Our time in Memphis! Graceland! Mud Island! Beale St! & Largest Bass Pro Shop in the World!

October 27^th –  Today is our sweet Justin’s 7^th birthday!  First time EVER we have not been with him on his birthday, so I felt a bit sad about that today.  We did have a long Facetime watching him open our present.  We gave him this big kinetic sand kit and it was such fun to watch them playing together, just enjoying it so much.  

We are staying at Southaven RV Park ($35 a night), we are practically on the state lines. Only 8 miles into Memphis. We drove through drizzling rain all the way here, but once we arrived, the skies at least began to clear.  

We’re hoping for a better day tomorrow to visit Memphis.

Wednesday – Oct 28^th -  We were up late last night watching the first game of the World Series.  Typically I wouldn’t care, but since we were in Kansas City, we  got caught up a bit with their team spirit, so I was rooting for them.  Could not believe it went into the 14^th inning!  But all is well, the Royals took the win, and it was great. Because we still read awhile after we went to bed, it was well after 2:00 before I put my book down, so we slept later than usual this morning.  Then we got around and went on into Memphis.  Earl had checked out the Diners, Drive-ins and Dives site to see what was around here, and he found Uncle Lou’s Fried Chicken, with rave reviews online, so we headed over there.  

 I can see why it could be called a dive.  LOL  Just in a small strip mall, but the parking lot was FULL and that’s a good sign. I was taking a photo of the outside when Uncle Lou himself saw me, stepped out and said to us, “You must be new here!”  We told him we were and how we’d found him.  He was SO friendly and nice.  He immediately called one of his employees out and told him he had to take our photo, so here it is…. He just hugged us and welcomed us like family.  It was great.

 He even came in to oversee what we were ordering and to give us advice, so we followed his advice to the letter. We got a mixed plate for two – part of their famous fried chicken and part of the Sweet Spicy Love chicken – both completely different and both absolutely scrumptious!

That was a fun lunch.  We were talking about the weight we’ve put on during this trip, and decided as we were leaving, we’ve enjoyed every single pound of it.  haha Seriously when I get home, things have to change a bit for us.  Yikes, it’s ok to eat this way on rare occasions, but to eat this way all the time? Not so good.

After we left Uncle Lou’s we went on over to Sun Records.  This was meaningful to us after seeing the Million Dollar Quartet show in Branson.  I told you about that in my Branson blog.

These photos were on the outside of the building..... Can you belive how young Johnny Cash is in this photo?

 Jerry Lee Lewis....

 I assume this is Carl Perkins, I never knew of him, but pretty sure this is the 4th member of that famous million dollar quartet.

And of course, everyone knows Elvis....

 The famous photo of the ONE and only time in history, these four were together in the same place.  Fascinating story.

Surprisingly small and very very crowded!

Then on to Graceland!  When we looked online and saw tickets were $77, we wondered if we’d think it was worth it.  When we got there, we found that there is a range of tickets, so we bought the platinum ones for $45, giving us access to everything we were interested in. I was never a  raving Elvis fan, mostly because I was only 3-4 years old when he became famous.  Later on, I remember listening to his music, and getting in trouble for it.  LOL You’d have to know the conservative home I grew up in to understand. Rock and Roll was WRONG.  So it wasn’t until I became an adult that I listened to him very much, and grew to love that velvety smooth voice.  I knew about his tragic death of course, he died on Earl’s birthday the year Earl was in the body cast.  That’s always stood out in our minds.  While I knew he was a pop idol and called The King of Rock and Roll, etc., I had no idea the extent of his awards…. Room after room after room FILLED floor to ceiling with them!  Just amazing! To think he bought Graceland when he was only 22 years old!!! Wow, no wonder at that young age, he was not prepared for the fame and fortune that came his way, and in many ways, I think he was exploited.  It was noticeable to watch the change in him over the years.  Literally the expression on his face, his body language and obviously his clothing and stage presence changed drastically as he became more and more famous. It made me feel sad as even in his promo photos he looked unhappy.

Someone was really clever with this.... haha

 I love this one.... there's only a few of Elvis where he looks carefree and happy.

Everything in the mansion is EXACTLY as it was when Elvis was alive!  No renovations or replacements of furniture have been made.

This is the bedroom where Elvis's parents stayed in when they were there.

Talk about a flashback in time!

The rec room.  Can you believe this? Wonder how many yards of fabric this took?  And how on earth is it ever cleaned?

Terrible photo from the glare from the windows, but wanted you to see the "style" and the green shag carpet!  LOL

Out in the office/museum....

Priscilla's wedding dress and Lisa Marie's first baby clothes...

Another surprise was I had no idea to the extent of his generosity.  He really loved people and it was very common for him to not only support many charitable causes, but to pay off people’s homes for them, pay debts for his friends, etc.  Again, he was likely taken advantage of a lot because of his generous heart.  It’s sad to think he died at such a young age.  I could not help but think of the scripture, what does it gain one to have the whole world if you lose your soul?  I’m certainly not the judge and I pray he had made peace with God, but even in this life, he lived the last few years in a tragic state of depression and bad decisions.  Give me the simple life anyday!

Then out to the Memorial Garden.

The marketing they do here is phenomenal.  There is an opportunity to sell Elvis merchandise at every hand.  So many gift shops, it’s amazing.  We then went over to the car museum which was really interesting.  

 Next we went over to see the private jets Elvis owned, a small one and a large one.

24k gold flakes in the sink!

Everything is left exactly as it was when Elvis was alive, just now covered with plastic for preservation.

The sofa in the foreground (barely seen) could be pulled out into a bed making a 2nd private bedroom.

This is Elvis's private bedroom on the plane. 

This is the small plane (seated 9 max) and Elvis used it primarily for unplanned trips that he wanted to go to, spur of the moment.  For instance, one day he realized Lisa Marie had never seen snow, as it seldom snowed in Memphis, so he quickly took her to Colorado to play in the snow for 2 hours and then flew back home.

When we arrived at Graceland, we were given iPads with headphones and we could listen to stories all about the various rooms, awards and stories of Elvis, along with the voice recordings of friends and family. Very nicely done.

We got home in time to see the GOP Debates.  It was a substantive debate without trying to bash each other and get one up – excellent in that regard. Only once did Jeb Bush get kind of ugly to Marco Rubio.  I think the losers were the moderators.  It was clear they were trying to distort issues and rile the candidates, and they did not rise to the bait.  I was actually pretty proud of all of them for not rising to the bait.  And Chris Christie and Ted Cruz got in some real zingers regarding the media bias!   Now watching the rest of Game 2 of the World Series…..

Thursday 10/29 – BUSY day!  We went into Memphis and EVERYthing costs money here.  Money to park, money to ride the monorail, money to go up into elevators, it’s crazy.  But we had fun riding the monorail over to Mud Island River Park.  We likely would not have even known about this had our friend, Marilyn Hood not told us about it. What a fascinating place. The River Walk is a five block exact-scaled model of the Lower Mississippi River! 

Whoever thought to do this?  Historical markers as we walked the Big Muddy from it’s confluence with the Ohio, to the 1.3 million gallon Gulf of Mexico.  Beautiful river views all around us, as well as various gift shops and concessions.  We walked through the park in the middle of the mighty Mississippi where over a million gallons of water flow by every second!  Incredible barges going up and down the river, carrying on the centuries old tradition of river transportation. 

We then crossed over to Beale St., famous for the shops and restaurants featuring a lot of the Memphis BBQ and lots of Cajun dishes as well.  This street has the feel of Bourbon St. in New Orleans.  Lots of blues music being played by various bands that you hear as you proceed up and down the street.  

 We ate at King’s Palace and shared what they recommended….. gator chips, gumbo and a mixed plate of ribs and pulled pork, alongside voodoo potatoes and slaw. Now that’s pretty southern!

We then picked up the trolley and rode all over town.  We had a very entertaining trolley driver, who was either bored or trying to make us laugh all the while.  At almost every stop, he’d say very dramatically, “coming up to the big one here” and on he’d go and after several times, of course everyone was laughing. 

We got off the trolley near the Peabody Hotel in time to go in and wander through the beautiful lobby and very impressive shops….

I have to admit I felt a wee bit silly to wait in line for 30 min to see DUCKS waddle. Haha  And what was amazing is that there were several hundred people there!!! However this is taken very seriously at the Peabody and is a 50 year tradition! The legend of the ducks is that back in the 1930’s, the general manager of the hotel and a friend returned from a weekend hunting trip to Arkansas.  The men had had a little too much to drink and thought it would be funny to place some of their live decoy ducks in the beautiful Peabody fountain. I think it’s illegal now to use live decoys, but that was a different time. Anyway, 3 small ducks were placed in the fountain in the lobby and were enthusiastically received by the hotel occupants, and so it became a tradition.  It’s actually interesting, the “Duck Master” has been there for years (imagine that being your JOB!!) and he trains the ducks.  They are usually about 18 months to no older than 3 and then traded out for a new batch.  AND he made it clear it is the Peabody’s policy to NEVER serve ducks on their menu.  LOL At any rate, now we have seen the ducks!

After leaving the Peabody, we got back on the trolley and they dropped us off near the parking lot where we’d left our car.  When we got into town, it is impossible to miss this HUGE pyramid right downtown, and we wondered what on earth it was? Turned around the corner and saw the huge Bass Pro Shops sign on this enormous building!   

Whoa…..now THIS is a destination.  Seriously, we’re not hunters or fisherman, but there is something here for EVERYbody!  Including a Fudge Kitchen! 

It is one of the most impressive structures I’ve ever seen! You feel like you’re stepping into the great outdoors.  The pontoon boats are all actually IN WATER! There are massive trees everywhere with moss hanging and log cabins house the shops, etc. Just incredible.   

 There are two restaurants under or on top of the sea, your choice. One is The Lookout at the Pyramid featuring a large selection of southern inspired foods. That is at the peak of the pyramid and the way you get there is by way of what we were told is the largest vertical elevator in the world! AMAZING!  We were NOT happy however to find out they CHARGE you $10 just to ride to the top!!!!  You’ve got to be kidding me.  I was a bit out of sorts about all the fees we were paying for every little thing, so while normally I might have done it, we were out of the mood to pay another $20 just to ride an elevator, impressive as it was!

The Beretta Gallery is one of only 7 in the world! There are aquariums and wetlands all over the place. NOT to mention the 103 room cypress lodge suites! There’s a spa, fitness center and event space.  Can you imagine?  All this in over 535,000 square feet.  It originally housed the arena for the Memphis Grizzlies, and when they built a new stadium, Bass Pro bought the building and then spent over 150 MILLION dollars in renovations! 

It was starting to get dark by now, but we wanted to at least get a glimpse of St. Jude’s Research Hospital so we did drive over there, before heading home.

We got home and watched Survivor and Criminal Minds from last night, since we’d watched the GOP debates live.  After I got on Facebook, through the comments on one of my posts, we realized we are right here about 20 minutes away from longtime friends, Dave and Pam Burch!!!  We were so bummed, since this is our last night here!!! We would have so loved to see them, but they facetimed us and we chatted for a while and made plans for another visit.  I’d really have stayed longer in Memphis but we’d made plans for the weekend AND we have to hurry home.  

Exciting news!!!  We haven’t said anything, because it’s been such a roller coaster for them, but Ryan and Vicki have been trying for a couple of years to adopt again.  They’ve been so close a couple of times, only to be let down, and this time it LOOKS like a solid chance that they’ll be adopting a little girl (yes!!) around the 15^th, so we are definitely going home.  Excited for them AND for all the rest of the family.  Can’t wait to have a new grandbaby to love on!

Now, on to Mississippi!