Blogs from Memphis, Tennessee, United States, North America - page 10

Went to Memphis for my Birthday weekend to enjoy the Beale Street Music Festival. Graceland is here, so i had to go. Cheesy tourist thing to do... I gotta get me an Elvis one-piece suit....... read more

Peabody Ducks Today is my last day in Memphis. I squeezed in a grab bag of different things. The first was arguably the best, and certainly the most bizarre, free show in town. The Peabody Hotel was built to be the grandest hotel in the entire South. It certainly holds that title for Memphis. In the early 1930s, hotel manager Frank Schutt came back from a hunting trip rather tipsy. He had heard about the alligators living in the fountains at the Jefferson (see March 13th) and thought it would be really hilarious to have ducks living in the fountain of his hotel instead. He proceeded to put some in the fountain. Unbelievably, those ducks were popular with hotel guests. The bellman at the time, Edward Pembroke, a former circus trainer, convinced his boss he could ... read more

Graceland Today is my first day in Memphis, Tennessee. The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame may be in Cleveland, but the music was born here. Before exploring that history, I had to make a call at one of the essential road trip sites. Graceland is the former home of Elvis Presley, the first major rock star. Decades after his death, it still attracts fans by the thousands. The welcome signs in the ticket building are in a dozen languages. The place has become unbearably commercialized, but it’s still essential. If nothing else, the place is one of the few rock star homes (dead or otherwise) open to the public, and Elvis set the pattern for all those that followed. The house itself is almost ... read more

Yes folks, it is curtains for this blogger and this should be the last. It is 10.45am in Nashville, I fly out to LA-then to Akld this afternoon at 5.30pm so have one final chance (it seems it will remain dry today) to have a further look at sights before catching the bus to the airport. I arrived on Sunday – and after the usual disorientation – which way is North etc walked uphill to the avenue that the Holiday Inn was on. This was a few minutes walk down the Broadway rise to the centre of the honky tonks – all night bars really – and also the Ryman Auditorium. This was the old home of the Grand Ole Opry before it moved out to the suburbs or wherever. Still hosts shows and I was ... read more

This is a morning blog (10a.m. Sat.), which stops me from doing the tourist thing in Memphis, so will be brief catchup – rest will be done on the bus to Nashville tomorrow Sunday in final breakneck stretch to leaving. So on Thurs. 10th we got 5 hr Hound trip from Atlanta to Birmingham. It was a time change going out of Georgia into Alabama which the driver did not mention, but I knew about – chg to Central Standard time – and I have day light saving on Sat nite/Sun morning to do as well. Anyway the bus stopped for 10 mins in Tupelo Miss. (birthplace of Elvis) and part of name of old Va Morrison album Tupelo Honey – but saw none of the above. Into Birmingham and my hotel was a cold windy ... read more