Day 32 Friday19th September, Memphis, Tennessee

Leaving Dale in bed again I went to breakfast.  This is a small boat and we are managing to circulate amongst the passengers.  A good proportion are older with quite a number with impaired mobility skills but all are friendly and happy to share the table with Aussie visitors and have extensive chats.  

This morning we went for a bus tour of the city of Memphis and some of its attractions. After a quick tour of Mud Island were the Queen of the Mississippi is moored we continued into downtown area. First we visited the nearby Welcome Centre (visitor center) where a large bronze statue of Elvis and also one of B B King are housed.

The one of Elvis was initially located in a local park (can’t quite remember the exact location but so many of his stars (part of the statute) kept being stolen it was moved to the Welcome Centre and appropriate alarms have been put in place.  

Bridge across the Mississippi nicknamed "The Dolly Parton" Bridge - wonder why!

Part of a picture wall at the Welcome Centre

Statue at the Welcome Centre has a security system fitted

There is also an Elvis Presley Boulevard and the city council has had to put the street signs above the middle of the intersections where fans can’t get them. You can now buy replica street signs at the local gift shops to try and circumvent the theft of street signs. 

The morning tour also included a stop at Peabody’s Hotel in Beale Street to view the famous Peabody ducks coming down the elevator and “marching” up to the fountain in the Lobby.  The ritual occurs every day at 11 am and they leave at 5 pm to go upstairs to their special $250,000 accommodations.

Peabody ducks enter the Lobby fountain

In the afternoon we went to visit Graceland. There were some hick ups in the tour organisation causing about a 45 minute delay but the wait was worth it once we got to the Mansion, its called a Mansion but it is actually quite small and not at all pretentious. Visitors are only permitted downstairs although they keep opening up more parts of the house to keep it fresh and interesting for repeat visitors.  The tour also included a gallery of his many gold and platinum records, many awards (quite amazing), as well as his cars and air plane collections.

Front of Graceland

Lounge room

 

Part of the Gold record collection

More gold and platinum records

We finally found our teddy mascot - Harley the Bear.  We found him at Graceland so we will always remember where he came from. 

Found a travelling companion at last, meet "Harley"

We then returned to the Queen for a last night. We were lucky enough to get a tour of the Wheelhouse before the nights entertainment which was a 7 piece swing band.  They were fabulous - and no CD's for sale??