Homewood Ste Memphis East

... from a weekend hunting trip to Arkansas. The men had a little too much Jack Daniel's Tennessee sippin' whiskey, and thought it would be funny to place some of their live duck decoys (it was legal then for hunters to use live decoys) in the beautiful Peabody fountain.

Three small English call ducks were selected as "guinea pigs," and the reaction was nothing short of enthusiastic. Soon, five North American Mallard ducks would replace the original ducks.
Memphis TN, Tennessee, United States nanseaj

We hit a bit of a rough patch with Lola but I'm going to let it go unmentioned.

We blew through Memphis, over the Mississippi River (big and fast), and into Arkansas before taking the first exit back into Tennessee and into Memphis once again. But hey, now I've been to Tennessee twice, haha. We had a hard time finding where to park Lola but soon found something half managedable, although we're not entirely sure that place was legit ...

... trying to navigate our way from Houston to Washington DC. We've tried to mix with the locals as much as possible along the way, which has been interesting. More trouble than it's worth for the most part. For instance, I have been accused of stealing credit cards, pretty ironic when I think of how much money has been nicked from me on this trip and had drinks with someone who turned out to be nothing more than a complete racist ...

... these great artists, some of their instruments and clothing, including Elvis's high school graduation certificate and social security card!

During the Sun studio tour we were allowed into the recording studio which had the actual microphone that was used for recording back in the early days of the studio. It had the lips and spit of all these great artists all over. You ...

... do....like eat fried pickles. We also had fried peach pie but only have ourselves to blame for that. Let’s not forget that they also have the Magic Phone, The Oracle....Mike, Sharky,...you guys should get sponsored by iPhone.

Lucky for us Memphis was staging its annual Music and Heritage Festival. This wasn’t held on Beale Street as you’d imagine but a few blocks away in town. It consisted of 3 outdoor stages erected at various intersections and in an alleyway ...

... spaghetti. But when the food arrives, it's pretty clear that I am somewhere special, somewhere I won't forget any time soon. I left Graceland with my perception of Elvis turned completely on its head, and now I'm leaving this place with my standard of barbecue having been raised by quite a bit, to say the least. Did I experience greatness here? I certainly did. And like Elvis, does Jim Neely know that he has achieved this greatness? I think he does.
   But nothing prepares me ...

... loving the entertainment. The only disappointment in Memphis was our hotel. We had picked the Sleep Inn, nicely central to all of the attractions and overlooking the river. It was clearly a very pleasant hotel, most of the time. The only snag was that the management, in a brief moment of insanity I think, had decided to leave the hotel open while carrying out some major rennovations. This would even have been almost tolerable, if it had only been a ...

... to Arkansas. Around 10pm, the bathroom door locked shut from the inside, and it was a creepy walk across the campground to the bathroom. So, (yes this is true) we set up a temporary bathroom of red plastic cups in between two privacy screens in the trailer and (yes this is true) Janelle and I each had to use this "facility" and we laughed hysterically the whole way through, it was amazing it actually worked. After how the day started, the hilarious ending wasn't too surprising. :

... interesting for TJ and me. It was a little overwhelming for the kids. It is a path through the history of equal rights and is mostly pictures, written narration and quotes. It took a lot of reading and we spent much of our time reading to the kids. As adults, we would have used the headphones, but we needed to be focused on the kids. They were able to participate in a few exhibits like the Rosa ...

... between the performers and the audience.

It was a fitting ending to an enormously successful tour, which saw the Choir sing to rave reviews for nearly 50,000 people at nine concerts in seven different cities over a two-week period. With the strains of “God Be With You Till We Meet Again” ringing in their ears, Choir and Orchestra members returned to Salt Lake City happy to be done with touring for now but looking forward as ever to their next experiences on the road in 2009!