The Rest of the Memphis Story

Graceland was Monday’s destination.  Although we are Elvis fans, we are more fans of the music of his era and some of “his” songs.  We have never been very knowledgeable fans or devoted fans, just maybe passing fans who enjoy a good song or two that he did.  Seeing Graceland was fun.  It is quite a nice house, very unassuming from the outside.  The inside is a different story.  However, one has to remember that much of it was done at a time whose fashionable trends of the day are no longer as acceptable.  After all I had a lime green kitchen for many years.  It was decorated with what he liked most; not my taste, but it was his.  I would have loved to see the upstairs to see if Priscilla had her hand at decorating those rooms.

I have walked by the Cotton Museum many times, never giving it much thought.  This was our destination one afternoon.  It is a small, 2 room museum and the 44 of us overwhelmed its capacity!  But, it was an interesting museum.  I had no idea that Memphis had a large role, or any role, in the cotton trade.  And I learned a lot about cotton and how it grows and how it is sold.  Most interesting!

Mud Island sits in the Mississippi.  And the museum there is really neat - Lots of information about the history and culture of the lower Mississippi.  I enjoyed it a lot.  The outdoor river walk is a scale model of the River.  It shows the River and its tributaries as it flows from the Kentucky/Tennessee/Missouri area to the Gulf of the coast of Mew Orleans.  It is a very well done exhibit.  It helped that it was a beautiful fall day, sunny, bright and not too warm.  It was fun to walk to New Orleans and back!

Other activities of note were Lunch at Central BBQ and Gus’s Famous Fried Chicken, a walk through the Peabody lobby to see the ducks swimming in the fountain, and a chance to get a much needed hair cut at the day spa in the Peabody. 

But, the best of all is the RV Park, Tom Sawyer’s, on the banks of the Mississippi.  It is just a nice quiet park, with spectacular views of the river and its barge traffic.  Great sunrises and a few interesting moonrises while we were there.