Wednesday 19, Thursday 20 November, 2014

Wednesday was by far the coldest day we have had. It was -12c while we were packing the car! There had been frost the night before which made pretty patterns on the car. 

We headed off about 7:30am after a quick breakfast as were on our way to Memphis and we were told it was an 8 hr drive. Rob did a great job of driving...we stopped for a coffee just before Nasville at a MacDonalds no less as that is all we could find!

Diane's blogging friend Betsy suggested that we eat at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant at some stage, so just before Memphis we found one at Jackson. what a cute place. They have lots of knick-knacks for sale in the shop but the meals were amazing and so cheap! Very much like home cooking and the meals were huge. I had a tasty trout dish, Rob and Bill had Reuben sandwiches while Diane had chicken. The total bill was less than $40!

We made it to Memphis by 3 and checked in at the Memphis Downtown Sheraton as the American Queen Paddlewheeler tour puts you up for one night here before the trip so as we didn't want to change hotels, we decided to stay all 3 nights here. Rob and I then took the rental car back to the airport and then taxied back to the hotel.

As we were all tired from the long drive, we had dinner at the hotel and had an early night.

This morning, Thursday, we took a hop on, hop off bus to Gracelands, home of Elvis Pesley. We were disappointed with the bus as usually you receive earphones and there is a running commentary about the city and the places you drive by. Not on this bus. But passes are good for two days and can be used on the red and blue lines so we should be able to do a lot of sightseeing!

The tour of Gracelands was great. Didn't realize Elvis had a twin brother that was stillborn nor did I remember that he died at 42. He gave so much money away to charities and to people.  He was quite a philanthropist. The house he lived in was vey opulent for the time, he earned so much money and spent so much.

This was only one room of the many that displayed Elvis's clothes and memorabilia. They also had the gold, silver and platinum awards for every song that sold over 500,000 copies that were given to him by the record companies.

Then we saw the collection of some of his cars..wow!

After wandering through all of Gracelands, we got off the bus at Beale St to hear the music. Must have been too early as there wasn't much music but we really felt that it was a street we didn't want to be on. So many homeless asking for money and this sign in all the windows!

We then walked to the Peabody Hotel. This hotel is known for its ducks. For over 80 years they have had ducks that live on the roof in a "penthouse". At 11 am the duck master brings the ducks in the elevator down to the lobby so they can swim in the fountain. At 5pm every afternoon the duck master returns, rolls out the red carpet, puts the red carpeted stairs near the pond and while the music plays, the ducks climb out of the pond, walk down the red carpet stairs and cross the red carpet to the elevator and up they go to their "penthouse" for the night! Hundreds of people gather to watch this show every day!!