Memphis Tennessee



Memphis Tennessee

 HI everyone,
Well we left Denver on Tuesday morning and got as far as Saline Kansas, we spent the night there and headed off in pouring rain the next morning. We had lunch in Tulsa Oklahoma and headed off again. The rain had stopped and it got very hot 104 - 40 Degrees! We stopped for the night at Carksville Arkansas, which left us a nice 3 hour drive to Memphis on Thursday.
As you can tell by the picture above it was raining again as we crossed the mighty Mississippi River into Tennessee

Our first stop was to the visitor centre for some information. The lady there was extremely helpful, she told us about the Graceland Tours and the famous Beale St which comes alive at night - A must see! She also advised us not to  get a motel near Graceland as it is not a safe neighbourhood at night! So we picked one close to Beale St.
These statues were in the information centre:

BB King

Me & Elvis!

We checked into our motel and then walked down the street to get some lunch, we found a great little Cafe called the Flying Fish - which by the way served some knockout Margarita's for $8

We then walked to Beale St to see what it was like in Daylight

It was busy enough then, but we decided to come back later to see all the lights. We went to the Peabody Motel at 5pm to watch a very famous parade that has been happening for the last 70 odd years. 5 Ducks live on the roof of the motel and they have been trained to come down the elevator every morning at 8am to the foyer fountain where they spend the day and every evening at 5pm they return to the elevator and go back to the roof!

Waiting for 5 pm!

Of course they are not the original ducks and they have had a few trainers over the years as well. It started off as a joke - but they realised what a big attraction it was for the tourists! Believe me the foyer and upstairs were packed with people watching!

We then rode the trolley around town past the riverfront.

 

 

We then headed back towards Beale St it starting to get busy, but it doesn't get dark here till about 8.30pm!

 

 

We went to a great place for dinner called Hueys - Best Burgers in Memphis!

The crowds were starting to form now, loud music of all kinds was filling the streets!

It had been a very long day so headed back to the motel, but we couldn't believe our eyes when we walked into the street - There were police cars as far as our eyes could see! The streets were blocked off and the were driving in a procession to honour a Police Officer ( Officer Timothy Warren) that had been killed in the line of duty of July 3rd.

The Billboard showed messages.

Sea of Police Cars

The Police came from all Over the State, there were hundreds of cars! A real emotional site!

Our evening ended on a solemn note, but we were honoured to see this event.

Dave & Shell