Missouri to Tennesse

The scenic route from Keokuk to St. Louis is quite beautiful. We made several stops along the way to admire the scenery and see the enormity of the Mississippi even though we are no where near where it really spreads out. The little town of Hannibal lies on this route. Home of Mark Twain so we had to stop off there. Had lunch by the waterfront then went on an hour long cruise up the Mississippi on a pretend paddle steamer. Pretend because although it looked the part it actually had a motor to power it. Still it was lovely. The Captain on discovering we were from NZ wanted to know all about Burt Munroe. He had seen the movie a couple of times and he wanted to know if Burt really was as eccentric as the movie portrayed. We told him more so which delighted him immensely. He asked us not to leave before he had had a chance to come and look at our bike. He was looking to buy a BMW and thought ours might be like the one he was interested in, but turns out he’s looking at an R80. Also turned out he was an ex cop. We seem to have a way of attracting these people. He was very nice and told us the easiest way to get into St. Louis where we were headed to visit a long lost cousin of Marty’s.
Before we hit the chaos of the St Louis freeway we stopped at a little town called Clarksville – (and we arrived at 4.30) in time to meet not the last train but a barge going through the lock. This particular barge was pushing 15 containers, (3 wide – 5 deep) and had to go through the lock in two stages. We watched from start to finish and it took just over an hour. They have built a viewing platform to the side of the lock so you get a really good view of everything that is going on. Consequently we were later arriving in St Louis than planned but that probably saved us from dealing with the 5 O’clock traffic. We found Dave and Pippa’s house without any drama and had a lovely night beside their pool. Pippa and Marty had a lot of catching up to do.

It was nearly 11 before we got ourselves on the road and into the city the next morning. First stop was the Scott Joplin House. We went on a guided tour of the house and this was the best $2.50 we have spent on the holiday so far. The young guy that took the tour was a Scott Joplin fan and what he didn’t know wasn’t worth knowing. He could even play the music and if it wasn’t for the fact that another small group caught our tour up we’d probably still be there listening to him play. I even got to play some of his music on the piano myself and I have to say I sounded pretty damn good. Of course that was in no small way due to the fact that all I had to do was press the pianos peddles the roll music did the rest.

Next stop Downtown St Louis. We rode around a bit on the bike to get the lay of the land before going down a couple of one way streets the wrong way in search of a car park. We found one close to the park that has the famous arch which of course we had to take a look at. It is a very imposing structure. For a small fee you can ride an elevator to the top then crawl out to a viewing window and look down. Not for me I got the heebie geebies looking up at it. (If you look closely at the picture you can see these). I told Marty he was more than welcome to go up but he declined using the excuse that he had been up the Eiffel Tower. We sat on the steps under the arch and took in a thunder and lightning storm. As it got closer we made a dash for cover and had Chinese for a late lunch while it passed. Next stop the zoo. We haven’t been to a zoo since Matt and Mike were little so it had been a while; The St Louis Zoo is huge and has some wonderful displays. I didn’t like the monkey or bear cages. The animals don’t look very happy. Having seen a Grizzly running around in absolute freedom it was rather sad to see them in a concrete cage.
The bird and reptile displays were superb. Marty was followed around by a strange large bird before it decided he wasn’t a terrorist and got back into its enclosure. Some of the enclosures just had thin strips of wire down the front which actually looked like glass with reinforcing in it. I got to see a rattlesnake and lots of others as well. I think it is a better way to see them than have one appear in front of you in the outdoors. We ran out of time to see the whole zoo and planned to return the next day but after getting soaked while visiting the Botanical Gardens we decided to call it quits and returned to Dave and Pippa’s pool where of course they had had no rain, nor did it rain the rest of the day there. The city however had quite a downpour with a bit of flooding in parts. So we have left a few things unseen in St Louis but that means we may go back there one day.

From Missouri we headed south to Tennessee and Memphis. We booked into a State park about 10 miles out of town. The camp host reminded me of “Pa”in the cartoon The Hill Billy Bears. He was a real southerner and just looked like he should be sitting on his wooden verandah in a rocking chair with his shotgun. Turns out he is a retired archeologist so that might explain it. Having said that, he and his wife were very nice and helpful. The first night there he came to warn us about an approaching storm and that if he got the word we would all have to congregate in the laundry room as that was the strongest building on site. “No point in staying in your camper and taking a ride you wouldn’t really enjoy” he said referring to the possibility of a tornado uplifting the camper. But that bit of excitement never eventuated and we had a very quiet night except for the thunder and lightning around us.

We decided to leave Graceland’s till last so headed into town to see the sights and listen to the Blues. The 10 mile trip took us about an hour as we took a wrong turn and did a 40 mile loop around Memphis. We had a slight disagreement over where to park the bike which saw us park in a legitimate car park rather than the illegal park Marty wanted. (With the help of locals we found a free park for future trips into town). We loved Memphis. So much Blues music to listen to. Not only in the clubs but also in the little park on Beale Street where guys just sit around playing and hoping the listening public will be generous in their tips. We were. When we could drag ourselves away from here we visited Sun Studios – I didn’t kiss the floor where Elvis stood but did hover in areas where Bob Dylan, BB King and Johnny Cash sat and played. A good tour but they hurry you through the building so they can get as many tours through as possible. We got the hurry up look a few times. We took a tour of the Gibson guitar factory and again we kept getting the hurry up. In one part of the factory we were so slow that the automatic doors closed on us and one other lady and we were shut off from the rest of the group. It gave us a few more minutes to look around. (Note the Scrap guitars. These are all destroyed. None are ever sold as seconds.) No such trouble when we went to the Museum of Rock and Roll as these were self guided audio tours. This was great as they had Juke boxes all around the exhibits and you could select heaps of music to listen to as you looked around. Sometimes we just sat on the seats and went thru most of the songs in the jukebox. It was great. We dined out on BBQ ribs, saturated ourselves with Blues and didn’t get to the Martin Luther King Memorial Museum. I did however get accosted by a guy selling his book (a stapled A 4 printout) on the true meaning of MLK according to him – a chosen disciple - so I probably don’t need to go to the museum - just need to find some time to read it.

Just up the road from the camp was a very old Indian site so we went there and had a look around. Turns out this is where our camp host worked his whole life from the day he got his degree till the day he retired. They uncovered a settlement going back thousands of years. After wandering around here for an hour we were ready to hit Gracelands.

This is the most expensive and possibly the most visited tourist attraction in Memphis. You have to do it if you are there. Marty wasn’t that keen but he came along for the ride. Gracelands itself was a lot smaller than either of us had imagined. It had a nice homely feel about it. A nice lived in feel. The rooms housing his collection of Gold Discs etc were absolutely amazing. It was mind boggling the amount there was. Even a non Elvis fan had to be impressed. His car collection, which also included a couple of motor bikes, was pretty cool as was his personal jet. I could get quite used to flying in that sort of style but I don’t think there is really any hope of getting out of cattle class. Dreams are free.

On the return ride to the camp at a 4 way stop I alerted Marty to a car I thought he hadn’t seen (he had), but not knowing what I wanted He slammed on the anchors and came to a sudden stop. He was not happy when he found out that I was being a back seat driver and was even less happy when he went to zoom off and the bike just coughed and farted and didn’t want to do anything. Consequently we limped the last two miles to camp. Once there I quickly got off, popped the top of an Alco pop and buried myself in a book while Marty looked at the bike. Nothing major. It seems the sudden stop caused the little bit of fuel and most of the crap that was in the tank to slosh forward and bloke the fuel filter. Luckily we had a new one in the bag of bits so it was all go in next to no time and the air slowly cleared and peace was restored.

We made the pilgrimage to Nutbush, the birth place of Tina Turner. Not much there at all and I was very disappointed that I couldn’t have my photo taken by the Nutbush City Limits sign. It doesn’t exist. They have changed it to Nutbush Incorporated. I guess they had too many signs pinched.

Last stop in Tennessee was Nashville. A big disappointment so we were only there for a few hours and then headed to Kentucky to see what was on offer there.