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We didn't get into Memphis until after 7pm and we wanted to have dinner in the main part of town, so by the time we checked in, got changed and caught a cab downtown, it was 10pm. Fortunately everything was till open. The main street in Memphis is called Beale Street and is full of blues bars. We had dinner at the B.B. King blues bar where a cover band was playing classic blues songs. After dinner we wandered up and down the street - like I said everything was open but there was hardly anyone out on a Monday night. A few beers later and we were back in the cab on our way to our hotel.
The next day was dedicated to seeing the music history of Memphis, so off we drove to make our pilgrimage to Elvis's mansion (Graceland), which strangely enough is on Elvis Presley Blvd. You can't actually drive on the estate but there is a huge visitors centre across the road where you park. It's also where they store Elvis's private jets and car collection. Once you buy your ticket ($34), you then wait in line while the shuttle takes groups of about 15 over to the house. I guess it's to minimise how many people are walking through the house. You are also given an audio pack that self guides you through the house and triggers depending on where you are. I really loved the tour because they play you sound clips of him talking about Graceland. As you move through the house you progress through his career from his early days to his movies and all of his Vegas jumpsuits. He had a bit of an eccentric taste with one room called The Jungle Room where there was shagpile carpet on the ceiling. In his bar area he had mirrors on the ceiling and yellow vinyl couches. They also try to make it personal by playing you clips of Pricilla and Lisa-Marie Presley talking about the room you are standing in. The tour finishes at his gravesite where Elvis is buried along with his parents. It's a bit of a sobering moment because you've just spent the last hour looking at all his achievements and his personal life. The tour was really well organised and because you had headphones on the whole time, it felt more personal as you could move through at your own pace. The shuttle bus then takes you back to the visitors' centre where you can shop in one of the several gift shops. You can also do a walkthrough of his private jets, which are fitted out for Elvis. Things like gold plated seatbelt buckles, full bedroom and three TV's. Fit for a King right?
His car collection was also really impressive. He definitely had a taste for Cadillac and Rolls Royce.
After Graceland it was on to Sun Studios which is the birthplace of a lot of famous rock n roll. They provide a guided tour of the whole place, which I thought was great to open up the history of the studio. For me it was a pretty exciting moment to walk into the actual recording room. The studio is still fully operational so all the old boutique amps and guitars are out on display. The guide gets right into it too reminding us that we are standing right where all these artists stood. While standing in the recording room, the guide would tell the story of how a young boy named Elvis randomly came in an paid $4 to record a song to take home for himself. Then they actually played the recording of that song. The guide also went on to tell us about the Million Dollar Quartet, which comprised of Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry-Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. They all got together at Sun Studios and recorded an album. During one of the sessions they started to have an impromptu jam session, during which someone snuck into the studio and pressed record. Sure enough, they played us that recording which is such an incredible piece of music history I never knew existed. Once the tour was over we were free to look around the room and then pose with Elvis's microphone - another very cool moment.
After we had finished our music tour of Memphis it was time to catch up on our laundry.
So we packed up our dirty clothes and boarded the car, touch down in the land of the delta blues in the middle of a Laundromat - Yeah we were washing in Memphis!
Reading that was probably more fun than the actual washing part. But we had fresh clean clothes and were ready for some southern fried chicken for dinner. We went to a place called Popeye's, which is similar to KFC. Every place has free drink refills, and some have a digital coke machine where you use a touch screen to search through the stupid amounts of flavours you can choose from. On road trips my combo would be a coke for lunch then a powerade for the road.
After dinner we went back to our hotel had a few (read lots) drinks then it we were up the next day for our short 5hr drive to New Orleans.
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