Day 7 - Florence to Memphis

Ok I'm putting this out there straight away, we didn't go to Graceland,  we didnt do anything Elvis related at all.

The day started just before 6 for me as it has everyday since we arrived, I let K sleep til just after 7 though. I'm kind like that. We had a quick hotel breakfast,  the make your own waffles had plain batter or maple cinnamon! I obviously chose the latter - good choice Victoria! You will be surprised to learn thay K just hit up the hot biscuit station!

On the road and we had a 3ish hour drive in practically a straight line to Memphis. Boring for the most part. We got to Memphis just after 11 having already been to 3 states, we woke up in Alabama,  drove through Mississippi and Memphis is back in Tennessee (side note - we've spent most of our trip so far in Tennessee and a couple of times a day I've said to K "you're the only ten I see" but she hasn't been impressed!).

Our first stop in Memphis was the National Civil Rights Museum. The Museum is built round the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated but it starts the story way back at the origin of the slave trade. The Museum was incredible and super comprehensive. We spent 3 hours in the first building alone which takes you up to the assassination and finishes up at the actual room he was shot in. I genuinely can't overstate how good or important the museum was. There were a lot of school groups in and for the most part they seemed pretty into it.

After the main building we went to Central bbq for lunch. We both had a pulled pork roll, we shared green beans, k had homemade crisps and I had chips. Amazingly a bottomless soda was only $2 and came in a souvenir plastic cup. The pork was super and I could see why it was award winning - this is a big deal in bbq town Memphis! We sat on the patio in the shade cos even though the sky was grey it was so very very hot.

We went back over to the museum and to building 2. This building is the building that the killer took his shot from so you can see the distance etc. It tells the story of the killer and his days leading up to and after the killing. Did you know he was finally apprehended in London? I had no idea. It also examines all the conspiracy theories attached to the case. The Museum finishes by talking about modern day slavery, sex trafficking etc. I was delighted to see this as it's a massive issue that people don't seem to acknowledge. We actually saw a poster in a restaurant the other day about to spot if girls that come in are being sex trafficked so it seems to be an issue in these parts.

After the museum we walked up Main Street which is the art district.  It had loads of murals and old ghost signs. I loved it! We sat outside and I had a beer juice to cool down but the driver only had water.

We decided that it was time to check into the hotel so we headed to it down Union Avenue (have you got Walking in Memphis in your head now?) via Sun Studios. We checked in and our room tonight only has one bed but it's so big we could have some pals over. I'm not joking, we're both lying here just now and I just stretched my arm out fully and didn't touch her!

Anyhoo, post chill and temperature recalibration we headed our to the Bar-B-Q Shop for dinner, I know that bbq for 2 meals sounds mental (but delicious) but as Memphis is so famous for bbq we wanted to try more than one place. The Bar-B-Q Shop is famous for barbecue spaghetti so we wanted to try it since we've never seen it before. It's just spaghetti in a bbq sauce with pulled pork but it was pretty good. K got the spaghetti meal, it came with slaw and texas toast and I got a pulled pork sandwich on texas toast with chips and we shared. I'd say the pork was better than lunch, possibly because the texas toast is better than a roll, the chips were amazing.

Post dinner we were off to see some more public art, we're so arty! This time it was to the Water Tower Pavilion which is a painted water tower and some murals. It's a cool area with nice shops, bars,  restaurants and a brewery. Unfortunately our time in Memphis is super short so we couldn't linger - we'd not even been into town yet.

We had another wee detour before hitting the town, we drove over the Mississippi River to Arkansas (the 7th state of the hols!)! We didn't do much there, just stopped for a pee at petrol station, but we can scratch it off our map!

Finally we hit downtown Memphis for a wild night on Beale St (our feet were not ten feet off of Beale).  Beale St was quite frankly bananas, there were police cars surrounding it at every junction. It was an assault of neon,  music and alcohol. Every bar had live music blaring out, competing for the hoards of potential customers. We walked from end to end taking it all in then went to an open air bar with a live band playing blues and funk music. Most of the band were youngish but the guitarist was a proper old blues guy. The crowd went wild with people up dancing and loving life.

Unfortunately, the 6am start caught up with me and bed was calling by about 10. By the time we left Beale there was a massive queue to get in to the street and the police were IDing everyone on the way in. They were also checking bags and giving people the once over with portable metal detector wands. They could do with this process on Sauchiehall St of a Saturday night!

Tomorrow is the Mississippi Delta and the Blues Highway.

Night y'all!