The united states and Cruise

small update

Sun, 17 Jul 2005 07:01:01 -0400

so cate hasn't updated for awhile....so i just wanted to let everyone know that we're back in cali for a few weeks after pretty much driving straight through to california with a brief stop in laughlin nevada before we head off to europe. manda is home (in california) for the next couple of weeks before heading off to korea for a year, then germany for three....really not too much happening, just enjoying the company of family and relaxing before the hectic europe thing. hopefully in the next few days cathy will find the time to update and add some new pictures....

downtown memphis, tennessee

Mon, 4 Jul 2005 07:01:00 -0400

Went to Sun Studios today, where many famous early rock and rock artists were discovered. Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and many more. Little known fact: Elvis had recorded a single for his mom originally but Sam Phillips (owner/founder) was not impressed. Elvis came here almost everyday for an entire YEAR before Sam finally gave him a recording session. That session produced "That's All Right" which was a huge hit. Sun Studios started as a place that you could go and have a record burned for yourself like in that movie "That Thing You Do!" with Tom Hanks. Sam would take his recording equipment and record weddings, bar mitzvahs, even funerals! But you could also come to the studio and have your master laid down on vinyl. He later became a producer of his own label after he saw how much money could be made. It was a really cool tour with a lot of fun information and anecdotes. I highly recommend this tour to anyone coming to the Memphis area. Another piece of rock and roll trivia I learned there today: did you know that B.B. King's real name is Riley King? And that B.B. stands for Blues Boy? Yup, it's true!One I don't really recommend is the Rock and Soul Museum. It was ok, bit not nearly as much fun. Was a little boring, not as personalized and the people that work there seemed really pissed off today. And I mean EVERYONE! But oh well, it was only $9 and I can say I went. Drove around a little bit and took some other pictures while out. I must say that all of the Memphis we have seen seems pretty impoverished. You'd think some of the Graceland income would be spread out to where Elvis grew up but it does not appear to be the case.

ELVIS LIVES! (graceland), tennessee

Sun, 3 Jul 2005 06:58:59 -0400

And nowhere is that screamed so loudly than at Graceland, Elvis Presley's home here in Memphis. We arrived at 10 am this morning (opening hour on Sundays)and already there were loads of people here. Old people, young people, children. It was amazing. By the time we finished all the tours, there were at least 5 times as many people in line than when we came in. We started off by visiting the car/motorcycle museum. It was pretty cool with some really beautiful cars. They've all been restored of course to their original splendor as most are over 35 years old. They show a little film in the "drive in" area that shows clips of his movies and the car scenes in them. Next we visited "Sincerely Elvis" which has a lot of history about him. Places he shopped (big fan of Sears) and clothes he purchased as well as more in depth info regarding his parents and their roots. I included some photos in the photo gallery under memorabilia. After that we toured the airplanes he owned. The Lisa Marie, which was a pretty large passenger jet. It had several living areas including a dining/conference room, a living/audio room, a bedroom and 2 powder rooms. The 2nd plane was a very small hopper named the "Hound Dog II" Not much to it. See photos of both in the photo journal.
Finally it was time for the mansion. It was just as gaudy and tasteless as you can imagine. Of course it was decorated in the 70's which was not exactly a stellar decade for the interior design business. Plus Elvis definitely had his own opinion on what he wanted. For instance, the stairway going into the basement curiously resembles the mirrored tubelike area as you are entering "Space Mountain" at Disneyland. The ceiling on the "Jungle Room" is covered in the same green shag carpeting as the floor and in the pool room they used over 350 yards of material that covered all the walls and ceiling. In almost every room that horrible mirror stuff with the gold veins is a large part of the decor. All in all it was truly tacky but oh so a MUST for viewing.

the hermitage, parthenon & downtown nashville, tennessee

Fri, 1 Jul 2005 06:56:22 -0400

We decided to visit Andrew Jackson's home today. He was the 7th president of the U.S. (1828-1837) and his home was a slave run plantation. I decided to take a wagon tour of the grounds to visit the slave sights and hear about how the plantation was run. It was very interesting and informative. I can't even imagine how it must have been for those poor people. The sights of the slave quarters are still on the plantation and the size vs. the number of people forced to share space was pretty incredible. Now, 150 years later, the grounds have many trees and other foliage that was not there in Jackson's day. According to the tour guide, it was all crops. Cotton was the chief cash crop but the farm was pretty much self sufficient. He also bred horses and maintained a nationally renowned racing and breeding stable. He even had a "clubhouse" that people watched races from. All in all, it was pretty fascinating to visit and another part of history learned today. Afterwards, we drove into Nashville and visited the Parthenon. It's a full scale replica of the Greek Parthenon that was built to house the international art exhibition for the 1897 Centennial Exposition. It's still used as an art gallery today. In fact, there was a showing of Wegman photos as well as other artists. Wegman is the guy who made famous the Weimaraner dogs that he dresses. They always crack me up. The second floor houses models of the various gods and goddesses that are posed all around the exterior of the building. Originally all the statuary on the outside was made from plaster. But it quickly began cracking and falling apart so it was redone in cement and reopened in 1931 as you see from my pictures in the photo journal. It's pretty amazing to see. Lastly, our day ended with a quick trip downtown to drive Broadway, the main drag here. As with other cities we've visited (Spokane, Wa bears and Custer, SD buffalo) Nashville has a tribute to the area on street corners. Here it's guitars, naturally. See them on the photo journal. We are pretty wiped out now. Tomorrow we head to Memphis and Graceland.

grand ole opry, tennessee

Thu, 30 Jun 2005 06:55:22 -0400

today we went to the Opryland Hotel to tour and had breakfast. Oh my gosh! It is ENORMOUS and so extravagant. There are 3 different entrances, a garden conservatory, shops, boat rides around the interior lake, pools, sand creations, fish, restaurants and almost all of this is in giant sky lighted, covered patios complete with air conditioning (AHHHH!!). See the photo journal for some pictures. Although they do absolutely no justice to reality. We had buffet breakfast and walked around a good hour and a half at least. There is a walkway from the hotel to the Grand Ole Opry and we walked it. Which was probably a big mistake as it was 95 degrees today not including the humidity. But we did. Walked around the gift shop but couldn't go into the stage area itself unless we wanted the $11 tour. No thanks. Afterwards, I walked across the street to the Opry Mills Mall and saw "War of the Worlds". It was decent. The special effects were the best part. Walked around the mall for a couple of hours. It is HUGE! A big giant circle like the mall in Milpitas. Manda would've died. They have a Charlotte Russe outlet (her favorite store) Came back to the RV as it is so hot and muggy. Trying to talk Paul into going in the pool later