Memphis and Nashville, TN

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*This one is a little late...Katy was paranoid about posting the Graceland photos bc of copyright issues....if you want to see those..just ask one of us😊

*Leaving Shreveport, we began our drive towards Memphis. We stopped, first, in Little Rock Arkansas to see where Bill Clinton was formerly governor. Apparently, Little Rock is in the top five of highest crime cities in the USA, but we ended up in an alright part of town. We put a a pizza place we read about in our roadtripping book in the gps and ended up in a dive bar/pizza place that was being torn down in some areas from what looks like an asbestos clean up. We ordered spinach dip as an appetizer at our waiter's suggestion of it being homemade each day...and it was amazing. Then we shared a Greek (clearly stolen from the Turks?) and house (chicken, pineapple, tomato) pizza. After, we drove towards the State Capitol to take a couple photos before heading out towards Memphis.

*Arriving in Memphis, we first went to the Visitor Center, still open past 18:00 on a Sunday. We took some information on Memphis and Tennessee in general and then set out in search of a place to stay, first visiting a hostel before settling on a motel outside of town with a service to drive you into downtown Memphis, specifically Beale Street. We hung out in the hotel room for a couple hours to relax and not miss the actual nightlife by getting there and leaving too early. We arrived at around 22:00 to find a poppin nightlight, with horse drawn carriages waiting outside Beale Street, and the rest of the area shut down so people can roam from bar to restaurant to store without vehicular interference...and legally drink beer and other beverages on the street in the shut off, designated area. We stopped first at a bar with a live band outside and stayed there until they finished their set. After, we wandered up and down the street, stopping briefly at Coyote Ugly to take a couple photos before moving on to a karoke bar. We became quick friends with the locals before Katy got on stage with a woman to sing a rendition of Aretha Franklin's Mercy. We stayed at the bar until the last song, and then followed the crowd towards Club 153, where we danced until deciding to go home and get some sleep before another day of driving. We set back around 1:00AM, but the nightlife was still up and running in Memphis on a Sunday, seemingly until bar close at 5:00AM.

*We woke up with our usual late start and backtracked to a hostel we considered staying at the night before, given the low gas prices ($2.17/gallon) we had seen the day before. After filling up, we decided to head towards Graceland to see Elvis' mansion and burial spot. We had a quick bite to eat and then did the mansion and gravesite tour, taking about an hour and a half to walk the grounds. Then, we drove the 2.5 hour trip to Nashville, getting to the visitor center just as it was closing, but luckily catching a worker who forgot to hand over the keys..so we got in to get our maps and lodging information. Starving from our lack of eating all day, we consulted our guide and headed towards Route 100 for famous fried chicken, about 15 minutes outside the city. The trip led us out into the suburbs, where we were able to see a state park, a church every other house, and new-money mansions. When we got to Loveless Cafe, our destination, it was pretty packed. The fried chicken wasnt all it was cracked up to be, but the six side dishes we split between us were worth the drive. After, we went in search of our accommodations, settling on Drake Motel, supposedly famous for the country singer movies that have been filmed here. We stayed in one of the rooms that have been filmed, though really...it is even close to as glamorous as it may sound. Neither of us much in the mood to drink after our adventures in Memphis nightlife the previous night, we went into Nashville downtown center and just walked around, stopping in Coyote Ugly for a view and peering into other bars where live country music was playing along Broadway and 2nd streets. A number of tourist/specialty shops selling unnecessary, but interesting junk were also open late, so we wandered into a few spending time among the shelves. We finished off the night getting homemade icecream before leaving to settle in for the night. We were approached way more by homeless people here than in Memphis, though that may be because of the time we were walking in both cities and the amount of ground we made in each.

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Photos

Point between Louisiana and AK border..
with one house in between....

We already did this one...
but it was RIGHT across the street

SO GOOD
Spinach Artichoke Dip