29NOV-02DEC13 - Memphis, TN (via vicksburg, ms)

Friday (aka Black Friday), 29NOV, after Corrie did some more Xmas shopping we hit the road for Memphis, TN. From our last BLOG you will remember that we were going there on 12NOV when Dan’s youngest brother, Gary, passed away, necessitating our return to Houma, LA. Now we have decided to again head to Memphis; & decided to split the drive into two days. Our first stop was at the Ameristar Casino RV Park where we stayed back in AUG06 before we started full timing JUL07. Back then we visited Vicksburg National Military Park & the USS Cairo Museum along with local attractions & the Casinos. This time we just visited the casino.

Trivia – where was Coca-Cola first bottled (hint – its not Atlanta)?

Saturday morning we continued our highway driving into Memphis & checked into the Graceland RV Park & Campground right next door to Graceland. Dan wanted to eat dinner at Charles Vergo’s Rendezvous for ribs; but Corrie learned that the Memphis Grizzlies B-ball team had a home came tonight & that downtown might be a little congested? But when Dan checked Vergo’s website, he discovered they would be closed Sunday & Monday. So we headed out early for some of their BBQ.

http://www.hogsfly.com/TheRestaurant.php

According to Wiki - “Rendezvous was founded by Charlie Vergos in 1948 in a back alley of Downtown Memphis. Originally the basement of his diner, Vergos discovered a coal chute and turned it into a barbecue pit. Eventually, Vergos converted his diner to a barbecue restaurant and moved the entrance from the street to the alley. Rendezvous is one of the older and more storied barbecue joints in Memphis due to its more than sixty years of operation and "hole-in-the-wall" atmosphere. The Memphis City Council voted to name the alley where Rendezvous is located "Charlie Vergos' Rendezvous Alley...”

After sharing a sample plate appetizer & large order of babyback ribs (both excellent) we headed to Beale St for a walk about. First we cut thru the lobby of the world famous Peabody Hotel to view their Xmas decorations, then it was off to Beale St for a little window shopping.

Some people from Memphis compare Beale St to New Orlean’s Bourbon St, but in our opinion it is a pretty poor comparison since Beale St is only three blocks long & has signs posted saying clear the street by 3AM. Since the Grizzlies were playing at home everyone on Beale St were treated to a “drumline” show by their official drumline the Grizz Line. Turns out tonight was their official debut for the season – very, very good!

Trivia – Piggly Wiggly started in Memphis in 1916, what major innovation did they bring to grocery stores that is still used by all stores today?

Sunday morning we walked over to Elvis’s Graceland to take the Platinum Tour. The normal tour only gets you the Mansion & the grounds. For $7 more each we got additional access to his two private jets, automobile museum, “Live from Vegas” exhibit, Elvis’ Hawaii exhibit, & the ’68 Special Exhibit. In our opinion worth the extra $7! Additionally because it is the “holiday” season, Graceland was decorated for Christmas as it would be for Elvis & family.

http://www.elvis.com/graceland/
Thankfully Graceland was pretty much empty all day. We could tell by the size of the parking lot & the queuing areas in front of the different exhibit areas, that during busy times you would spend most of your time waiting & get very little time at each exhibit. In our opinion you would be hard pressed to spend any real time to viewing the different rooms in the mansion itself. This is because while Graceland might have been a mansion in the sixties when Elvis bought it, the house & rooms inside are not that big by today’s celebrity “standards”. Add to this, that you can only view rooms from their hall entries & are not allowed upstairs at all, & you might only get a few seconds to view the rooms as thousands of tourists try to get their limited photo opportunity.

The exhibits are good but not state of the art; the audio devices you are issued don’t play automatically as you approach a display, you must press double digits to start or restart playback, & sometimes the signs with the double digits are not obvious. In addition many videos being shown of Elvis are without audio. It appears that more effort was spent on opportunities to get you to spend money – there are eight gift shops squeezed into the small area of Graceland that you are allowed to tour (one outside each exhibit, even one at the RV park). For lunch Dan had Elvis’s grilled peanut butter & banana sandwich. In our opinion unless you were a diehard Elvis fan Graceland was worth visiting once; but only with small crowds like when we were there.

Trivia – how many millions of fans did Elvis entertain in concert outside of the USA? What is the only awards ceremony that Elvis ever attended?

After returning to the RV, we headed to the Peabody Hotel for the marching of the ducks. According to their website:

“Back in the 1930s Frank Schutt, General Manager of The Peabody, and a friend, Chip Barwick, returned 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.”

“In 1940, Bellman Edward Pembroke, a former circus animal trainer, offered to help with delivering the ducks to the fountain each day and taught them the now famous Peabody Duck March. Mr. Pembroke became the Peabody Duckmaster, serving in that capacity for 50 years until his retirement in 1991.”

“The original ducks have long since gone, but after nearly 80 years, the marble fountain in the hotel lobby is still graced with ducks. The Peabody ducks march at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily.”

After the marching of the ducks it was dinner at South of Beale(SOB) for dinner. They call themselves a gas-tro-pub? We are not sure what that is, but the food was good.

http://www.peabodymemphis.com/

Monday morning we went back into Memphis to ride the trolley system for sightseeing. We discovered there are very few Memphis tours operating this time of year & none on Monday. So Dan came up with the idea that we ride Memphis’s three trolley lines just to see what we could see. Turns out that for $3 per person, you can ride the trolleys & the busses all day!

The present system went into operation in 1993 to start a restoration of the city wide system which was removed in 1947. The system consists of three lines – Main Street, Riverfront Loop, & Madison Avenue. An unique thing about the system is it uses restored vintage streetcars dating from 1927 to 1940. Most of the cars used were obtained from Porto, Portugal, & Melbourne, Australia. Although there was no “tour guide” to explain (or point out) the sights we were traveling past, it was excellent to see many of the neighborhoods of Memphis for little money, & see truly unique antique streetcars!

Next it was off to Dyer’s Burgers for lunch – according to their website:

“Back in 1912, the late Elmer "Doc" Dyer opened his own cafe and began to develop a secret cooking process for the uniquely delicious world famous burgers we still serve here today on Beale Street.”

“Legend has it that the "secret" was Doc Dyer's ageless cooking grease. This famous grease, strained daily, has continued to produce our juicy Dyer's Burgers for almost a century now.”

http://www.dyersonbeale.com/

Last stop for the day was the Memphis Rock & Soul Museum. According to the museum website:

“...the museum offers a comprehensive Memphis music experience from the rural field hollers and sharecroppers of the 1930s, through the explosion of Sun, Stax and Hi Records and Memphis’ musical heyday in the 70s, to its global musical influence. The museum’s digital audio tour guide is packed with over 300 minutes of information, including over 100 songs, and takes visitors at their own pace through seven galleries featuring 3 audio visual programs, more than 30 instruments, 40 costumes and other musical treasures.”

“The “first born” of the world-renowned Smithsonian Institution and developed by the National Museum of American History (NMAH) to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1996, the Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum became the first exhibition to have ever been developed by the Smithsonian Institution with another museum.”

In our opinion this was one of the best museums we have visited, with excellent audio/visual exhibits!!! Not only do you get an in-depth history of the development of rock & soul from the 30s to the 70s, but you learn how the music was changing society at the same time. Like – the first radio station in the nation devoted totally to a black audience with black DJs, WDIA (where many white teens listened in against their parents rules) was in Memphis in 1947; & the first all female radio station in the nation, WHER, was in Memphis in 1955. In fact, if you were only able to visit one place in Memphis for rock & soul history, we recommend skipping Graceland & visiting the Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum.

Trivia – what famous blues guitarist was a DJ at WDIA (think Lucille)? Holiday Inn started in Memphis in 1952, what did the hotel chain have to do with the recording industry?

http://www.memphisrocknsoul.org/

Originally we were going to spend a couple of more days in Memphis, but have decided to hit the road tomorrow to avoid a possible ice storm later in the week.