Walking in Memphis

Sue and Christie meditate with Elvis in the garden

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As promised yesterday the results of the Frustration match: Sue won!!!!!!! much to Matt’s disgust. 

We got up this morning at about 8:30 and then proceeded to the Clinton Presidential Library. There was a lot to see (3 floors of information) and we spent a couple of hours visiting and reading all the relevant material and viewing the videos. Even with all of this we could not see it all. One interesting tidbit was that he was the 42^nd governor of Arkansas and the 42^nd president of the United States. At about 12:00 we started for Memphis. Although it was not far away we still had not had breakfast so we stopped for a late lunch in Carlisle, Arkansas. We stopped at a local favorite (How do we know that? By the number of pickup trucks in the parking lot of course). The name of this establishment was Nicks Bar-B-Que and Catfish. Matt, Sue and Christie tried the ribs and Ann had the catfish. We know why it is a local favorite, the food was delicious. The BBQ did not have Sue and Christie’s favorite – Vinegar sauce, but it also did not have Matt’s mustard sauce. The ribs were smoked with a St. Louis red sauce on the side. After lunch we continued on to Memphis and the home of the King (Elvis). We got to Graceland at about 3:00 and bought our tickets. Then we waited for our turn to take the Shuttle to the house.   Everyone was given a headset to listen to the self-paced tour. The house is still furnished in the favorite style of the 60’s and 70’s. Lots of shag carpet. The only thing is Elvis seemed to go overboard, using it not only as a floor covering, but as a covering for the walls and ceilings also. Every room had at least 1 TV (The TV room had 3 sets, so he could watch all 3 versions of the network news at the same time). He had a 15’ white sofa in the living room. The upper floor was not open for tours. They had converted the out buildings to rooms to display memorabilia. All the platinum and gold records, video concert clips, Priscilla’s wedding dress, etc. Of all the tackiest was the round white feather bed. The headboard was shaped like a curved concert shell with a built in stereo system, all was covered with feathers. (A sight to behold, much less sleep in). The graves of Elvis, his parents and his grandmother were poolside in the Meditation Gardens. There was a plaque in memory of Elvis’s twin brother that was still born. We took the shuttle back to the visitor’s center, got ice cream and proceeded to the parking lot. This is where Matt wondered aloud how anyone could look in the mirror in those outfits and say “Damn, I look good!” There was some discussion of going back to Tunica, but we decided to make the move towards home. Plugged Garmin in and headed for Tupelo, which we decided would be our stop for the night. We got to Tupelo and when the motels did not jump out and say Stay Here, we kept our foot on the gas pedal and headed for Birmingham. Got to Birmingham and Matt and Christie started in about making sure we were past the HOV lane, so we made it a point to get to the other side of Birmingham before stopping. Passed many establishments with creative names, but one of the best was the bar names “The Boobie Trap”. We had to hold Matt back as we drove on by. Finally found a motel in Leeds. Matt was thrilled, he finally got to drive when we let him park the car. We checked in and ordered pizza for supper. Our last night on the road and we shall end as we began – pizza. Tomorrow we will be in BONNEAU.