7th June - Jackson, Tennessee

The Americans do things big - and that includes the weather. I took a cursory glance at the forecast as I left Eureka Springs. Wet weather arriving in the afternoon. I left in the morning with temperatures already close to 30C again. The roads through the Arkansas Ouachita mountains were fabulous. Twisting, mountain roads through forests and rivers punctuated with weatherboard villages that offered nothing but local services - no sign of national chains here.

I was heading for Memphis. Knowing the weather was going to turn I got onto the interstate highway. I could see the clouds gathering behind me. The clear, white sky began to become a darker and darker blue. No worries I thought as I was making progress on the interstate ahead of the storm. Twenty miles from Memphis - the interstate sign flashes "Roadworks, delays. Find alternate routes". Before I could think I was stationary. Discovered filtering through traffic is a sin in the US. Didn't stop me but did slow me down. And then the rain caught up. I arrived sodden - but this would only be a taster of what the weather could really unleash. 

The reason I was in Memphis was of course to learn more about the great man. No not Elvis but Martin Luther King who was shot dead there.

At this very spot, on this balcony at the Lorraine Motel in downtown Memphis (blacks only and very similar to the sort of places I have been staying), King was shot (see wreath) . The killer - James Earl Ray - was later caught at Heathrow airport. The Motel has been turned into a Civil Rights Museum tracking the fight from the beginning of slavery through the American Civil War to King and onto today. Moving and inspirational.

Conscious that today's forecast was as yesterday - but worse, I headed off for Jackson, Tennessee about a hundred miles north east. It was starting to rain but I got into the hotel ok. Turned the TV to hear an alarm and repeated message.

This was a major thunderstorm and Jackson was dead centre on its path. Advice was "if unable to get shelter - find a ditch and curl up into a ball". Looking out the window didn't look good either.

And then it hit..

Sheets of torrential, horizontal rain, lightning and gale force winds - alarms going off, flagpoles bending. Daylight turned to night in moments. The worst storm I have experienced (luckily I was watching from a hotel room).

Final words of the day to Mr King - his request for the funeral was (there was speculation that he knew his day had come) "..not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Award...That's not important...I'd like somebody to mention that Martin Luther King tried to give his life serving others...I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity". A great man.