(35) Memphis, TN

Saturday, January 24th: We left Meridian and drove 300 miles(7712 total miles) to Memphis, TN. Jill and I were in the truck and we had a nice little ride. The fun started when we got to Memphis. The hotel we were booked at was farther from downtown than we had expected. Caroline made an immediate decision to look into other hotel closer to downtown because we have two days off and would be better in a place where we could walk to food and entertainment. About 30 minutes after Jill and I arrived in the truck, Caroline, Jill, Rudy and I left to go looking at other hotels around town. We were out for about an hour and Caroline had a good lead on two hotels. About an hour after coming back to our current hotel, Caroline, Jill and I left again to take the truck to the Ryder shop to get fixed. I had called earlier in the day to see if I could bring the truck in and the man I spoke too said that they were open until mid-night. I asked if I could take the truck to the other Ryder shop and he said that would be fine too. When we got to the Ryder shop I wanted to go to, we quickly realized that they were closed. So we turned around and drove to the complete other side of town to find the other Ryder shop. That one was open and I successfully dropped the truck off. Jill was happy we had gone to that Ryder shop because it was closer to the Wal-Mart that we wanted to go to. We found a Wal-Mart on the GPS and started towards it only to find out it was a Sam’s Club and not a Wal-Mart. Then we found two more Wal-Mart’s on the GPS that didn’t actually exist in real life so we gave up and went to Waffle House for dinner. At the Waffle House, we asked about a Wal-Mart and the woman said there was only one down on Elvis Presley Blvd so we decided to go down there. All through this time, we were waiting to hear back from the current hotel that we were in to see if we could break our contract and move hotels. Right before we arrived at Wal-Mart, Caroline got the call and found out we were released and could move, but now we had to find rooms at the other hotel with an early check in! Caroline called one place back and they said they had no idea whether or not she could have an early check in and she decided to call back in the morning. Finally, we headed for our current hotel and called it a night. Jill and I had spent almost 12 hours together and were just about ready to pummel each other.

Sunday, January 25th: We woke up to the news that we were moving hotels! This was very exciting for everyone so we packed into the vans and moved to our new hotel in downtown Memphis. In the afternoon, a group of us went to Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. It was pretty amazing to say the least. Besides the fact that it’s a lot smaller than you would expect, there were so many things were just so exciting to see. All of the rooms of the house had very distinct feels to them and they all looked like no one had touched them since he passed away in 1977. We saw the living room, dining room, kitchen, basement, and “jungle” living room in the main house. Then outside the house, we saw Vernon’s office(Elvis’ Father who was also his agent), his trophy room (with all his gold and platinum records and other awards), his racquetball house, and the meditation yard that has become a small graveyard with Elvis, his Parents, his Grandmother and his twin brother who died at birth. Apparently, Lisa Marie Presley spent this past Christmas at Graceland with her young children. I wonder what it would be like to walk back into a house like that knowing that hundreds of thousands of people had walked through and looked at all your father’s possessions. We also learned that no one was ever allowed upstairs in the Graceland Mansion and to honor that people are still not allowed upstairs. After that, we went to Elvis’ Car Museum, Signature Elvis Museum(which has a number of his jump suits), and finally the Lisa Marie Airplane Tour. Overall it was pretty amazing to see such a hugely historic piece of Americana. At 4:30pm Caroline and I went over to The Peabody Hotel, which is just across the street from the hotel that we’re staying in. In The Peabody, there are ducks that live in the lobby fountain and are brought down from the Duck Palace on the roof at 11:00am and taken back upstairs at 5:00pm. There were a number of people gathering around and the Duck Usher had laid out red steps and a red carpet that went from the fountain to the elevator. As we were waiting for the duck walk, a man stepped out of the elevator, dressed very nicely, with another name after him. He was a black man, with medium length hair that was graying on the sides. I just stared at him as he walked out of the elevators and through the lobby. When he was out of sight, I turned to Caroline and said “Was that… Was that Al Sharpton?” And sure enough, when I went home I looked online and knew that I was right! I couldn’t believe that I would see someone like Al Sharpton randomly in Memphis(I don’t think he lives here.) Eric was at the Duck walk as well, so we all gathered near the ropes and watched the 5 ducks parade by with their usher. Once we got back to the hotel, I walked into the hotel bar and asked the bar tender if she had the NHL All Star game. She flipped through the channels and found it on Versus HD. I was super excited and stayed there all night watching the game. It was a nice cap to an exhausting day.