RJP BOF: Arkansas to the Charleston

We crossed the Mississippi River into Tennessee at Memphis so we were looking to do the money shots during that day and then move on to the Bourbon Trail, but as we were going over the bridge we saw this 10 story chrome plated pyramid on the edge of the river...

...that has been built to honour the fishing gods.

That right. It's a tackle shop. That's the Mustang standing by the fire hydrant in the foreground to give you some sense of scale. We didn't stop right away as we had some important money shots to take...

Sun studios...basically the birthplace of Rock'n'Roll.

Some of the old decks were on display like the 8 track that U2 used to record Rattle and Hum. Recording has come a long way. Or has it? Lots of game changers have gone in those doors. BB King, John Lennon, Roy Orbison, Us, Jerry Lee Lewis. Oh and of course the guy that used to live here...

...until he fixed himself one too many bourbon, amphetamine, cheeseburger and Priscilla milkshakes and in the process started another trend.

Money shot only...

...we had to go back and check out that tackle shop.

Inside the Pyramid they let you take photographs unlike the other Memphis attractions. There's a hotel and a...

shooting gallery,

Stuffed animals (really stuffed),

and even a live gator.

BCF are seriously in trouble if these guys decide to open in Australia. A quick cuppa on the banks of the Mississippi

With River boats in the back ground.

I wanted to do a ride but they are all nailed to the docks as restaurants. Seriously. We are getting a bit behind schedule with great plans every morning to cover a certain distance but we always have to pull over to see things like this.

The Mustang offers perspective. And it's not even the tallest one we've seen being driven down the road...

See.... The licence plate to prove that it's "roadworthy".

Some of the campgrounds have been pretty lavish. One night we were glamping (glamour camping) at Village Creek State Park with our private ensuite bathroom with only two others in the campground. A great place, however the wild life got friendly during the night. I was rudely awaken at about 2:00 AM by the Mustang yelling "Get the hell out of there!" Unusually, she wasn't talking to me, but to a gourmet raccoon that we've named Rocky (of course) who was industriously opening our Esky lid (cooler). By the time I had got up doing the man thing, ready to fight off the vicious animals, he had decamped the scene. All looked good, so I replaced the lid and put the Esky away in the car. The next morning, we found that Rocky had taken and eaten the whole block of imported cheese that we had bought. Being nature friendly, he left the wrapper for us to dispose of for him. Poor Rocky, must have spent the whole day in his hollow having nightmares about Wallace and Grommet.

By the way, the cheese here is shit, sort of like regurgitated Kraft singles with the plastic still on. It took us ages to find Rocky's repast, searching through gourmet delis. Now we have to start the search all over again.

Most of the parks have been fantastic, up until this one however (Montgomery Bell State Park) which was packed and all the tents sites were like Batman's cave.

The camera is not tilted. Notice the Mustang's lean to compensate for the gradient. After sleeping at this angle the extra blood in our legs helped us to recover from our treks.

Onward to Nashville...

Money shot... Grand Old Opry. Not really that Old. Not really the Grand. Pretty kitsch really.

Jeffersons's Hermitage.... for some history and stupidity.... and I reckon I should be on the $100.

...and then to Lane's Auto museum.

A lot of Russian classics and unusual cars.

I even found out why they made those stupid 3 wheeled cars in England like the Reliant. You too can broaden your knowledge if you travel like us.

We were going to stay for a performance by the symphony at this house ...

but got talking with the guy who was repairing the wrought iron work and he made some good suggestions that we decided to fit in. So it was back on the road to find a cheap hotel so we could get the mandatory distillery tour done...

As we were technically spying we disguised ourselves in the car park. We had to put on shoes for the tour so we made sure we blended in with the locals...

The Mustang has a pair as well...

Just act normal and they wont notice us.

Pretty amazing storage and maturation sheds. Basically the same as what we do except the whole county is involved.

Remember how I said we don't seem to just get the miles done. Well between spotting cars, redneck stuff, wildlife, plants and cemeteries the Mustang has always wanted an old log cabin and here's a mob that make them by the side of the road, and here's one all ready to be shipped... and they flat pack in containers....and they are really cheap...and this wont take long...

Redneck IKEA.

Following wrought iron guy's advice we stopped in Chattanooga. We didn't go and see the Choo Choo which is a themed hotel downtown, but we did go for a walk across the Walnut Street bridge.

The longest pedestrian Bridge in the US which on one side...

Allowed us to dance through the Hunter Museum and

check out this beautifully restored 18th century carousel. Not like the one in Cannington.

Crossing the border briefly into Alabama the fireworks shops are open early here...

Candy store... and cheap as chips.

[You guys should know that there are fireworks stores everywhere here. But this is the first one we saw that was open. We think they only open for people to buy fireworks for their 4th of July celebrations. Anyway, it was almost embarrassing how excited Rohan got when he saw that the store was open! But I suppose you can't blame him really.... can you?]

We went back into Tennessee to get to the great Smokey Mountains so I've had to learn delayed gratification. The Mustang still looks rightfully worried. To get to the Smokey's you have to run the gauntlet of Gatlinburg. Now, while there was some cool places to look through...

it was just, well...

Really crass... even by my standard (although this place had some really good wooden life-size pirates that would look great at the distillery). Gatlinburg promotes itself as Dollywood (Dolly Parton that is). One of the shows featured a talking dog as well as a mind-reading pig... How on earth did we ever resist?

Canned entertainment and surprise, surprise!

....another Titanic, as well as all the other things we saw back in Branson.

There is just so much kitsch that you can handle so we tried to get away from the crowds. However, we made one essential stop where the Mustang found one she wants. Not a Pony but a '65 Cobra. Still has a lot of good metal and as original as a Cobra can be. I think she just likes the colour but the price is right. Phone numbers exchanged and research into shipping to be done...

The Mustang's Mustang (?) [Yes, I'm seriously going to try to buy it]

School Holidays have started here and the parks are getting very busy. Gatlinburg was just crazy busy with tourists. It looked like we wouldn't be able find anywhere to camp until we finally found the real National Park office. There are a lot of privately run "information offices" that will send you the wrong (expensive) way or even try to sell you time share (they'll even give you $100 just for attending their sales talks). This little guy sent us to the right place...

Even the bugs are kitsch.

So it was on the road into the Great Smoky Mountains...

...with everyone else.

It is a really beautiful place but just a tad crowded at this time of year. It is a driving tour so the blue smoke is most likely exhaust fumes.

Camera timer working beautifully.

Always wanted to hike some of this since reading Bill Bryson's book.

The whole trek is almost 2000 Miles. It goes all the way to Maine but we'll just do a little loop in the National Park tomorrow. The log bridge leading into the trail was a bit misleading...

This will be easy, he said...

Tree hugging, happy times at the START of the trail. Only the jumper has been taken off so far...

Over halfway along the trail and we're still going up!

The Mustang is feeling the burn. Notice how most of the clothes have been taken off for me to carry by now. Also notice the angle. The camera was straight. She stopped frequently to take photos of all the wildlife, or just the trees, or the scenery, but it was really just to catch her breath. Wildlife photos to follow at the end of this blog entry. The previous night we could hear the bears yawning at the campground. The bear population in the Smokey Mountains is about two bears per square mile, so running into one on the trail is a real possibility. In the middle of the trail we found fresh markings.

Well, that answers that age-old question.

We never did see a bear.

I was a bit disappointed with the Mustang. The way that the clothes were being stripped off I was expecting a re-enactment of that famous old folk song "On top of Old Smokey, Where nobody goes...." It took us about three hours to cover the ten kilometres that we walked, climbed, stumbled and didn't get back to the campsite until after checkout time. The camp host had a note for us, reminding us of the checkout time. I wonder how late you have to be before they send out search parties?

At the south side of the Smokey Mountains there is a Cherokee reservation, which is basically a native American theme park run by guilty looking white Americans. We did however stop at the museum, where the Mustang raided the gift shop. Maybe we could do the same thing in Lockridge?

Cherokee museum..

At the end of the Smokey mountains.

Campsites are very scarce in the Carolinas, so we stopped at cheap motels. In one town, Hickory, there was a gun show happening the next morning, the idea of which filled us with enthusiasm. It was basically crowded with frightened Americans who were being sold stories of every possible worst case scenario, related by salesmen with no conscience. Gun control won't work here in Hick'ry. The mindset is too frightened and paranoid. Most of the guns were more expensive than we've seen in the shops, but the sales are less regulated...

This little nine-year-old was manning one of the stalls, and you could buy anything gun related, including jewellery...

Explosive eyes on this pendant

It's getting very hard to just rock up without a reservation in the State parks even for a tent site. The Carolinas in particular won't let you stay just for one night and you have to book three days in advance. Not very good for us. We've been searching on the fringes and found places like Sweetwater Lake, which is privately owned and run - basically a Farm Stay.

Our own private lake and quiet campground apart from the family who all had glow in the dark sword fights. Beverley, the lady who owns the place, got in the car to drive the 150m to our site to say hello. And they wonder why they have an obesity problem here.

This night we got to see Jupiter next to the moon just after sunset. One of the perks of following Space.com

Well, we finally made it to Charleston. It's bloody hot and humid at the moment, so rather than walk, we caught the water taxi around the harbour. Everyone gets off at Patriot's Point to look through the Yorktown.

but we headed the other way on the dock to check out the boats for sale.

Latest model Leopard (drool, drool)

This is how the locals cool off in the heat. 100 metres from the ocean.

We also went for sunset sail on a schooner...

The Mustang got all dressedd up

and I took it down a notch.

We can't really count it as sailing another ocean as we didn't leave the harbour. So we headed out to Folly beach for a late night supper at the Crab Shack and then went for a late night dip in the Atlantic.