Trip Day 5 (probably one of the best days of my life)

Locations: Graceland - Memphis, Tennessee; Interstate BBQ - Memphis, Tennessee; Elvis Presley Birthplace - Tupelo, Mississippi; Gainesville, Georgia; Bogart, Georgia

Well. The day has finally arrived. Started having surreal feelings again immediately when I woke up. I knew the day would be very bittersweet because it was our last day on the trip. I really did not want to go home, I wanted the day to go as slowly as possible.

After breakfast and packing up the van (for the 14,000th time) we headed north. Elvis Presley Boulevard is VERY hard to miss due to the sign...

Easy to find

I was really surprised by EPB, its very commercial and you would never know Graceland was on this road. We pulled into the parking lot and parked, which is across the street from the mansion. This is when it really started to hit me, that I was really here. After getting the tickets, we got in line to wait for the shuttle to take us across the street. My first glimpse of Graceland was the gates while standing in line outside.

Wish I could describe the feeling I got when I first saw them

I know this all sounds incredibly silly to anyone that isn't an Elvis fan, but I got REALLY quiet from this point on. I didn't want to miss anything. They gave us our little headphone things that we would use for the audio portion of the tour, then we got on the bus to go across the street. The feeling I got when first going through those gates was just...indescribable. It was my first experience of being somewhere that I knew for a fact that Elvis had been before. Once again, I know this sounds incredibly strange to anyone who isn't an Elvis fan. Don't try and understand, because you wont. Going up the driveway, we pulled to a stop in front of the mansion and got out to wait our turn to enter. I just stood and stared.

My first view of Graceland. The top two right windows are Elvis' bedroom.

I think between my teacher and my classmates, I had been asked if I was okay about 10 or 15 times at this point, and I reassured them that I was, that I was just taking it all in. After a short speech of no flash photography by one of the blue-shirted tour guides, we were shown inside.

Stained glass above the front door

I had two immediate emotions walking through the front door. The first was the smell, that musty, 1977 smell. The second was "Elvis walked through this door many times, now you have." I actually felt a little light headed (don't think it was from the heat) as we stood in the foyer before beginning the tour.

My first sight was up the beautiful staircase towards the second floor landing. For those that aren't so knowledgeable about Elvis, I should give a short background on the significance of the second floor. Elvis had very little privacy, so this part of his home was always his way to get away from the fans and the cameras. Elvis died on August 16, 1977 in Graceland on the second floor in his bathroom. From what I've heard, only a VERY few are allowed upstairs. Also from what I've heard, nothing has been moved or touched since that day. I can completely understand the family's wishes though. Just to look up those stairs and know what happened up there is intense. I've seen the home movies with Elvis and Priscilla as well, and to see that staircase was quite a beginning experience.

The stairs to the second floor

We moved forward through the front entry way and directly to the right was what I call the "White Room" that has the HUGE couch, along with the famous peacock stained glass windows that I'm sure most people have seen. In case you haven't, here you go...

One hell of a couch...

The peacock windows

After the front room, we ventured down the hallway to Elvis' parents' room, which I have cleverly dubbed it the "Purple Room" because of, well, it's purpleness.

Very purpley...

I also, at this point, began to notice the strategically placed blue shirted tour guides at the foot and top of every stair case (there were quite a few stair cases by the way) to make sure nobody sneaked upstairs. I honestly don't think I'd wanna go up there anyways. I have a certain level of curiosity, but to see where someone died...that's a little morbid to me. Kind of disrespectful as well.

We circled back around the main stair case to the dining room, and I was also getting this feeling of being "watched" lol mostly because of the mirrored walls. They were almost everywhere. Through the dining room was the kitchen, which I had always heard was the main hub of the house. Kind of underwhelming, but I guess for a house that was originally built in 1939, it was good enough. I should also mention that, even as much as I love Elvis, and Graceland itself, it's quite tacky. We all know Elvis was rather eccentric, and this place was decorated in the 60s and 70s, so this kind of thing is to be expected. There was also another staircase headed up off the kitchen, which, of course, was blocked off.

Reminds me a lot of how the kitchen in my parents' house used to look

I did like the vintage oven

Through the kitchen, we got a brief glimpse of the "Jungle Room" before heading downstairs. We'll get to that in a minute. The stairs headed down to the basement had mirrored walls and ceiling. Too freaking much lol.

Yeaaaaah....

I do have to say these hallways and staircases were VERY narrow. Kind of strange for such a large house. The house itself is kind of big, but the rooms themselves weren't that big, but then again, this house was first built in a time where rooms weren't that large. Lots of rooms in the house though, or at least on the property, 23 rooms total, 8 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms.

Downstairs, we saw first the TV room. Technologically speaking, it was all rather antiquated, but at that time, it was pretty advanced. The story goes that Elvis had heard about President Nixon having 3 televisions to watch at the same time, so he had to have the same. The yellow and blue were....yeah. Loved the monkey figurine though.

We turned back and went across the hall to the billiard room. I'd always heard about the room with the fabric on the walls and ceiling, but the feeling one gets when walking into this room is incredibly claustrophobic. I know Elvis needed his privacy, but to me, the house was beginning to feel VERY closed in.

We turned to the stairs to go back up to the main floor and all I saw was green shag. It was time to ascend into the famous "Jungle Room."

Hard to describe the feeling this causes (sorry its sideways)

The Jungle Room. Just...wow. Another room I'd always heard about, and its hard to believe until you are there to see it yourself. The fountain was neat though. The "fur" on the chairs (I say "fur" because I sincerely hope it wasn't real fur) was a little bit much though. I understand that this room was turned into a studio towards the end of Elvis' life, and that's where he recorded his last music.

This is where the tour of the main house ended. I know there were more rooms on the main floor, but I think (may be mistaken on this) that the other rooms were the bedrooms where the "Memphis Mafia" (his so-called friends, who did little more than live off his fame and money, while giving him whatever he wanted...okay sorry, sensitive subject with me) lived. We headed outside, to the out buildings, the first being his father Vernon's office.

(By the way, I know I'm going crazy with the pics, but I had to take so many cause there was so much to see. If you are tired of them, there's always that little red x in the top right hand corner of this window and you can stop reading :) ) We walked around through the backyard, where I got a few pics of the back of the house.

Next was the building with ALL the gold records Elvis made, plus movie memorabilia. Then we made our way to what was formerly the racquetball building, where Elvis had played early that morning before his death. The court is no longer there, and its now full of more records, and some of his jumpsuits. We also passed by the pool.

Just past the pool is the Meditation Garden, quite a fitting way to end the tour. I noticed the group we were touring with that had been pretty talkative during the tour, had grown very quiet. I'm sure most know that the Meditation Garden is where Elvis, his mother, his father, and grandmother are all buried. It was a very emotional moment for me (not outwardly) to be there. I think lots of people don't realize just how relatively young Elvis was when he died at 42. It's stories like his that are so tragic, to explode on to the music scene and not be able to properly handle it. I did have to fight back the tears a bit. Call me silly, I don't really care. I've always loved and listened to Elvis and being at Graceland has always been a dream of mine.

I could continue to write about the cars, the movie stuff, the jumpsuits, etc. To be honest, in writing this post, I'm back in Memphis right now. Which saddens me. Because I actually want to be back there. I'll write one more post, possibly this weekend, to summarize and close out my blues trip experience. I appreciate you reading this.

Trip Day 4

Locations: Lorraine Motel - Memphis, Tennessee; STAX Museum of American Soul Music - Memphis, Tennessee; Four-Way Restaurant - Memphis, Tennessee; Sun Studios – Memphis, Tennessee; The Peabody Hotel - Memphis, Tennessee; Beale Street – Memphis, Tennessee

Day 4 was our first full day in Memphis. My teacher kept commenting on how alive I had become ever since we’d arrived in the city. I explained to him my family’s history in the area and of course I’d already told him about my Graceland/Elvis thing. I didn’t know what an emotional morning I was in store for.

Our first stop was the National Civil Rights Museum, housed in the former Lorraine Motel. I’m sure just about any of the 3 people that read this blog know about the hotel and what happened there in 1968. Upon first arriving, it looked very much the same as it did over 40 years ago, with the exception of the entrance to the museum.

Original sign still stands

The two cars out front aren’t the cars that were actually there that day, just authentic from that time period. It’s very quiet around that part of Memphis, so when you walk up to the doors, you can almost imagine the sounds from that day. Before walking in the doors, you can obviously see the balcony where Dr. King was shot.

The spot where Dr. King was standing when he was shot

After standing and just looking a while, of course I thought about where the shot came from. When I looked across the street, the boarding house loomed in the near distance.

The smaller window on the top right was where the shooter was

Going into the museum, we started with a film called “The Witness” which told the story of the days leading up to and the day of the assassination. The film revolved around Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles’ account of those events, he was one of the men accompanying Dr. King on his trip to Memphis. I think it was on HBO, not really sure. It’s worth watching, really set the tone for the whole morning.

The museum itself is....I can't really find a word for it. It's something that everyone should see for themselves because it really does open one's eyes to the people that died for civil rights in this country. That's about all I'm going to say about it, more pics are on my Facebook page if you want to see them. Don't want to be short, but it was a chilling place and just thinking about it brings back all those feelings I felt the day I was there.

On a lighter topic, our next stop was STAX Museum of American Soul Music. It's the only soul music museum in the world. Had some really interesting exhibits in it, and I was really surprised about some of the artists that recorded at this studio. What also makes it unique is that it's in a former movie theater, so the floors are sloped, which gave all of the music recorded there a unique sound.

Sign out front

Isaac Hayes' Cadillac

After STAX, we went and ate at the Four-Way Restaurant which was recommended to us by a guy there at the museum. It's definitely one of those places that you wouldn't know about unless you asked around, which honestly in my experience has turned out to be some of the best food I've ever had. This place did NOT disappoint. I had turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, lima beans, and corn bread. I can't even begin to describe how incredibly good it all was. The place has been there for 65 years and I can definitely see how!


After lunch, our first Elvis-connected stop was next: Sun Studio. This place is probably third on my bucket list behind Graceland and the birthplace in Tupelo. Our tour guide was....quirky to say the least. The place is not that big, first we started upstairs where the little museum is with all the old artifacts. Some pretty cool stuff in there...

Elvis' high school diploma

Original sign used before it was named Sun Studio

Where Elvis would have stood when recording

While upstairs was cool and all, the actual studio itself was what I was there for. When we walked down the stairs and crossed through the front office and into the studio, I have to admit I was completely overwhelmed. Mind you, its a very small and musty studio, but to be in the place where Elvis recorded his first records was, for me, quite an experience. It kind of felt surreal to be honest. I wish I could remember more of what was going through my head at the time I was there, but I don't think I was 100% conscious when I was there. Any other Elvis fan would understand. The two videos below are just footage of the studio, I didn't think that a picture could capture the whole feeling.

 

After Sun, (and more money spent in a gift shop lol) we headed into downtown Memphis to the Peabody Hotel to see the Peabody Ducks. I'd always heard about them and couldn't wait to see them! They were absolutely adorable!! We didn't get to see the famous march, but I plan on doing that when I go back with my friends in December. The hotel, by the way, is absolutely breathtaking. At least the lobby is.

After the Peabody, we returned to the hotel to clean up and rest before Beale Street that night. We ate at BB King's Restaurant & Blues Club for supper.Another fantastic meal, with a great atmosphere. Another surreal moment for me, eating at a blues club upstairs overlooking the dance floor listening to a great blues band. For the rest of the night, we walked up and down Beale and I finished my list of souvenirs to get for my friends and family. While I had a fantastic time that night, my mind was already at the next day. The next day would be Graceland, the number one item on my bucket list. Needless to say, I would not get a whole lot of sleep that night :)

Trip: Day 3

Locations: Winona, MS; Cleveland, MS; Sumner, MS; Clarksdale, MS; Olive Branch, MS; Memphis, TN

Day 3 was our last day in Winona. We checked out of the hotel around 9 that morning and made our way to Dockery Farms in Cleveland, Mississippi. Dockery Farms is said by most to be the birthplace of the blues. Many of the blues musicians I have mentioned in my previous posts worked and lived at Dockery for various periods of time. At its most, Dockery was at one time 10,000 acres large and supported 2,000 workers. Some of the old buildings are still located on the property.

Just so everyone knows exactly what the place is

Another Blues Trail marker

There was actually a button you could press behind this sign that would play blues music over the speakers hidden amongst the old buildings, but they didn't work, so that was a bummer. There were some workers taking apart an old house on the property, the other girls got some stuff from the place, but I honestly didn't have anywhere to put anything, so I passed on that. Next we headed towards Sumner, Mississippi, but made a quick unscheduled stop in Ruleville and visited the grave of Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist who helped organize the Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964. Her famous quote is "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired"

Freedom Trail marker at Hamer's grave in Ruleville

A short while later, we arrived in Sumner, Mississippi, the site of the Emmett Till murder "trial." I use the word trial loosely because there was absolutely no way two white men were going to be convicted of killing a black kid in Mississippi in 1955. Many outrageous claims were made, most notable of which being that the body pulled from the river was not even Till itself. DNA testing in 2004 proved this theory to be false. There isn't much to Sumner, mostly the courthouse and surrounding buildings. I always find myself wondering if it seemed that desolate so many years ago as it does now. We were disappointed that the courthouse was closed for lunch (they still do that kind of thing?) so we couldn't go inside to the actual courtroom. Maybe next visit...

Tallahatchie County Courthouse

Historical marker

We then headed towards Clarksdale, Mississippi for lunch and a tour of the Delta Blues Museum.We passed through "The Crossroads" which is rather famous, and depicted in the song "Crossroad Blues" by Robert Johnson. While there are many "crossroads" in Mississippi, this one at the intersection of Highway 49 and Highway 61 is the most well known.

Crossroads sign in Clarksdale

 

We ate lunch at the Ground Zero Blues Club which is co-owned by Mississippi native Morgan Freeman. I absolutely loved the ambiance of this place. Just about every surface of the club had been signed by people that had visited, eaten at, and danced to blues music. I didn't go too crazy since it was just lunch and I knew we'd be hitting up Beale Street later that night. I had fried grits (yeah they were WOO), fried green beans, and a grilled chicken salad. Of course, I had to leave my mark on the table (and on one of the windows)

Bet this looks cool at night

Yeah, I know

After lunch, we toured the Delta Blues Museum right across the street from the blues club in an old railroad depot. No pictures, unfortunately, they were not allowed inside the museum. The museum had lots of cool items, the best being the old log cabin that Muddy Waters lived in while working on Stovall Plantation.

Exterior of Delta Blues Museum

By this time, I was very anxious to hit the road towards Memphis. We had a ways to go before we got to our next hotel, which is in an suburb of Memphis called Olive Branch. We passed by Tunica, Mississippi which is a lot like Las Vegas in the fact that you drive for miles and miles of absolutely nothing then out of nowhere Tunica pops up, which is mostly casinos as far as I know. We finally made it to our hotel, had a little bit of down time, then it was time to head north to the city I'd always wanted to visit.

So why was I so excited to go to Memphis? I'll leave the Graceland stuff out for the time being, mainly because my true reason for going to Memphis runs much deeper. My paternal grandfather, who I never met, was from Memphis, or as far as we know, lived there for much of his life. He lived in a suburb really, called Germantown. I never really knew much about that part of my family, but as far as my father and I know, that part of the family lived in that area of Tennessee for many years. I have to admit that I came alive inside when we got there. I'm not imagining things because Dr. Wynne and Dr. Elfenbein both commented that my whole aura changed when we got to Memphis.

All cheese aside, we headed out to Beale Street that night. I absolutely LOVED it!! Wednesday night during the summer is Bikes on Beale Night, so there were HUNDREDS of bikes out there, definitely added to the atmosphere! We ate at Blues City Cafe who's saying is "Put some South in your mouth!" It was absolutely delicious! They serve steaks family style, so we got a HUGE 2 lb t-bone steak, which came with a salad, fries and bread and split it amongst all of us. Dessert was REALLY good, I ordered an apple dumpling with ice cream and we all split that too because it was WAY too much for just one person!

Absolute epic nommage

Afterwards, we walked up and down Beale Street visiting all the cool shops. We split up a little later, and Kathleen and I headed into The Band Box to listen to a blues band, and what an experience that was! The band was fantastic, and a guy from the audience joined in and KILLED it on his harmonica. Overall, on a scale of 1 to 10 rating my first Beale Street/Memphis experience, I give it about a 27 maybe? By the time we got back to the hotel, I was absolutely exhausted and went right to bed because I knew Day 4 would be a tiring one as well because we had lots of ground to cover.

Trip: Day 2 (Full version)

Locations: Winona, MS; Carrollton, MS; Greenwood, MS; Money, MS

Today was our first sightseeing day and what a day it was!! Started off with breakfast in the hotel, it was perfectly fine for something that was free. We then hit the road for our first stop in Carrollton, MS. Our teacher's mother just happened to be on a trip herself and was there this morning, so we stopped by so he could see her. The town of Carrollton is VERY small and is another one of those towns that's stuck in the 1800s. Didn't really get a lot of pics, at least nothing real special, but I'll make a photobucket album or something that's linked from here so you the reader can see everything.

After leaving Carrollton, we got back on US 82, which I have to say is probably the longest road I've ever been on in my LIFE. And there is N-O-T-H-I-N-G on it except cotton, cotton, some more cotton, and some corn. It's something to see....

Cotton cotton everywhere!

Yep. All of it. Cotton. Not much has changed in the past 150 years. Except maybe that the roads are paved now and they use more machines than they do men to cultivate this land?

We continued back into Greenwood, but we went to a completely different side of Greenwood, I think we were actually in North Greenwood. And yes, there is a definite difference. Historic Downtown Greenwood was absolutely charming. We really just drove through at first, because we had two destinations outside of Greenwood. The first being Robert Johnson's grave.

Blues Trail Marker at Little Zion Church where Johnson is buried

Now, who is Robert Johnson and why did we drive almost halfway across the country to see his grave site? Well the man is really more myth and legend than he is truth. He's one of the pioneers of Delta Blues music, mixing the traditional with the outside and influencing others beyond his generation. Now here comes the myth/legend part. When he first started out, he apparently wasn't very good at playing the blues, so legend says he met the Devil at the crossroads in the Delta at midnight one night, and the Devil tuned his guitar, played a few songs for him, and returned the guitar with the assurance that he only had eight more years to live. Of course, this is complete hogwash, but Johnson did leave this area for a year and came back a completely different musician. Johnson would not live to see his music go very far, dying at the age of 27 after drinking what many think to be a poisoned bottle of whiskey from a jealous husband of a woman he had gotten a little too friendly with. I posted a video of my favorite Johnson tune back at the beginning of the blog, so go back and listen! His grave site is located in the church yard of this tiny church in the middle of nowhere and people come from all over the world to pay their respects, and to leave various tokens...

Our class left guitar picks

Our next stop was just down the road a bit, in a blip on the map named Money, Mississippi. There really isn't physically a lot to this town, but it's emotional meaning outweighs all. Money, Mississippi is the site of the Emmett Till murder in 1955. Till was a 14 year old black kid visiting family from Chicago where he had been born and raised. One day, he and his friends went into Bryant's Grocery Store, where Carolyn Bryant, wife of owner Roy Bryant was working. Till either wolf-whistled or called her "baby" and left the store. When Mr. Bryant heard of this later on, he and his brother-in-law J.W. Milam took Till from his uncle's house, beat him, shot him, then threw his body in the Tallahatchie River. Three days later, the body was found, in almost unrecognizable shape. Till's mother even left his casket open at the funeral so everyone could see what had happened to her son. Not surprisingly, the two men were acquitted, but later sold their story to a magazine, making a full confession. Till's murder was one of the catalysts for the civil rights movement in the south, where drastic changes would be made. Not much is left of the store, and the only reminder of the tragedy is a marker on a desolate road in the Mississippi Delta.

What's left of Bryant's Grocery

Marker in front of the store

This takes us up to lunch time.We headed back into Greenwood for lunch at Delta Bistro. I had the smoked chicken panini sandwich with potato salad. Can I just say right here that this place is AWESOME!! I love the decor inside, very funky, but in a classy sort of way. Oh, and the potato salad had bacon in it so YEAH that was pretty much awesome.

On a side note: they grow their herbs and greens in the alley down the side of the building, I thought this was VERY cool!

 After lunch we did some shopping around town. This is when I discovered that Viking is based out of Greenwood, primarily because the founder of Viking is from Greenwood. It's amazing that such an incredible product is based out of such a small town in the South. I've spoken with the rep for the Consumer Foods major at UGA previously, and she's mentioned that companies like this have people who test their equipment....definitely keeping that in mind....

We loaded back in the van and headed to Indianola, MS next. Our first stop was at the BB King Museum. I thought the place was great! It's housed in an old cotton gin that he used to work in when he was young. I don't have a whole lot of pictures, mainly because we couldn't take any inside the museum, but it was a really great place! Wont go into history, I'm sure most know about him, but if not, google is your friend!

I thought the museum was very well put together, and of course I don't have pictures from inside because they didn't allow them. Any blues fan should definitely make the trip!

Once we were finished there, we loaded back in the van and headed out to Charley Patton's grave. I have to admit, I'm astonished that these guys that were so important to blues music, and really to the development of American music as a whole are buried out in the middle of nowhere.

The field where Charley Patton is buried

It's amazing to me that the normal passerby (and trust me, there aren't many people that pass by these places to begin with) would know nothing about who is buried in this field. I'd call it a cemetery, but the idea of a cemetery brings to mind a little more dignity than a cotton field, don't you think? I know these guys were poor and couldn't afford anything, but it just seems strange to me.

No one would know if not for these signs

This was the end of our sightseeing for the day, so we went back to the hotel for a while to rest (Dr. Wynne had done a HUGE amount of driving by this time so he needed all the rest he could have gotten) and then back to Greenwood for supper. We ate at the Crystal Grill in Greenwood, a place that had been featured on The Best Thing I Ever Ate for its lemon ice box pie. I had my first tamale there, apparently the Delta is a big place for tamales. If this seems like a strange thing to you, it was to me too, but here is where you can read about its history in the Delta. It was fantastic!! I also had grilled shrimp, rice, lima beans, and creamed potatoes. It was all very delicious!! Our waitress was another story lol. Her name is Rivers Coleman, and she has been working at the Crystal Grill for 50 years. She was saucy, lets just put it that way.

Needless to say, after we all ate ourselves in to a food coma, we made our way back to the hotel. It was pretty late by this time, and I have to say one thing. The Delta is DARK at night. Where we were was about 3 hours from Jackson one way, and Memphis the other, so there was NO ambient light from either one. The Delta is a looooong way from suburbia that most of us are used to, no cookie cutter houses, no neighborhoods. On this night, there was little to no moon, so it was VERY dark out there. Kinda creepy, if you think about it. Who in their right mind would want to meet the Devil on a lonely Delta crossroad that late at night in that kind of darkness and quiet? All I gotta say is thank God someone did...