Sunday, 6/5/11 - Because of our extended stay in Memphis we can do some sightseeing today. Lucky us, they have a free shuttle that picks you up at Heartbreak Hotel which is only steps from our Graceland RV Park. We pass up the first ride at 9:55 am because it's jammed and go with the next one at 10:55 am. This shuttle takes you to Sun Studio, Memphis Rock "N" Soul Museum and Beale Street Historic District......all for a free ride.
Our first stop is Sun Studio www.sunstudio.com an absolutely incredible place that takes us back to the fifties and really the birth of Rock N Roll....as we knew it. Elvis Presley, made his first record here in 1953 and it cost him $4.00 to record it. We had a wonderful, young man who was our tour guide and did a fabulous job telling us all about the artists that recorded here.....Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and so many more. We saw amazing pictures, heard lots of music and of course my camera was going non stop. You guys have to be sooooo glad I don't know how to down load pictures as no one would ever get through this blog. The last part of the tour, we went into the actually studio where Sam Phillips recorded all the music and I even got to have my picture taken using the very same microphone they all used.....at least that's what they told us. I kept sending pictures on my phone to Nancy as she is a really big Rockabilly fan. Note to Nancy & Howard: YOU MUST COME TO MEMPHIS and see this place, you guys will love it.
We then boarded our free bus to go to Beale Street and have lunch and see all the clubs and sights in this 3 block area. www.bealstreetmerchants.com Of course we are here on a Sunday at 1:00 pm so it's not exactly "jumping" like it would be in the evening, but with our M.O. we wouldn't be here at night! We had lunch in Dyer's Hamburgers that they cook the food in grease that is 90 years old (hard to imagine, really)........... Of course I didn't try it, my indulgence was a chocolate milk shake. We then headed over to a park across the street where they had live music being played. After leaving the park we wandered up & down the 3 blocks looking at all the clubs, me....taking more pictures of B.B. Kings Blues Club, Wet Willie's, The Pig on Beale Street and so many more.
After our Beale Street excursion we walked the couple blocks to the Memphis Rock "N" Soul Museum. www.memphisrocknsoul.org Will didn't want to see this so he went across the street to the Gibson Guitar Museum/Store but I went into the Rock "N" Soul and so glad that I did. This exhibition was created by the Smithsonian Institute and tells the birth of Rock "N" Soul music. The Memphis music experience that over came the racial barriers. It was a wonderful display of pictures, outfits and lots of music that you could listen to on your own head set that they provided.
We got our free bus ride back to the RV park and the day was a great success. Memphis is a really cool place to see and I'm so glad we stayed the extra days. Much love to all our family and friends.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Carole, thank you soooo much for the picture you texted me of Graceland. It's on my bucket list of things to do... If you find Elvis, just bring him on home to me.
Post a Comment