Sunday, April 8, 2012

Highway 61 to Memphis, Tennessee State 11

On the morning of 7th April after breakfast, we headed North on Highway 61 towards our 11th State, Tennessee. We are heading for Memphis to visit Elvis. This will be a two part post, as Elvis put on a big show. Now, before visiting Memphis, I wasn''t a massive Elvis fan, I appreciated his music and his movies, but let me tell you. I am a fan now. But let me show you about our trip to Memphis.


Along the way we saw the most random things. We were near this little town of Cary, on Highway 61 when we saw these homes below which were very trashy. I couldn't believe just how bad they were. they looked like something from a movie, I was so busy taking a photo of them as we drove slowly through the town, that as I turned my camera off and looked to the left....well I just couldn't get my camera back on quick enough to photogragh what I saw there. A chain gang. A real life chain gang. I was horrified. Two African American men in shackles, in black and white stripey jail clothes, with hoes, digging weeds, on the side of the road, and being guarded by a policeman with a rifle. I thought it was a joke, surely this couldn't be for real. But it was. There was a jail just behind the men. We kept driving.


Not far down the road we came across this flag on the side of the road, made from plastic cups simply sitting in chicken wire. Pretty well done.




By this time of the day I was starving, so we stopped at some little servo and it was scary looking, I was almost a bit too scared to go in. This is what I bought, and oh my goodness, it was so good. It was a dagwood dog, not what the Americans called it, but that's what it was, and it was divine. I wish I got two as it was alot smaller than our dagwood dogs.


Then we passed the good old golden arches....we didnt stop.


Yay...another State line. Entering State 11, good old Tennessee!! So where is Keith Urban??? I looked everywhere, but I never did find him....


Elvis Presley Blvd....well we are heading in the right direction. Now where will we stay? Need to find a motel for the night....


What a dork...Elvis glasses that were the cheapest plastic I have ever seen. They could have passed for showbag quality, actually no, worse than that, and had a $29.99 price tag. So even I didn't let Robert buy them, I let him play with them only.


Here is Elvis' white suit. Funny story goes with this. See how its boxed up? Rope along the front? Well, prior to this photo, Robert was doing an Elvis stance in front of the rope for a photo (I have saved you all from viewing that photo!!) and he bumped the rope, over the loud speaker three times came, "please step away from the white suit" very loudly. Everybody in the store stared at us & the guard came straight over to us. Robert jumped, and we giggled. I mean, seriously. The rope is about two feet from the boxed up suit, the store had security guards & cameras. We were no where near the white suit really. It was funny. Nobody else laughed.


This display, however, we could get close to.


Me out the front of Graceland. We were going tomorrow. Cannot wait. The rock wall which runs all along the width of the property is signed by people as a memorial to Elvis. It's amazing.


Oh, and we couldn't go to Memphis without staying here....


Our room was gorgeous, and all set out with Elvis memorabilia. It was modern and funky, & quite cheap too. It was also situated across the road from Graceland, so was perfect for us. We found a groovy burger bar close by too for dinner. Too convenient really. We finished off the night by heading into Memphis city for a tour of the sights....
I'm pretty excited about checking out the inside of Graceland tomorrow.


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