We arrived late Tuesday and headed straight out the Rock n Soul Museum for a bit of a history lesson on the beginning of music, as we sorta know it today.
That night we indulged, straight up in "The Best Meal on Beale", ribs and catfish, paired in perfect harmony. Mmmm, mmmm, deeeelishous! I can feel my arteries clogging right now.
Beale Street is like a mini times square (light wise) and it's always pumping the Blues (loudly). Instead of take-away coffee, you can grab yourself a bucket of beer or a 20oz cocktail as you walk down the street. There's kids doing backflips up and down the pavement and then waving a bucket in front of you for tips. It's interesting, to say the least. The Street really gets going at about 7pm and goes on into the wee hours...until 3am to be exact before the coppers and cleaners come in to prepare it for the next day.
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| Beale Street welcomes all bikers and their bikes on a Wednesday night! |
Wednesday was all about one man. Elvis. We boarded our shuttle to Graceland and arrived at the hallowed turf shortly before 11am. Platinum tickets were the order of the day considering this has been Leo's dream since like, forever!
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| The main entrance at Graceland |
We started at the main house, wandering through the "formal" lounge and dining room, catching a glimpse of his parent's bedroom, then into the kitchen, tv room, jungle room, lounge/piano room (where he played his last song on the morning he died) and then through the gardens to Vernon's Office.
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| The Jungle Room |
After that it was into this extensive corridor of Gold Records, one after the other after the other and that just led into his Racquet Ball Court, now completely covered with Gold Records too. I couldn't even begin to tell you how many we saw along with his grammy's and other awards. Special doesn't even begin to describe it.
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| The Gold Records |
From there we went out to the memorial garden, to see where Elvis is burried along with his Mum Gladys, Dad Vernon and Grandmother Minnie Mae. There is also a plaque there honouring his twin brother Jesse who was stillborn.
Then we headed into another section of the house where we got to see a bunch of Elvis' clothes and some other bits n pieces like rings, shoes etc. We also had tickets for other exhibits including the '68 Comeback Special (Leo's favourite) and we got to see his car museum and climb aboard the Lisa Marie, Elvis' very own plane. That thing is super flash with suede and twede seats and it even has 24ct gold plated seatbelt buckles!
We didn't exactly "leave" Graceland on Wednesday, we were kinda ushered (or pushed) onto the last bus of the day at 5pm! I can't believe we spent so long there but wow, there is so much to see and I bet we probably didn't even see one-quarter of if.
Upstairs at Graceland is totally off-limits because that was Elvis' private space. He used to receive guests downstairs so that's why we're all allowed to tour there now. The gardens of the house are actually maintained by his cousin Jimmy who we got to say hi to. Nice, down to earth man.
Graceland was just as good this time 'round and Leo absolutely loved it. He even got goose-bumps when we arrived because he was so excited to be there, that was cool.
Last night we headed to BB Kings Blues bar for some soul music and southern food! I sat down to a Lucille, a refreshing mix of vodka, raspberry rum, something else, something else and probably some blue curacao (because it was blue). The band was playing the blues and I had a beautiful, glazed rib eye in front of me. Well, that's when one Lucille turned into two which turned into three and that's when I realised that those 20oz glasses aren't small! 20oz, I soon figured out, is 591ml! No wonder everything felt so good! Hahahahaha.
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| Playing the Blues at BB Kings |
Today we started at Sun Studios for a bit more of a music history lesson. Heard some funky tunes as they were recorded back in the 50's and some funny stories too. Makes me wish I was a fly on the wall back in the days of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Sounds like they had a blast. We even got to hear one recording where, as the story goes, Perkins was pulling faces to Elvis through the window as he was singing, about three lines in and Elvis cracks up laughing. Was awesome to hear.
After that we headed to the Civil Rights Museum, where Martin Luther King Jr was shot for some more history. That place is insane. If you had to stand there and read all the notes and plaques they have posted there, I swear it would take you the better part of two days. There is so much to read and see there it's crazy. We ended up "fast-forwarding" through some parts and were out in about three hours but that's still a long time!
Having spent the last 45 minutes clip-clopping through town on a beautiful hourse and carriage, we're now back at the hotel for some rest before hitting up Beale Street again (it's the street right behind our hotel so we don't have far to go)! I only managed the Lucille last night, there were nine other drinks on that menu so I have some work to do!
So, we're now just over half-way through our trip with three stops to go. We're off to New Orleans on Saturday then Las Vegas and Honolulu. We've been very lucky weather wise; we've missed the rain in most places, dodged the tornados that were whirling around and now we're just about to miss the rising of the Mississippi. The river will peek at 48ft early next week and it hasn't been that high since 1939. Eeeek.
I don't think I'll post again before we head off so, see you all when we get to The Big Easy!
Hope everyone is well.
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