We had one full day in Memphis and the weather was just crap. I know that I am a tiny bit immune to things that happen in the USA now given that this is my third trip over, however that doesn't mean for a single moment that I want new experiences. Well I do.....just not bad ones. Apparently I did not make that clear to my guardian angels today.
There was severe weather predicted for today. We knew that a good 10 days ago although the weather alerts have been escalating dramatically over the past day or so. Looking outside this morning, the sky was grey and heavy and it was ridiculously windy. You cannot actually see the wind, because all of the leaves have fallen from the trees. There is nothing really visual. It is quite unsettling.
We went back to Graceland this morning. When we went during the 2012 trip, I found it to be a little bit of an oasis. Memphis, and actually Tennessee as a whole, does nothing for me. It is brown and ugly. Graceland is a beautiful spot away from all of this and is a place that actually feels like a home, albeit a sad one. One would expect that Graceland is a large, spacious home, but its not. It is actually tiny and very closed in. It is warm and welcoming, although very garish. It is a time capsule dated 1977 and not a single thing has moved on since then. I do not think for a single moment that Elvis lost his life here, 16 August 1977. I believe he gave his life away on that day and he chose to live the life of a recluse elsewhere.... away from the spotlight and away from those people who lived riding his coat tails. I truly believe that. The walls of Graceland do still harbour such sadness though.
Graceland was more visible from the road this time given that the leaves were all off the trees. Our first trip there was during Autumn and the leaves had changed but had not yet fallen. This was like seeing it from the outside for the first time.
There was severe weather predicted for today. We knew that a good 10 days ago although the weather alerts have been escalating dramatically over the past day or so. Looking outside this morning, the sky was grey and heavy and it was ridiculously windy. You cannot actually see the wind, because all of the leaves have fallen from the trees. There is nothing really visual. It is quite unsettling.
We went back to Graceland this morning. When we went during the 2012 trip, I found it to be a little bit of an oasis. Memphis, and actually Tennessee as a whole, does nothing for me. It is brown and ugly. Graceland is a beautiful spot away from all of this and is a place that actually feels like a home, albeit a sad one. One would expect that Graceland is a large, spacious home, but its not. It is actually tiny and very closed in. It is warm and welcoming, although very garish. It is a time capsule dated 1977 and not a single thing has moved on since then. I do not think for a single moment that Elvis lost his life here, 16 August 1977. I believe he gave his life away on that day and he chose to live the life of a recluse elsewhere.... away from the spotlight and away from those people who lived riding his coat tails. I truly believe that. The walls of Graceland do still harbour such sadness though.
Graceland was more visible from the road this time given that the leaves were all off the trees. Our first trip there was during Autumn and the leaves had changed but had not yet fallen. This was like seeing it from the outside for the first time.
Going back to Graceland this time confirmed what I felt the first time. That the visitors are invading the privacy of a life allegedly cut short. I am not sure whether it was the bad weather or not, but there was something about this time that made it seems so wrong to be there. The Bear and I just wanted to apologise for the intrusion and leave as quietly as we came. We chose not to take the audio tour this time, as we had done that in 2012. We thought we wanted just to walk amid the property and take in what we may have missed previously. Good lord. I am not sure we had the chance.
We were the only couple NOT to be wearing earphones attached to a walkman. As bus load after bus load of tourists arrived full of people wearing the earphones, we found ourselves in the midst of a human demolition derby. Apparently putting on earphones and having the walkman turned up fully meant that people lost their sense of direction....and in fact lost their minds. Unfortunately as everyone is also travelling in the same direction, if you were run into by one crazy American, you were hit an additional 687 times by the same person. And of course, if you heard them screech "SORRY YAWL!!!" loudly over the commentary once, it would only get louder and more unintelligible the next 687 times.
However, the loud and clumsy patrons were the least of my concern as we continued on our way. My biggest problem was one very old, and very smelly old lady, that kept finding me no matter how hard I tried to lose her. I tell you....this old bird stank bad. Really bad. I think she had one foot in the grave, and her body had already entered a stage of decomposition. No matter how old this lady was though, she managed to keep up with us on the way around. I think a lot of you know that I am night blind and cannot see at all in dark places. It is very dark in Elvis's trophy rooms as this is where his outfits are displayed as well and the dark apparently helps to prevent them from deteriorating. I am flat out seeing a thing in those parts. As I stumbled around and felt my way along the hand rail and groped the Bear on the butt, I would know that this lady was keeping up because I could smell her. I would attempt to flee whilst holding my breath until I thought my lungs would burst, but on at least two occasions I ran straight into her awaiting arms and walking stick. My nose will never be the same again, even after the singed hairs regrow.
We were the only couple NOT to be wearing earphones attached to a walkman. As bus load after bus load of tourists arrived full of people wearing the earphones, we found ourselves in the midst of a human demolition derby. Apparently putting on earphones and having the walkman turned up fully meant that people lost their sense of direction....and in fact lost their minds. Unfortunately as everyone is also travelling in the same direction, if you were run into by one crazy American, you were hit an additional 687 times by the same person. And of course, if you heard them screech "SORRY YAWL!!!" loudly over the commentary once, it would only get louder and more unintelligible the next 687 times.
However, the loud and clumsy patrons were the least of my concern as we continued on our way. My biggest problem was one very old, and very smelly old lady, that kept finding me no matter how hard I tried to lose her. I tell you....this old bird stank bad. Really bad. I think she had one foot in the grave, and her body had already entered a stage of decomposition. No matter how old this lady was though, she managed to keep up with us on the way around. I think a lot of you know that I am night blind and cannot see at all in dark places. It is very dark in Elvis's trophy rooms as this is where his outfits are displayed as well and the dark apparently helps to prevent them from deteriorating. I am flat out seeing a thing in those parts. As I stumbled around and felt my way along the hand rail and groped the Bear on the butt, I would know that this lady was keeping up because I could smell her. I would attempt to flee whilst holding my breath until I thought my lungs would burst, but on at least two occasions I ran straight into her awaiting arms and walking stick. My nose will never be the same again, even after the singed hairs regrow.
The weather outside continued to deteriorate and we decided after a bite to eat at the Rockabilly Café, that we would purchase some microwave dinners and retreat back to our hotel. The storms that were headed towards Memphis were predicted to be severe, and it certainly felt like it. I cannot quite explain how the atmosphere felt/smelled/looked different....but it did. The sky was different to anything I had seen before, and the wind just felt odd. The Bear said it was because a front was moving in, and whilst our Australian weather men have been known to say that a front was coming, we really never experience it in Queensland. This however was a fair dinkum front moving in.
We did a quick stop at Walmart and bought some Microwave meals and salads before doing the bolt back to our hotel. Turning on the TV every channel was displaying a radar and warnings were scrolling through at the bottom of the screen in red. "Tornado Warnings in place until 5.15pm". Hmph. I had been hearing about tornado warnings for the last 24 hours, however I had not taken too much notice as they were things that only happened in the USA. Hang on a second....we actually ARE in the USA!!!! The Bear scrolled through the TV channels until he found something that was not a weather forecast, and I took a wander down to a lower floor to dry some clothes that we had washed.
Once I got back to our room the Bear mentioned something about a siren that he had heard. I told him that I couldn't hear it in the laundry, so he must have imagined it. He was sure he had not. I looked out the window and the rain was pelting and the lightening was wicked. It was just continuous unlike anything I had seen before. Not a few minutes later, a siren sounded again. This time there was no way that I could miss it. I went and looked out the window and the howl of the siren became continuous, and was exactly like an air raid siren that you might have heard during the World Wars. It kept getting louder and I started to worry. I asked the Bear whether he thought this was a tornado warning/alert/siren and he felt that it was. He switched the TV back over to one of the channels displaying the warnings, and they were becoming frantic. There was a line of storms containing "rotations" stretching vertically along Tennessee right smack bang through Memphis.
I think the horror on my face was apparent. The fear was certainly genuine. The Bear was prancing around in bright red heels and wasn't able to remember how many times he had to click his heels. He wanted to rename Schultz "Toto". Well....ok....that wasn't true as much as I would like it to be. In fact, he thought this was hysterical. He also thought the fact that I wanted to know where the tornado shelters were, was an absolute scream. He felt that the building that we were in was as safe as we could get despite being on the 5th floor and having large, plate glass windows beside the bed (the TV was advising to get down as low as possible and stay away from windows). The tornado sirens screamed on as the storm raged on. I lost count of how many twisters I saw barrelling towards the hotel. As it turned out, they were not twisters. They were a combination of my very over active imagination and the power of suggestion. The closest tornado touched down about 50 miles away...which was still about 13,000 kilometres too close for my liking! In all seriousness, I cannot tell you how scary it is, being in the middle of a weather event when you cannot see what is out there. The wail of the tornado sirens are haunting and I am fairly sure I never want to hear them again. Mind you, I am very appreciative that the Americans are very practiced at this and are very prepared. I had no doubt in my mind, should there be another line of tornados through the night, that the sirens would wake the dead to warn that you should evacuate. And just for the record, the tornado shelter was in the basement of the building next door!
We did a quick stop at Walmart and bought some Microwave meals and salads before doing the bolt back to our hotel. Turning on the TV every channel was displaying a radar and warnings were scrolling through at the bottom of the screen in red. "Tornado Warnings in place until 5.15pm". Hmph. I had been hearing about tornado warnings for the last 24 hours, however I had not taken too much notice as they were things that only happened in the USA. Hang on a second....we actually ARE in the USA!!!! The Bear scrolled through the TV channels until he found something that was not a weather forecast, and I took a wander down to a lower floor to dry some clothes that we had washed.
Once I got back to our room the Bear mentioned something about a siren that he had heard. I told him that I couldn't hear it in the laundry, so he must have imagined it. He was sure he had not. I looked out the window and the rain was pelting and the lightening was wicked. It was just continuous unlike anything I had seen before. Not a few minutes later, a siren sounded again. This time there was no way that I could miss it. I went and looked out the window and the howl of the siren became continuous, and was exactly like an air raid siren that you might have heard during the World Wars. It kept getting louder and I started to worry. I asked the Bear whether he thought this was a tornado warning/alert/siren and he felt that it was. He switched the TV back over to one of the channels displaying the warnings, and they were becoming frantic. There was a line of storms containing "rotations" stretching vertically along Tennessee right smack bang through Memphis.
I think the horror on my face was apparent. The fear was certainly genuine. The Bear was prancing around in bright red heels and wasn't able to remember how many times he had to click his heels. He wanted to rename Schultz "Toto". Well....ok....that wasn't true as much as I would like it to be. In fact, he thought this was hysterical. He also thought the fact that I wanted to know where the tornado shelters were, was an absolute scream. He felt that the building that we were in was as safe as we could get despite being on the 5th floor and having large, plate glass windows beside the bed (the TV was advising to get down as low as possible and stay away from windows). The tornado sirens screamed on as the storm raged on. I lost count of how many twisters I saw barrelling towards the hotel. As it turned out, they were not twisters. They were a combination of my very over active imagination and the power of suggestion. The closest tornado touched down about 50 miles away...which was still about 13,000 kilometres too close for my liking! In all seriousness, I cannot tell you how scary it is, being in the middle of a weather event when you cannot see what is out there. The wail of the tornado sirens are haunting and I am fairly sure I never want to hear them again. Mind you, I am very appreciative that the Americans are very practiced at this and are very prepared. I had no doubt in my mind, should there be another line of tornados through the night, that the sirens would wake the dead to warn that you should evacuate. And just for the record, the tornado shelter was in the basement of the building next door!
Tomorrow will be spent in the car driving to New Orleans. There are no snow storms or tornados predicted there thank goodness!
