Up early next morning and a quick bright side breakfast at the hotel the back in the car to find parking in Downtown, it was so easy to find somewhere. We parked in the Peabody hotel parking lot but could have taken our pick of several lots will loads of spaces. Unlike Sydney where at 9am on any given day you would have no hope of a park in the city and if you happened to fluke one you would need a bank loan to pay for the pleasure. Our parking was $10 easy to use and access straight into the Peabody.

Do you know what the Peabody is famous for? More on that later.

We spent a couple of hours walking the downtown area and watching it come to life, no early starts here. After checking out the area we visited the cotton museum which was very fantastic. The guide told us that lots of Australian cotton growers visit Memphis for industry workshops and conferences.

She had a good understanding of the cotton industry in Australia and the information she provided us on the cotton exchange was very interesting.

As it was nearing 11am we headed back to the Peabody to watch the Peabody duck march. A large crowd had gathered in the hotel foyer and waited for the ducks. This was fun and the story behind the march is interesting the link above will give more in the story.

After the Peabody, we headed back to main to catch the trolley for a roundtrip ride around Downtown. It was good to sit down for a while after all the walking in the humidity. We enjoyed the ride and had worked up a good appetite by the time we alighted from the trolley.

Decided to go to the Flying Fish for lunch. We had shrimp cocktails and shared a dozen oysters. Oyster not like ours but delicious just the same.

We enjoyed an hour sitting in the cool before we headed back to the river via Beale St.

Beale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately 1.8 miles (2.9 km). It is a significant location in the city’s history, as well as in the history of the blues. Today, the blues clubs and restaurants that line Beale Street are major tourist attractions in Memphis.

We caught the trolley again back down to the river to board the Island Queen for a riverboat ride on the Mississippi.

Cruising up and down the Mississippi was made really special by the informative tour guide who kept everyone entertained for the entire two and a half hours with interesting facts and history.

Mississippi Facts:-

“To Thick to Drink and Too Thin to Plough”

The Mississippi River is the second longest river in the United States and the largest by volume. The longest is the Missouri River.  In Memphis, the river is both an attraction and a thoroughfare for commerce and transportation.
The Mississippi River acts as the western border of Memphis. In downtown, it runs adjacent to Riverside Drive.

Approximately 2,300 miles long
20 feet – 4 miles wide
3 – 200 feet deep
0 – 1,475 feet above sea level
Flows 1.2 – 3 miles per hour

Each day, a steady stream of barges can be seen traveling up and down the Mississippi. These cargo bearing vessels carry sixty percent of all grain exported from the United States. Other products being shipped via the river include petroleum and petroleum products, iron and steel, grain, rubber, paper and wood, coffee, coal, chemicals, and edible oils.

After disembarking from the Island Queen we head back to the car and home…No dinner needed we were tired.

Sun Studios Memphis

On the way home we passed Sun Studio where rock-and-roll, country music, and rockabilly artists, including Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Charlie Feathers, Ray Harris, Warren Smith, Charlie Rich, and Jerry Lee Lewis, recorded there throughout the mid to late 1950s until the studio outgrew its Union Avenue location.

 

Front Graceland

 

Back of house

Up and at ’em again next morning and even with the GPS deciding to freeze up we managed to locate Graceland. We paid the $35 a head to take the tour which was well done. Even for non-Elvis fans (like me), it was worth doing as the tour was well managed and gave what seemed like an accurate account of Elvis’ life at Graceland. Facts I didn’t know and now do Elvis had a twin that died as a baby and Graceland was a 13 acres farm about 9 miles (14.5 km) from Downtown and less than four miles (6 km) north of the Mississippi border.

Elvis’ Grave

 

One of Elvis’ many cars. Cut in two with the table added for the diner

 

 

Family Graves in Meditation Garden