Memphis: The Lorraine Motel

Memphis National Civil Rights Museum - May 25, 2012

Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior was assassinated here on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in early 1968.

They've turned the motel into something called the "National Civil Rights Museum". There is a big crowd. I'm a little surprised that about half the crowd is white. Times change. When I moved to Tampa in 1953,  every grocery store had four bathrooms (white men, black men, white women black women) and two water fountains (white and black). That was 60 years ago and a plumber's dream.

I suspect that Mrs. Phred might be the only real Civil Rights veteran at the museum today. Not many people had the balls to put their life on the line back then for social fairness. Mrs. Phred belonged to the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and agreed to lead a demonstration at the Florida pavilion of the New York Worlds Fair in 1964. Her sign said, "we don't want a World's Fair, we want a fair world ".

When you read the whole New York Times article, you get a sense that about 70 Pinkerton agents, ten paddy wagons, and several tanks surrounded Carol before they dared to make the arrest. The cops all had the white or black "Stetsons" and other odd hat styles that prevailed back then. So Carol went to off to jail in New York as well as in Tallahassee.

At the time of Carol's arrest, there were only three channels on TV and no remotes. You had to click the channels with a mechanical dial. LBJ and Elvis had three TV sets so they could watch all the news at the same time. Mrs. Phred's arrest was covered at 7 PM on NBC, ABC, and CBS. Mrs. Phred's Mom, Frieda, saw the arrest on CBS and blew her Jack Daniels and coke all over her MuMu.

I admit my admiration for Mrs. Phred's accomplishments as a 19-year-old..The New York Supreme Court threw out her trespassing conviction on the grounds that she had every right to demonstrate on what was essentially public property.

Mrs. Phred and I were in Tacoma when King was killed. I was a First Lieutenant. They briefed me on operation "Garden Plot" which involved the potential of flying in massive forces of regular Army and Marine troops to American cities to put down the "insurrection".

Now we have a black President. Think of that.

Pigeon River Whitewater Rafting

Hartford, Tennessee

 They advertise this raft trip as class III and IV rapids. It's about an hour and a half. I haven't smelled so much raw armpit BO in years, but the raft trip was lovely and exciting anyway.

100 feet after we put in, we hit a rock sideways and the girl next to me went into the river. It's a strange crew of five young overweight young women, Mrs. Phred, myself and an overweight female guide.

Our guide does a terrible job of giving rowing directions. We spend most of the trip floating backwards and sideways, getting stuck on rocks and losing people overboard.

 About 15 minutes downriver we hit a class IV rapid sideways and four of our seven rafters end up in the river. I extend a paddle to Mrs. Phred and pull her back on board. She loses one of her new tennis shoes.

 It's a wonderful hour and a half...very beautiful and full of excitement.

It takes an hour to drive back to the RV over remote rustic roads. We stop at a graveyard to eat the lunch I packed and listen to The Platters, Dave Bruebeck, Lightning Hopkins, Blind Mellon and the Doors....life is good...

Nashville

We end up spending almost a week in Nashville because of the bent front axle on the motor home. They also added a 4th leaf to the right rear spring to fix a sagging back end. Too bad they don't do work on people.

Mrs. Phred took some shots of the Gaylord Hotel near the Grand old Opry. The picture above is an example. I dislike country music. Spelling and pronouncing "opera" incorrectly is a sort of a reverse snobbery that really annoys me.

The Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Art Museum was worth the trip.

Mr. Cheek traded his Maxwell House coffee stock for IBM stock in 1933. It was a spectacular decision. Unfortunately he died in 1935. You can't take it with you.

There are many acres of beautiful gardens.

We were stuck in Nashville for the long Memorial Day weekend. Our RV park sponsored some music events and a barbeque....

Butterflies are pretty insects....

We got tired of Nashville while waiting for the RV to get fixed. We cruised up to Mammoth Caves National Park in Kentucky.

We took back roads up to the caves. The area has endless corn and wheat producers.

Mammoth Caves National Park has 392 miles of cave system that has been discovered. We see 250 yards of that. The caves are the 2nd oldest natural tourist attraction in the US. The oldest is Niagara Falls.

The music scene in Nashville is mostly on downtown a street named Broadway.

We spent some time and money on Broadway. We found a couple of groups that were not too country to bear and spent a night in a downtown hotel.

Memphis: Graceland

Memphis, Tennessee

Elvis has been dead for 35 years. His home is the second most visited in the United States, after the White House.

Elvis bought Graceland in 1967 for $100,000. It has about 13 acres and is fairly modest in comparison to his private jet.

Elvis ended his life grossly overweight, confused and  focused on spiritualism and Monty Python sketches.

His personal doctor prescribed over 10,000 sedatives and amphetamines in the last ten months of his life which ended in 1977.

Some think Elvis is still alive. He has been sighted in a wheelchair at Graceland, in a Wal Mart in Vegas, and buying a ticket to Argentina under the name John Burrows just two hours after his reported death.

His body was returned to Graceland and reburied after an attempt was made to steal it in 1977.

One thing is sure....Elvis has left the building.

This is a view of the back of Elvis' home in Graceland.

Memphis: Beale Street Blues

Memphis, Tennessee

If you go to Memphis, go down to Beale Street in the evening and you might hear some good blues or get something interesting to eat. I had craw fish. Mrs. Phred had a catfish sandwich.

We spent a couple of interesting hours listening to Dr. Feelgood Potts and his band.

Dr. Feelgood wears three bandoleers filled with about 20 harmonicas.

I bought both of Dr. Feelgoods albums. All the tracks have harmonica.

Dr Feelgood's base player is from Osaka, Japan. Apparently she was drawn to Beale Street by a love for the blues.

Chicamauga Lake

Harrison Bay State Park

We've started planning the trip to England, Scotland and Ireland this summer. We'll be traveling with our oldest two grandchildren,
 

The park here has a tennis court, but Mrs. Phred has damaged a ligament so we may not be playing any tennis anytime soon..

The plans for this summer are kind of loose right now other than the trip to the UK and Mrs' Phred's Aunt Aura's 90th birthday in Austin. July in south Texas should be warm.

We left Sarasota about six days ago. We visited some old friends in Peachtree City and now we're in SE Tennessee.

Mrs. Phred wants to go to a GTD of women RV people about 80 miles north. After that we might head over to Arkansas.

Moonlight Reflections

Natchez Trace State Park, Tennessee – 15 March, 2006

We settled into Natchez Trace State Park two nights ago. The Park is between Nashville and Memphis off I-40. It has 210 lake-front campsites, equestrian trails, hiking trails and an archery range.


The moon was full at 5 AM yesterday. I'm reminded that in 14.5 days, on March 29, the moon has a fixed noontime appointment to totally eclipse the sun. One researcher is now riding his mountain bike (named eddie) in a strange land. He is carrying a flask of liquid helium and other electronic and scientific gear and preparing to conduct a startling experiment involving, I believe, superstrings and bending rays of starlight.


His online name is newolder and his travels and experiments are posted in real time on his eclipse site. Drop him a word of encouragement and a wish for clear skies.

After our morning push-ups, sit-ups and jumping jacks, we fix turkey sandwiches and hike three miles to the Park's lodge and villas. To my dismay, we discover two unpublished tennis courts. We walk back, changed clothes and take the gas-dripping motorbike back to the courts so I can receive my usual 6-1, 6-0 drubbing.


They are serving all-you-can-eat Crazy Chicken in the lodge tonight for $6.95. I'm curious to see what it is, but we decide to pass and eat salmon salad again.

Natchez Trace is the name of a 440 mile trail that was used for commerce in the early 1800s. The trail ran from Nashville to Natchez on the Mississippi. Traders ran flat boats down the Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi rivers to Natchez then returned overland on the trail. The boats were floated down the Mississippi to New Orleans and sold for lumber due to the strong current. There is a Natchez Trace highway that roughly follows the path of the old trail. Merriwether Lewis committed suicide or was assassinated on the trail. The Park Service has so far refused to allow his exhumation to help confirm the assassination theorists. We will cross trails with Lewis and Clark several times on this trip.

Tomorrow we are driving 312 miles to Mountain Home, Arkansas, to see how Paul has progressed on his mansion-in-the-woods in the three months since we last saw him. He says he has some painting for me. Hope he's invested in an airless spray gun. I left mine home. I ask my faithful companion if we can have liver and onions for St Patrick's day and she replies that she is not Irish.