Garden Inn Memphis

... t usually go together).

After I left dinner I felt pretty proud of myself…1 day was a success in general; ate 2 meals by myself; navigated my way through several states; got out of my comfort zone; etc etc….so I decided to head downtown and check out the famous Beale Street. The drive along the river was mesmerizing with the bridge covered in lights and the intricate mansions towering above. This was all ruined by turning onto Beale ...

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We browsed on over to Beale Street (home of the blues), took some pictures, grabbed some "Beale's Big Ass Beers" and sat down in a park to listen to some live blues music. #148 on life list: Walk down Beale St. in Memphis. The live music was great as always. This interesting character in a bright blue suit with hand done yellow writing wandered over and eventually started dancing solo. Being a huge fan of dancing myself, I went out ...

... stuff like that.

When I have checked with Rich which stories are for public consumption, I will come back with more, but, for now, that's all, and it doesn't seem to do the last fortnight justice but I have just wound up in Memphis after a 13 hour solo drive and the only thing to ponder on now is whether I sleep standing up or laying down, so for that I must apologise.

In case you're wondering, which I'm sure you're not ...

... br> We put on our Blue Suede shoes and headed off to tour Sun Studios, the Studio that gave Elvis his recording break and has recorded hundreds of great artists including U2, Matchbox 20 and some old favorites such as Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, Johnny Cash and Carl Lee Perkins. The studio is pretty amazing they have an old museum that contains original recordings and records ...

2009 04 12 After departing Hot Springs, AR we drove through the Ozark mountain foothills to Little Rock. From there to the Tennessee border, the land is VERY flat and it's where they grow cotton. Surprisingly we crossed several wide rivers and drove on numerous elevated causeways over the shallow bayous - some were several miles long. MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE: Birthplace of Rock-n-Roll, home of the Blues and Elvis. The Tornado Warnings continue to be issued in SE Tennessee ...

... he wore. The only thing I was disappointed about is that we didn't get to see the master bedroom. They would not let us see it because they want to keep that room private because that was how Elvis had it. It took us a couple hours to go though the house. Now we are spending the night at a KOA in Nashville. Tomorrow we plan on spending the day in the city and then off to the Smokey moutains. Hank

... to say goodbye......so instead we had ourselves kidnapped. That's right. We busted into the place we were staying, packed up all our stuff at 2am in the morning and left a note saying 'We're done here' basically. From there, it was on through the night and into the horizons of Arkansas. The Natural State. They're not lying, they've got more trees than air space down there. We had a slight disaster ...

We had a great experience in Memphis. No, we did not go to Graceland, but we went to places that would further our children's US history experience. After staying the night at yet another Wal-Mart Friday night in Arkansas, we arrived in Memphis Saturday morning. Our first stop was the National Civil Rights Museum http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/ . The museum contains a ton of information and was ...

... terms of how the capitol was designed, expanded, dates modified, the symbolism of everything, and on and on. Each state has two statues of people of historical significance in the Capitol, so I had to take a picture with good ol' Stephen F Austin. Texas also had Sam Houston's statue there and Eric passed on a funny story about him: supposedly when congress was in session, Houston would spend much of his time sitting with his boots up on the desk and use his ...

... and guests had one of their most tender experiences Sunday evening when they had an opportunity to sing to 10-year-old cancer victim, Chase Burch, and her family in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel where the Choir was staying. Her immune system still weakened from radiation and chemotherapy for a brain tumor, Chase wore a mask and sat on a chair in the center of the lobby with her parents while members of the touring group stood largely on the balconies, from which they sang to this ...