Memphis...Home of the Blues!

We arrived in the evening to Memphis. Our hotel was a little less than what we were expecting, but it was a bed and a roof over our head! We went down to Beale Street which is a lively place. There are tons of restaurants and souvenir stores. All of the restaurants have live bands playing music all the time. We ate at a place called Sully's where a band was warming up for what seemed like forever and there were 2 goats hanging out on a climbing piece next to the restaurant. It was an interesting sight! I forgot to mention that when we were driving there, we made a wrong turn and ended up in Arkansas!
Here are some pictures of Beale Street. They shut the street down so you can just walk in the middle of the street.




This guy was playing a special guitar made out of a cigar box. He was such a good performer that I bought his CD!

The next morning we got up early, put on our red, white and blue, and headed to Graceland...where Elvis Presley lived! We got there 10 minutes before it opened, and there was already a line! We bought tickets to tour the mansion and boarded a bus with our audio headsets. The bus drove us across the street and dropped us off in front of the mansion. We toured the inside (you can only see the 1st floor) and the backyard. In 1952, when he was only 22, Elvis bought the mansion and the 13 acres for $100,000. Here are some photos from Graceland.






Let's just say...Elvis had some interesting decorating styles!




There were several long showcases that had memorabilia such as this lovely gold lame suit...





The last stop was the meditation garden where Elvis is buried next to his parents, his grandmother and his twin brother who apparently died at birth. There was a woman at the site crying. Some people are true Elvis fans!

Time to get on the road. I will write more about our many other Memphis experiences when I get to our next stop...Little Rock, Arkansas.