Memphis

Yummy Ribs
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Today, we decided to head across to Memphis which is only about 90 Miles from Jackson. Once again driving there was an absolute breeze with excellent freeways and a complete absence of speed cameras. People here in Tennessee (TN) pay little attention to the speed limit whilst I did 75MPH (120km/h) most of the way (I briefly checked to see how the car handled at 100MPH, which it did very well), many people still speed past you. Lack of seatbelt wearing is still a problem here, with the State Governor running a campaign at the moment to get people to wear them.

Elvis is everywhere in Memphis, even on the Basketball Stadium toilets.
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First stop in Memphis was of course Graceland (Elvis Presley‘s mansion). Surprisingly Graceland was not a tacky as you may think. The house is still is the condition it was when Elvis died back in 1977. There are many interesting possessions ranging from the piano he played on the day he died to his Karate outfit. They all painted a really good picture of who Elvis really was and how he chose to live. As we both knew little about him we found it really interesting. We saw his grave and also got to walk inside his private jet. His jet was amazing, it has 2 bathrooms, 3 rooms and a double bed. All the seats have seatbelts with gold-plated buckles! Although he must have spent heaps on his jet, we learnt that Elvis donated a huge amount of his money and time to the Memphis community. A city which he appeared to love very dearly.

Graceland, NBA game and Beale Street.

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Next we drove to the FedEx Forum Basketball Stadium to see the Memphis Grizzlies play the LA Clippers. The game was very close the whole way with the Clippers winning in the end by only 5 points.

After that we walked down to Beale St. which the locals say is the birthplace of blues music. We learnt that Elvis always said he got much of his musical inspiration from Beale St when he was a teenager. There was a great atmosphere on the street with clubs pumping out blues music everywhere, especially as it was a Saturday night. I ate the best pork ribs I have ever had from a Café on Beale and then we drove back to Jackson.