Meg's & Lon's Magnificent Adventure: Memphis Tennessee

Elona typing

On arrival to Memphis we did our usual and checked out local pamphlets and papers to see what was available. Both of us felt quite energetic - which is unusual because travel time usually takes it out of us but the trip to Memphis was not too bad and we decided for tonight we would go out - now you may be thinking - out drinking, dancing or maybe dinner nah not us we were off to our first game of Ice Hockey!!!! We purchased tickets on the internet got the address and plugged it into Gwen (our navigational system). We arrived at some ridiculous address - a medical facility of all things - much swearing and flicking the finger at Gwen etc. We then went up and down Elvis Presley Blvd until it was ridiculous and then Meggzee braved a very dubious shop to ask where the hell this place was. So eventually we found the place and talk about walking into another world!! This was a home game and it was completely obvious with the decorations and the advertising and the people and their clothing just amazing. It was loud and amazingly like any movie that you have ever seen with this kind of atmosphere - the man in front eating a hot dog, his wife eating nachos and the kids with ice cream and sodas - cool!! We find our seats and suddenly there is this lovely looking guy with a microphone telling us and the others around us to get up and dance - so of course we did and we were on the TV monitor up the top of the rink in the middle - it was really cool - we'd only been there 5 minutes and we all one a free pizza slice voucher!!

Now onto the game - I could go on forever about the cutesy electronically controlled blimp or the mascots running around hugging kids and making fun but I won't. The game!!!! Oh my god!! Talk about violent and fast. Smashing each other against the walls, fights, deathly silence from the crowd if the opposing team scored and absolute mania when it was the home team. Great fun people - if you ever get the opportunity - go for it!! Great night.

Okay are we ready ladies and gentlemen? You may need to be seated: I decided I needed to take Megs to church - alright maybe not exactly that...well in fact we had heard about a wonderful Gospel Church that was not too far away so Sunday morning we dressed in our most unwrinkled clothes and headed to church. It was a fabulous, vibrant and very friendly church. We were not the guests who were warmly welcomed which was nice but when Father Al Green welcomed each person in front of the congregation it was hilarious when they found out we were Australian and seriously every person looked at us to check out what Australians look like!!! Very funny. We loved the music and the singing and Megs said that the messages were the same as the Catholics just executed in a very fun hip way.

So after Church we did what all good people do - we went to Beale Street (he he he) Okay for those of you who don't know that is the Blues Street. We went to an Irish Pub ( I told you they are everywhere!!!) where we enjoyed Cajun Food and live Blues. What more could you ask really?? We were only going to be there for lunch but the music and the wonderful cocktails was just too hard to move away from. Met some lovely people there and were very relaxed and ready for bed!! Oh do need to say on the way home we ran into some very ahhh scantily clad women with lots of cleavage and they had name labels and then there were other males who also had name labels and then we started to eaves drop and we found out that their was a speed dating event on in our hotel. 'Walk quickly to our room Megs!'

Megs Typing

We were planning on going to Graceland after church, but we got held up over lunch and after 3 hours of live blues, Graceland was no longer on the list of things to do. We did discuss not going to Graceland, as we both thought it would be extremely tacky. In the end we decided that we may never be in Memphis again and should take the opportunity while it was available. So on our way to Louisiana we stopped off to tour Graceland.

Surprisingly it was not tacky at all, dated most definitely (early-mid seventies). The mansion itself it just a big house and definitely not anywhere near the size of what we consider mansions today. We were only able to tour the downstairs floor and the grounds (see photos). The upstairs has been closed off to the public as this was the family's sleeping areas and was never accessible to visitors even when Elvis was alive.

The tour, highlighted a talented singer, whose career was amazingly orchestrated without the instant media coverage that we have today. The movie and music awards achieved by him in such a relatively short amount of time is a testament to an extraordinary life and career.