Getting a little frequent with the updates at the moment, aren’t we? Just taking a little bit of time to upload images since I could not do it yesterday at Memphis, and figured I’d send out a report on the last 24 hours.

At Memphis, we went to the gates of Graceland, but since it was rather expensive to see the house of a man that is not dead, we decided not to go in. Wandered through the souvenir shopping mall next to the visitor centre and marvelled at the bloody awful rubbish they had the nerve to be selling there. No item ever produced by mankind was spared an Elvis image - everything from cufflinks to posters to T-shirts to pencils. All plastered with Elvis, and with multiple versions since there was the “Elvis of the 60’s” and “Elvis of the 70’s” versions of all these items.

After escaping that place, we headed over to Ducks Unlimited. According to the tourism brochure we had that mentioned it, it was the home of the North American group that helps saves waterfowl and protect ducks from Canada to Mexico. There was a pond and a nature trail and it seemed like a good place to go.

Let’s just say that if you’re ever in Memphis, give this one a miss. It was free, and that was overpriced for what it was. We walked into the offices of the centre and were confronted with lots and lots of ducks. But here’s the thing - they were all dead. Someone had gone out and shot lots of them, stuffed them and arranged them in various “life like” poses. It was very freaky, and not the sort of place either of us would want to work.

There was an exhibit of some guns used by a guy (presumably he shot the ducks?) with a label along the lines of “Noel Buchanan’s famous shotgun”. First time we’d heard about it, to be honest, but clearly there were some ducks out there that were introduced to it… We then wandered around to see what else there was and found a variety of things to buy, including a dart board which had ducks as targets. For a duck conservation society, it hardly fittted in. But then, it was no more odd than the Ducks Unlimited carving knives (we’re figuring for your roast duck dinner).

Feeling hemmed in by all the dead ducks, we fled outside to the pond and nature trail to see some live ones. Not a one was to be found. For Ducks Unlimited, they were pretty limited when it came to ducks… It was all a little disconcerting, so we departed the grounds and moved on toward Nashville.

In Nashville, the Country and Western Hall of Fame was closed which was a bit of a relief, since we had no intention of going there, but now have a good excuse in case we meet someone who felt we should have gone there. (Hi Grandma and Grandpa. I know you would have gone there, even if it was closed…*grin*)

We spent the night at a rest stop on I-40, just outside of Crossville, Tennessee, having put a few miles on the clock. We got outside and damn near froze to the ground! It was so cold! Quickly, we cleaned our teeth and ran back to the van to the warmth inside. Watching the news on TV, we saw it was 28F (-2C) and was expected to get down to a mere 15F (-9C) overnight with a “deep frost”. Let’s just say that when the news reader shudders at the mention of “deep frost” and he’s seen one, we Aussies get concerned.

It must have gotten down to that, because we were not really warm all night. Got up this morning and found it to be much warmer - it was now 35F (1C), so that gives you some idea of how cold it must have been.

Moving on now to the Smoky Mountains, to have a wander through the woods.

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001