USA road trip, Post 2: Walking in Memphis

At 9am on Tuesday the 16th, the day after our visit to NASA, we set off on the first leg of our Texas-to-New-York road trip: the 1000 kms (600 miles) from Marvin and Carolyn's house in Pearland, Texas, to the motel room we had booked in Memphis, Tennessee.

We had decided the previous night to go via Shreveport in Louisiana, as we were told we would encounter better traffic that way - and this route offered the additional bonus of being able to stop in and visit some of our dining companions from the cruise! So we called Dave and Barb en route and stopped in to visit them for a couple of hours. They took us out for a delicious late lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant. It was a really nice visit! The clock below was on their wall ("because we're backwards in the South")... what do you think the time is?? :)



After a very big day of driving, we arrived in Memphis at 10pm - the home of Elvis Presley!!! Our accommodation was at an Extended Stay America chain, which was exceptional value and had very fast WiFi - which we've encountered all week, actually, and that explains why this is my 10th blog entry in a week!!

We had only planned on having an evening in Memphis, but as we arrived so late on Tuesday, we spent a few hours in town before we left the next day. We decided to check out Beale Street, which had been recommended by Dave and Barb and our Lonely Planet guide. Beale Street is pretty much all about blues music, and is also tied in with the history of the region's civil rights movement - click here to read more about it. Since we were there around the middle of the day, it was mostly deserted - I imagine it gets hopping at night though! It was mostly neon signs, blues bars, and souvenir shops - pretty tacky but still interesting!



The most fun we had on Beale Street was exploring A. Schwab's, a real timewarp of a store selling everything you can think of. Especially hats!!! A. Schwab's was also mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide. Their motto is "If you can't find it at A. Schwab's, you're probably better off without it!" We ended up buying a bottle of A. Schwab brand "Squeal BBQ sauce" for Liesl and Ken, and a Very Big Hat for me (last photo below). :)



After leaving Beale Street in the early afternoon, we had to set off for Nashville pretty soon to make it in time to meet up with some folk who had arranged to take us to their meeting that night, but we managed to fit in a Graceland drive-by first. :) It wasn't situated at all how I would have imagined (i.e. outside town in a huge gated property) - it was just beside a normal-looking main road (called Elvis Presley Boulevard) in town! We couldn't actually see Elvis's house from the road or driveway, but we did catch a glimpse of his private jet (the "Lisa Marie"). They've even built a "Heartbreak Hotel" at the end of "Lonely St" right next door...



Anyway, that was about it for Memphis - it would have been good to have more time so we could see the city at night and visit Graceland properly. But that was the trade-off for choosing to hire a car rather than getting more sightseeing time in by travelling overnight by Greyhound bus. With the weather as cold as it has been (from about 3°C upwards - no snow yet), and the wonderful convenience of having our own transport, we have no regrets!! Well, I'll tell you all about Nashville next time. :D Goodnight!