's very neat outfits.  The clothing still is so impressive.

An alternative to shopping at Lowes. 

Due to weight restrictions, the gold jacket was out the question. 

Three generations and still going strong. 

Beale Street is the birth place of music.  One side, Rock and Roll, the other, the Blues.

 Rock and Roll!!

All lights up at night.
The sound of music coming from all the venues was brilliant. 

Choice after choice of venues.  Many without cover charges. 

Something for the throne room. 

Bouncing tumbling busker.
 This athletic chap would line up volunteers to squat along the road, then tumble over them, before taking a bucket around to collect tips. 

Full flight over, landing on his feet at full pace. 

BB King's Blues Club gave us a great night out of food and musical talent.

BB King's in Beale Street where so much of the Blues started.
Police cars block off all cross streets in the area adding to the safety of all concerned.
The chap we saw arrested just after this photo was taken didn't have the same sentiment.
The men in blue stopped blues happening in the Blues District. 

Oh what a night!

A great place if feeling a little blue!
The blue sign to the right reads "Lucille"
Each one of BB King's guitars was named Lucille. 

Trams run from one end of Memphis to the other, with the fare being a minimum of a one dollar note. Any notes can be inserted, although no change is given.  It pays to keep a handful of one dollar notes as tips are required for almost every service encountered.

Still functioning relics of the past. 

Great varnish job.

We ended our time in Memphis with a walk across the mighty Mississippi into Arkansas giving a chance to experience different states of excitement almost simultaneously.

Arkansas 

Tennessee 

One of the world's great rivers.
A "dhow" heads upstream on the Nile with the great pyramid of Giza in the background. 

The Peabody Hotel in Memphis has a tradition of a Duck Parade daily, which brings people flocking from all over the world.

Great pomp and circumstance for the march of the ducks.
Marching into the pond at 11am and out again at 5pm; to and from their roof top Duck Palace.
Rumours that non-conforming ducks are marched into the kitchen is incorrect.
Duck has never been served in the hotel.

The current Duck Master in red.
The original Duck Master held the position for over 50 years.
He upheld his positive outlook on life despite occasionally feeling a little down. 

Our last day in Memphis coincided with Veterans Day, aka Remembrance Day.
The march took about forty minutes to pass, with so many veterans, armed forces, police, schools, bands and marching groups participating.

A motorcycle policeman writes out a traffic infringement for himself for illegal double parking his motorcycle.  

Many of the motorcycle police had their names printed on the panniers of their bikes.
This would aid identification of bikes in a police line-up. 

Budget cuts have seen some police Harley Davidsons replaced with push bikes.
This has an evident health benefit for the officers involved.   

Many of the marching groups had a burly cheerleader, evidently from the services,
singing out a military cadence call for all to respond and help keep in step. 

Great fashion never dates. 

Marching with the flag of Tennessee.
It was great to see so many young people marching. 

Our final Memphis sunset over the Mississippi.

Sunset over the Mississippi from the rooftop of The Peabody Hotel.
The big crane reminds us of our little Crane grandson, Isaac, who is now playing the piano before he can walk.
Isaac has already reached the standard of Don's piano playing after just 10 minutes on the piano.  

Next we head downstream on the American Queen as a cold front from the Arctic hits the States and follows us south.

Y'all keep well once more.
God bless, Cheers,
Don and Carrol.

6. Run Forrest Run, Monument Valley & Grand Canyon

As we continually encounter so many different experiences and views each day, we can't help but think that life is like a box of chocolates.  (Who once said that?)
Driving into Monument Valley, we stopped at the scene where Forrest Gump stopped running before turning around and walking back down the road.
We were also presented with so many unsurpassed vistas, it has been so very difficult to cull photos for this post.

" Run Forrest Run!"
At least this is the road where Forrest Gump stopped running, turned around and walked back through his followers.

Note the indentations in the road centre line; a possible cheaper alternative to adhering markers on the road surface.

There are countless miles of incredible rock formations along the way.
Not sure how long this tree stump has been here as most vegetation are smaller shrubs.

First glympse of the mighty Colorado.

Translation: Unsurpassed views in this area. 

The USA known the world over for its freeways and flyovers. 

Flyover by a motorised glider riding the thermals off the cliff face; snapped out of  the bus window as we weaved down towards Monument Valley.
This same glider flew over us about an hour later on the valley floor.

Monument Valley presented another clear desert day and an informative Navajo guide with a great sense of humour and history.
In one large canyon, four echoes could be heard at one stop, echoing back and forth off the solid rock walls.

Straight out of the Westerns. 

The West or Left Mitten

Director John Ford's Lookout, his favourite location from the 1939 movie "Stagecoach".
John Wayne did well in staying on the horse in the above photo.

Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt climbed this in the Mission Impossible 2 movie.
We were advised he was put on top by helicopter.
(Incidentally, the top of this butte is the size of two 4WDs, which were lowered on top for a US car commercial.)

Hogan Hogan Cave

A little lie down after a long day.
Navajo guide, Jamie, is indicating which way to look. 

One for the imagination.
A giant eagle's head with the hole as the eye in the top of the cave. 

Ancient rock art indicating how animal design has changed considerably over the years.
The two toed, four legged speckled scrub turkey was once common in this area.  

Jamie, our Navajo guide and dancer.
Full of life, laughter and stories. 

Grand Canyon is surely one of the marvels of the world.  The size is hard to comprehend with so many parts of the canyon we've yet to explore.

One serious case of erosion. 

A mile deep and some of the oldest rocks in the world

Find the soaring raven zoomed in from a distance!

We opted for a helicopter ride over and into the canyon, and were even given a small life jacket in case the helicopter happened to ditch in the mighty Colorado River; which features pressure waves in rapids of up to 30 feet or 10m high.
The life ring would no doubt have come in very handy in event of a ditching.

Our EC-130 Helicopter complete with three pilots for safety.
Two are there for moral support only.

The colours and shapes, combined with immense size of all seen, was hard to take in. 

Just look at the shapes as we look down towards the valley floor. 

Next day, a shuttle bus took us to the old Hermit's Rest before taking a quiet walk back to the main tourist areas.
We met some locals quietly enjoying the solitude of the bush.

Not a bad fireplace for a hermit. 

Morning light made it hard to comprehend the depth of field.

From the rim, the river looks gentle and dead.
This shot is zoomed in 65 times to show the world class rapids. 

Anne Elk and child?

Cute little fellow!
New Zealanders would probably love these as much as they do the Australian possums, which have taken up residence in the land of the long white cloud.  

The views and colours change continually as one walks around the rim. 

The track is largely void of fences despite regularly being close to sheer drops into the void. 

We sensed Darth Vader was following us. 

Safety fencing hasn't kept abreast with much of the world.
Not a place for unleashed toddlers. 

More than 250 people have lost their lives world wide over the last 5 years by taking selfies.
These folk seemed to be doing their best to add to that number. 

As the light faded into dusk, the canyon took on more depth and colour.
Two of our group took eight hours to walk to the end of the track (visible roughly mid-way of the photo) and back up again. 

Night time approaching. 

And finally to look up and see a moon which looks incredibly similar to the one in the southern hemisphere.
: )

A detour off the freeway to Seligman in Arizona (pop 456), one of the Historic Route 66 towns, showed memorabilia and memories of the famed American Dream of the ultimate road trip.
So many towns bypassed by freeways are dying, however, this one is doing its best to rejuvenate and survive.

Tourists as well as Souvenirs are welcome.

We are in the wild west!

Every modern convenience, even new colour TVs. 

To think that so many are afraid of the wildlife in Australia.
At least a crocodile cannot crawl into a sleeping bag without waking the person sleeping in it. 

Then onto Joshua Tree National Park back in California for totally unique flora, and of course, more rocks.

The puppeteer and the puppet.
Life is all about perspective!

Skull Rock is reminiscent of the old Phantom comics.
That must be Dianna Parker at the eye. 

Firstly to the Cholla (pronounced choya) Cactus Garden which has been blacklisted as a landing zone by parachutists.

Cholla (pronounced choya) Cactus Garden, also known as Teddy Bear Cactus, due to their cuddly appearance.

They are more like Grizzly Bears though, as a simple brush against them could result in needle sharp barbed spines breaking off in the skin.
(The local Information Centre, sold colourful plastic disposable tweezers!)

Joshua Trees were named by early Mormons believing they looked like the biblical story of Joshua, reaching his arms up to the sky in prayer.

Joshua trees can take 50 years to reach six metres in height; and can live for 500 to 1,000 years. 

Joshua 1:9
"Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged,
for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

As Dionne Warwick sang in 1968, "LA is a great big freeway", hence it was up the road over the San Andreas Fault (one of the many faults in the US), past 4,000 wind turbines and into LA civilisation proper for a night for the termination of our fantastic Intrepid Tour, before heading east.

Wind turbines of all maturity thrive in the San Andreas area. 

Like sunflowers or Joshua trees giving praise. 

Our time on this tour has been amazing.  It is surprising the diversity of all we have seen in the last 18 days; all with some magnificent people.
We look forward now to some very different scenery as we head east, with a less physical type of travelling.

Since starting our tour in San Francisco, we have covered 7,600kms in our tour bus.
On top of this in the four weeks since arriving in the USA, we have ourselves averaged 18,000 steps and climbed 51 staircases each day. due to some great hikes in the National Parks and many hills in San Francisco.

We leave with the following comments taken from the track at Hermit's Rest on the Grand Canyon rim walk.

Happy ventures.
Cheers, Don and Carrol