Tupelo - Elvis's birthplace

We went to Tupelo today to visit the place where Elvis's was born and lived until he was 13. We visited his family two room home and the little church where he first sang gospel songs. We met his cousin, a lovely lady, who told us all about Elvis's life in Tupelo and how he never forgot his roots. She reckons that Elvis's was the best white gospel singer, but did say she may be a little biased! She also told us how he never fulfilled his dream to be part of a gospel quartet. Life had other things for him. It was a quaint little place with many of his relatives still living there. So glad we found this (by accident really) before we saw Graceland.

Drove to Memphis in the afternoon. Memphis has the highest crime rate in all USA so we will be very careful and keep a close eye on our travel documents. Having said that we stopped in Oxford for lunch,after driving through a terrible thunderstorm, and that has the highest crime rate ever. We felt very unsafe in a really beaten up and grubby Pizzahut, which was the best place in town to eat!

Fulton, Mississippi

We stopped of in Columbus for a spot of retail therapy on the way to Fulton Mississippi, it was 98 degrees again and the air was so thick you could hardly breathe. When you stepped out of the air conditioned stores or the car, your skin felt hot and wet like you had been in a shower! We ate steaks in a real American diner last night and caused quit a stir again with our accents and the fact we eat with knives AND forks! Lol

Tuscaloosa -Tornado

We left Birminham and drove through Tuscaloosa where the tornado hit in the spring. We though it looked bad on TV and the Internet but when you see the mass destruction in real life it is heart wrenching. Whole communities wiped out, some living in mobile homes others in make do shacks and some in their storm damaged properties held together with bits of rope and plastic sheeting. We talked to a girl in McDonalds (which is still standing) and she told us her story about when the tornado struck and how frightening it was. The insurance people were set up in McDonalds when we were there, seeing streams of people and trying to find them permanent homes and transport.

Talking to people and seeing the damage really hit home exactly what had happened. The girl in McDonalds said "We were used to tornados, just sat them out before, but now we will be real scared the next time one comes here. Everybody lost something or someone."

Birmingham Alabama - Vulcan Park - Red Mountain

We went to Red Mountain the highest spot in Birmingham to see the statue of Vulcan and have a view over the city. The statue is the largest steel statue in the world at 56ft tall and stands on a pedestal 125 ft tall on top of the mountain. You can either climb the 159 steps or go up in a glass sided lift. We chose the lift and it was very scary. We then walked around the top of the pedestal on a mesh steel platform to take views of the city.

Birmingham Alabama is built around steel works and steel manufacturing. It's history was similar to Birmingham UK.

Travel Documents

We now have emergency passports!  Hurray!!!!!  We can come home on time and without any further delays or changes to our travel plans.  We were not looking forward to driving all the way to Washington DC from Georgia. 

We are now in Birmingham Alabama and are just off to see the devastation caused by the tornado in Tuscaloosa.  We will then travel to Tupelo which is Elvis Presley's birthplace.  Apparently his family have turned the local area and home into a museum, so we will stop there before we go on to Graceland in Memphis.

Hot one today forecast 97 - 107 degrees F  This will be the hottest yet.  It is a bit cloudy too though so it is very humid.

Atlanta, Georgia

After a restful night we drove into Atlanta downtown area to find the British Embassy. It was just off Luckie St which we thought was a good sign. Had coffee by park and waited for our allotted appointment time. We had to go to the 34th floor of the building and the lift went so fast it made your ears pop! Leon was very helpful and managed to get all the paperwork we needed and make calls about the Isle of Man passport.

We had a couple hours wait and so went to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. Seem to be doing round the world by Hard Rock Cafes at the moment. Love the accent here y'all.

Atlanta, Georgia

Arrived in Atlanta at 7 p.m and it was still 95 degrees! Being true Brits the only thing we wanted was a cup of tea, so we stopped at a gas station to buy tea bags and fresh milk and headed for our motel. Got into the room, started to unpack for the night, put the microwave on to boil the water for tea and.......blew all the fuses! Had to get moved to another room, but have now settled in safely and made tea. The end of another eventful day :o)

Chattanooga

We went to Chattanooga and saw the Choo-Choo. Track 29 and the station are now part of a hotel in the most run down part of town you can imagine! Needless to say we didn't stay long. We drove to the river front on the Tenessee River to look at the paddle steamers and to get some lunch. It was 98 degrees and by the time we got to the town for food we were melting! Had a lovely lunch and strolled back along the river front and the Trail of Tears which commemorates the shipping out of Cherokee Indians to Alabama by the American settlers. Thousands of them died on route.

Chattanooga is not a great place, the river and paddle boats were good to see. There is so much poverty there though that it felt a little unsafe. We were made very welcome by everyone who loved our accents, but we were glad we weren't staying long.

Bad news

Whilst driving to Chattanooga our best friend, Sally, from the British Consulate in Chicago phoned to tell us that Julia may be able to get travel docs from Atlanta, but I probably won't. Her suggestion was that either Julia flew home alone or that we might have to drive to Washington D C to collect papers for me and also delay our flights home as it would take much longer! Julia obviously wouldn't go and leave me here alone, so second option is the only real one to take. However, as we stressed we were almost at Atlanta and that I was still a British Citizen,even though Manx, she said she would see what she could do. We were not relishing a 650 mile drive through the Blue Ridge mountains and then goodness knows how long until we could either drive back to Chicago or switch flights to Washington. She called back later and told us to go to Atlanta as planned on Thursday to see the Consulate General, Leon (who were are also on first name terms with!), as we might get the two sets of documents. Fingers crossed.

Off to Chattanooga

It's another warm day with temp around 32 degrees but more cloud around today. We have to go and get passport photos done, find somewhere to access a computer to download forms and find a bank that will issue us with a bankers draft. Then we are off to Atlanta, Georgia. We will stop on the way at Chattanooga as it's a long drive. We cross through the time zone again today so will loose an hour and be 5hrs behind UK time.