Babs’ travels -The Peking to Paris Rally and other driving adventures.

Today we hit 'The Mother Road', aka 'Main Street America' or Route 66! We picked it up just west of Oklahoma City at Yukon. It is quite hard to follow, at times as it is inconsistently marked and no longer exists as one road any more. Since the completion of a freeway west to California the road no longer carries the same importance and has gone into serious decline taking whole communities with it. There's not much use in a gas station, motel or diner if, overnight, your custom disappears. Sometimes the old road runs along side the freeway at others it can be a few miles away. It is a very narrow road, more like a British one in that respect. It is also blissfully empty. We found ourselves alone on it most of the time. The surface is often very poor, but of course, our trusty Landie made short work of it. We went to a Cherokee trading post and bought a few things including a garden for our dashboard. Adrian thought that the rattlesnake head key rings would ...

A road trip is always interesting even when there are no real 'sights' to see. Discovering a new area, getting a feel for it and seeing how it fits in the world can be pleasure enough. Travelling through Arkansas and then Oklahoma today has been one such. No stand outs; but a gentle day of rolling hills, small scale farming and covering the miles. I spoke to Henry this morning who commented that the only time you hear about Arkansas at home is when Bill Clinton is mentioned. Times look a little tough in most of the areas that we went through today. There were lots of houses in a pitiful state with front yards like scrap heaps. We passed lots of taxidermists, pawn and gun shops. In Oklahoma we went through many reservations - Kickapoo, Shawnee, Seminole and Pottawatomie, on our way up to our camp for the night just east of Oklahoma City.

Actually, it's more like 5 hours, but what the heck! We are in Herber Springs, Arkansas, on the Red River, where the largest brown trout in the history of the world was caught (over 40 lbs) - supposedly. Graceland was everything that we hoped. We loved it. You've seen the pictures so I won't bore you with it but I have two observations to share. It is very small, amazingly modest really. My kitchen is bigger than The Kings. It's hard to imagine all the cooking that went on there. The other thing is that much was made of how fat he became. Actually, when you see the costumes from his Las Vegas shows, he wasn't that huge at all. Just a little thicker than in his youth - aren't we all? We then went to the National Civil Rights Museum. It's housed in the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was shot in 1968. It is an excellent place, very well laid out and extremely informative. Highly recommended. I always find it fascinating to see somewhere that...

Our temporary address is: 75 Jailhouse Lane Graceland r v park, Behind the Heartbreak Hotel, Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennesse. Please send all correspondence there. Does it get any better? We were woken at Loretta's by the sound of trees being hammered all around us. We thought that some lumberjacks had started working and hadn't noticed we were there. It turned out to be several woodpeckers tapping the hell out of the trees above us. We went to see Loretta; her plantation house is gorgeous but some of the ornamentation is a little unnecessary, I feel. There is a massive museum on the ranch devoted to all things Loretta. It is like a giant version of the, sadly now defunct, Liberace museum that used to be in Los Vegas. She has obviously never had a good clear out and a trip to the dump. Every item of clothing ever worn, not just by her but by her family too is there, along with 50 million other items she has owned or been given. One of my favourite exhibits...

Of course, y'all knew that this was a song by Loretta Lynn,'Queen of Country music', din ya? Well I didn't, until today, that is, not being a fan of country music an all. But now, I have to tell you people, that loretta and I are practically best friends. Yes, we are staying in her back yard tonight! O. K. So its actually at the camp ground on her Dude Ranch, but we are, quite possibly, just a few trees away from her Plantation House (it's dark now and I cannot see). We arrived quite late to a deserted campsite with just a couple of rv's hidden in the trees. We just set up camp, Loretta won't mind, and enjoyed a candle lit supper with fireflies dancing around us. Magical. Tomorrow we will visit her house and museum and may actually get to meet her. Too thrilling! It is a vast place; not bad for 'a coal miners daughter' (bio pic of Loretta's life starring Sissy Spacek) but the girl done good. The garage needed the LR longer than we though...

Oh dear, Chattanooga; a name that holds such a sense of delicious anticipation. Don't go people, for you too will be disappointed. The railway station is now a hotel where we had hoped to have lunch. However, arriving at 2.00pm, on a Sunday, we found the restaurant had already closed. Not a good start. There are some old coaches on the tracks where you can sleep and there is a beyond pathetic attempt at a museum but, more than that, a sense that it has given up. It was too depressing. Indeed, the whole of the city feels like that. It is a town on its uppers; empty shops, everything for sale, devoid of life, decaying. We have seen many places like this over the years in the US, it is very sad. Tennessee has many delights though. One of which is the totally fabulous, if incomprehensible, accent. I love it. We stopped for groceries in a large supermarket, seemingly in the back of beyond and found everyone extremely friendly although there was a touch of 'Deliverance' abo...

When I was planning our trip it made me realise that you could traverse the whole of the US through songs. Almost everywhere seems to have been included in a tune at some time. Savannah is (mostly) gorgeous. The old part is full of beautiful old houses, often built around squares, and the streets are lined with live oaks dripping with Spanish Moss. All very evocative. There are some carbuncles though - the Hyatt on the riverside is one - it needs demolishing. It is the worst sort of 'griege' Lego building stuck in the middle of wonderful, atmospheric, restored old warehouse buildings. A blot. We have been surprised at what an attraction the LR is. Pop up campers are not unusual here and it certainly doesn't look big. People are twisting their heads off staring at it and whenever we stop we make new friends. One such was the rather fabulous L. Corporal Philip Green of the Garden City police service. We were at a gas station when he pulled over and I ended up chatting t...