We stopped for breakfast at what seemed like a quaint country kitchen called the Cotton Kitchen or Cotton Club or some such. It prided itself as having civil war relics available. Decor was nice, but the food pretty much sucked. Grits tasted like tap water, and so did the white creamy gravy with the biscuits. Bleh. At least theroom we were in had real wood paneling and not that cheesy fake stuff.
Got to Memphis around 11:20, and the morning service started at 11. We looped around the city to the North, and got off on Rt. 51S, which was aptly dubbed "Elvis Presley Blvd." Drove past Graceland and the crazy hordes of Elvis fans, and finally got to Hale St., where the church is. I changed from my tie-dye shirt to a plain black tee shirt, in attempts to look somewhat nicer. Here's a shot of the front lawn of the church, showing the signs.
Inside church, the music was rocking, and everybody seemed to be swaying and clapping to the beat. There was an organist and a pianist, and two drummers (I think). I was surprised by how many white people were there, it was different from the gospel churches I've been to in Philly. Most people seemed like out-of-towners, like Hillary and myself. During the prayers, the woman who most likely did the invocation was jerking around on stage like she was having seizures. The invocation always freaks me out a little. After maybe 5-10 minutes the music ended. Small envelopes were passed out for collections. We didn't have any small bills, but we got together about two bucks of change to donate. Everybody formed a big circle, and gave the envelope when in the front of the church. The Pastor asked us where we were all from, there were folks from Seattle, Spain, and Denmark, showing how popular around the world this particular church must be. The Pastor, who was Reverend White, went on to quote many verses from the bible out of memory. It wasn't so inspiring, as he didn't offer any thought-provoking or philosophical analysis of it, it was just recitation. He did offer to say a prayer specific to anyone's needs in the congregation, for love, peace, money, etc. I thought that was kind of cool. He kept mentioning Pastor Green, but we ever saw him. After another brief musical tune, the service was over and we left. A woman in the parking lot told us that Rev. Green wasn't there today.
Next up was Graceland, right down the street. Official Graceland parking was $2, but a large shopping mall nearby advocated it's free parking so we parked there. Bought two $12 tickets for the Graceland tour, and then caught a glimpse of the huge line waiting to board shuttles to go to the mansion. It seemed ridiculous, you must take a shuttle only to cross the street, but they do it for security reasons. While waiting for them to call our number, we hit the really touristy Elvis shops. It was utterly sickening, it was EVERYTHING Elvis. From golf balls to soda bottles to coasters. I was thoroughly swamped in Elvisity, it was totally overwhelming. Hillary was looking for some "Fat Elvis" stuff, from Elvis's later and more gluttonous years, to bring back for her boss from work who specifically requested it. We then got on line for the hsuttles, got a walkman + headphones for the audio tour, and got to the mansion itself.
Non-flash photos were allowed, and although I set my little camera to not flash, it went off at the first stop, which was the Living Room. I got a few angry stares, and then decided my camera's settings weren't trustworthy enough, so back into my pocket it went. Here's that shot from the living room
The house itself was totally swank, I loved it. The tour had a small awards museum that we walked through, with tons of Elvis's gold/platinum records. Obviously the tour was biased in Elvis's favor, but he did seem like a good person himself, which I wasn't aware of. Like he wasn't a fake in front of the camera, he seemed like a genuinely good guy. The tour went through the yard, where there are stables and horse pastures. Here's a shot from there
Tour concluded at the graveyard, and it was somewhat powerful to see the gravestone that I've seen many times on TV. Nobody seemed to be weeping uncontrollably, as usually happens around the anniversary of his death. Here's the tombstone, with the controversial mispelling of his middle name, offering definitive proof that Elvis didn't really die, but is still alive and well, working as a crossing guard in Flagstaff, AZ.
The tour was pretty good overall, and I'm glad I did it, despite the utter touristyness of it all. We went to another gift shop, bought some postcards. Hillary's "Fat Elvis" gift was a 1-dollar bill with Elvis's picture on it, and another Fat Elvis snow-globe keychain.
We headed downtown, in search of a motel for the night. Past some totally sketchy ones, and then after getting lost 2 or 3 times, we wound up in the heart of downtown. Somewhere along the way we passed that glassy pyramid, here it is.
Found a nice "Sleep Inn", which Hillary said she'd pay for, for the convenience. I promised her a nice dinner in return. It was nice to have a hotel, and also to know we were walking distance from Beale St., where many of the jazz clubs are. Took nice showers and had a good nap in the air conditioning before heading out to dinner. I futzed around with my laptop for a bit, and was able to get X Windows working somewhat (albeit only at 16 color VGA, but it's a start). I looked at one leg of our travels with GNUplot, and despite the lat/long being backwards, it was cool to see the path travelled.
We wandered to Beale St., here's a shot of what it looks like at
twilight.
The first place we went to was called Alfred's. A large 15 piece band, the Memphis Jazz Orchestra, was playing and I wanted to check them out. We ordered fried green tomatoes, which neither of us had had, and I got a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, the first alcohol I've had since Baltimore. We caught about the last 15 minutes of the band's set, they were pretty good big-band swing kind of stuff. Here's a shot. You can see the praise to the great old R&B record label Stax in the background.
Then we wandered over to King's Palace (or something like that) and saw organist Charlie Wood play solo jazz tunes on a Hammond B3 organ. I gave him a $2 ti and requested "Hard Times" by Ray Charles. He played it in a different kind of style I was used to, and with words, too. Pretty neat. We ate Creole cuisine, had gumbo and shrimp/crawfish etouffee. Spicy, but good. I chatted with Charlie a bit after his set, and otld him about Hamtech, the Hammond technicians mailing list, which he wasn't aware of.
Then stumbled over to our final spot for the night, "This Is It" and caought the Billy Jones Show and Review. They were totally awesome! The bar wasn't too packed when we got there, but everyone was totally into the music. It was old-school style R&B, with a lead guitarist who also played keyboards a bit. They also had a drummer, bassist, and two, yes two other keyboardists. Here's a shot of the band.
There was the cutest little kid strumming a toy guitar the whole time the band was playing, following the lead guitarist. He was totally into the groove, doing it not for attention or money, but for the love of it. Someone from the table next to us gave him a tip of a dollar, and he didn't know what to do with it, slapped it on a table and went back to jamming on his toy guitar. Check him out.
I had two Jack Daniels & Cokes, and we got some coffee, then headed back to the hotel. Splurging in Memphis was totally fun, and totally worth it.
| Location | Memphis, TN |
| Odometer | 131186.2 Miles Total 2432.5 Miles On Trip 182.4 Miles Today |
| Coordinates | 35° 08.814' N 90° 03.160' W |