Memphis
I spent the day in Memphis and took over 1,300 photos! First stop was historic Beale Street, it was early in the morning so there wasn't much going on. They were washing off the streets and side walks from the night before and from my impression it is comparible to Bourbon Street in New Orleans. More for those who like to party and pub crawl. I was there early when they were still washing off the streets from the party the night before, a few of the shops were just opening and the bars and restaurants hadn't opened yet.
I can't say I really had a good time on Beale Street or stuck around as long as I wanted to. Homeless people kept coming up to me begging me for money or trying to sell me things, at least those who were awake and not sleeping on the street or benches. And they were very hard to get away from, in fact one tried to chase me down. He had a metal cane and would every time he would take a step it would make a loud tapping sound. He started following me down the street and finally caught up with me (I kept stopping to take pictures). I only had about $8.00 on me and had to pay $6 of that towards parking. He kept wanting me to give him $5.00 and I told him I didn't have any cash so he kept trying to get me to go across the street and get change and I finally told him I am going down this side of the street and I'll stop by on my way up and get change just so I could get away from him. Then he wanted to shake my hand and I'm thinking seriously I don't want to touch your nasty hand that hasn't been washed in god knows how long, so it was more like a shake with one finger.
Well I come back on my way up and this guy is sitting out in front of his bar and I'm taking a couple snap shots and he starts telling me all about this sign. I can't get away from him! He starts asking me where I'm from, talking about Springfield and this and that. And I just can't get away from this conversation and I hear the clank, clank, clank of this homeless guys metal cane crossing the street. I'm just kind of gradually drifting off from the guy talking to me farther down the street with each sentence trying to break away. Finally I manage and I'm on the go and I can hear the clank, clank, clank of the guy following after me. Then, OH CRAP! I'm stuck at a crosswalk waiting on the signal it's ok to cross. Clank, Clank, Clank behind me and then he starts saying "SIR! SIR! SIR! SIR!" I don't turn around, that light changes to walk and I'm outta there! Thank god the lights in Memphis are fast! They change to don't walk before you can even make it through the intersection!
I don't have sympathy, I work hard for my money and I'm not going to support some junkies habit. I really would have liked to have eaten in B.B. King's Club or maybe the Hard Rock Cafe.
After leaving Beale Street I headed to the abandoned pyramid stadium. I heard Bass Pro bought it and is going to put a store there and some other things are going in too, kind of like a little mall.
From the Pyramid I headed to Graceland. I like Elvis, but I'm not one of those HUGE Elvis fans. I thought Graceland was pretty awesome, expensive, but awesome. They charge $10 for parking and then the tour was almost $40. They have a cheaper tour if you only want to see the mansion, it's only about $8 cheaper and you get to see a lot more places if you pay the extra $8 so it's worth paying a little more. If you have never been to Graceland, can't go to Graceland and want to, or you've been thinking about it and haven't made up your mind if it's worth the trip..... I photographed the heck out of that place!
At Graceland I had my first ever Fried Peanut Butter and Bannana Sandwhich! It was my tribute to the King and it was really good! I got to go on Elvis's planes and see his collection of cars. Well enough of that, you'll see all the picures!
After Graceland I went to The Memphis Zoo which I have to say was well worth the trip. It was amazing! The entrance is Egyptian themed, naturally since it is in Memphis. It was huge and photo friendly! I hate going to zoos and the only way you can take a picture is through scratched up glass 90 million kids have slobbered on and wipped their greasy little hands all over or you have to take a picture through fence. A few of the animals had enclosures like this, but a lot of them had clear lines of sight to photograph from and they even had some decent back drops. Especially the Tiger enclosure which was AMAZING! You'll just have to wait and see the photos of that though.
I had to rush through the zoo in about 2.5 hours, diffenetly not enough time. If you go and want to really enjoy it, plan for a whole day. After Beale Street I thought I would never venture back to Memphis again as I wasn't impressed. Graceland was great, but it's more of those one time things, I may go back just for the zoo though.
Like everywhere else in Memphis, the Zoo charges $5.00 for parking. Pretty much anywhere you go in Memphis, expect to pay for parking. Every last dollar I had, went to paying for parking.
I almost stayed another night in Memphis as there were a couple more places I wanted to go like The Sun Studio and some of the music museums. They had a free shuttle leaving from Graceland that leaves early in the morning and takes you to all those places for free. There was a Super 8 right by Graceland so I called to make reservations. The phone just rang and rang! Thinking they were probably busy with a customer at the desk I waited patiantly after about the 10th ring an automated guy picked up and so I waited longer. So finally after about 6 minutes I got to a live person. I asked if their "high speed internet" was wireless in the rooms. Because some motels advertise "high speed internet, but then they just have a shared computer in the lobby for people to use. Wireless in my room is a big one for me obviously. Well the lady couldn't tell me if it was wireless, so she said she was going to give me a $30 credit towards my next stay with them. I thought ok cool, one of those guarentee deals like "if you can find it at a lower price we'll meet it and give you X percent off too" only more like "if we can't help you". Well she transfers me to another lady and I figured it was just like customer service. Well it was one of those scam deals, sign up with no obligation and we'll give you $40 towards your next stay. (yeah it went up $10). Well I kept telling the lady I'm not interested, but she would not take no for an answer!!!! "But you can cancel at any time", "there is no obligation", "it's only $1 for the first month". They were running scams like this in Branson a couple years ago, by using the coupon you are excepting their services and now by the fine print you are contractually obligated blah blah blah. But there was no being nice to this lady, "I'm sorry, I'm not interested", "No thank you, I'm not signing up for anything" that would work. I just had to hang up on her.
So I left Memphis and I'm back in Arkansas now. I stopped at a state park only to get there 2 hours after it closed. I took a picture of the visitor center and the sign, so I'm counting it as one of the places I've been! Plus I drove about 25 miles out of my way to get there which sucked!
Gas is way cheaper here though, $3.38 is the cheapest I've seen so far, most places are in the low $3.40s range. Much better than the $3.59 it is in Lebanon right now.
I stopped and got a motel for the night, it's a pretty nice room and I'm so tired I can't really enjoy it which sucks. I went to Wal-mart to get something to drink and some microwave pizzas to eat back at the room and so I could get some cash back. I haven't seen a Commerce Bank around, I'm not even sure if there are any down here. I'm to cheap to use a different brand of ATM and pay $5 in penalty fees just to get a couple $20s out. It's bad enough I broke down twice and bought a couple expensive sodas. Usually I'll die of dehydration before I'll pay $2-3 for something to drink. I guess two moments of bad economics won't kill me though.
Between Wal-mart and the motel I stopped at a Popeye's. I've been wanting Popeye's for a year now, they tormented me with their commercials of chicken deliciousness and there aren't any Popeye's even remotely close to where I live. So the Popeye's craving has been satisfied! Delicious spicy chicken tenders, cajun fries, a biscuit and an orange soda. I'm full :) Which is a good feeling, other than that Peanut Butter and Bannana sandwhich at Graceland that was all I had to eat today.
I'm going to get some sleep, I've got National Lampoon's Vacation playing on the tv here in the motel room. Blisters on my feet and I'm exhausted. Plus I'm still not feeling the best, the nose has stopped running but now I have a very annoying cough.
I can't say I really had a good time on Beale Street or stuck around as long as I wanted to. Homeless people kept coming up to me begging me for money or trying to sell me things, at least those who were awake and not sleeping on the street or benches. And they were very hard to get away from, in fact one tried to chase me down. He had a metal cane and would every time he would take a step it would make a loud tapping sound. He started following me down the street and finally caught up with me (I kept stopping to take pictures). I only had about $8.00 on me and had to pay $6 of that towards parking. He kept wanting me to give him $5.00 and I told him I didn't have any cash so he kept trying to get me to go across the street and get change and I finally told him I am going down this side of the street and I'll stop by on my way up and get change just so I could get away from him. Then he wanted to shake my hand and I'm thinking seriously I don't want to touch your nasty hand that hasn't been washed in god knows how long, so it was more like a shake with one finger.
Well I come back on my way up and this guy is sitting out in front of his bar and I'm taking a couple snap shots and he starts telling me all about this sign. I can't get away from him! He starts asking me where I'm from, talking about Springfield and this and that. And I just can't get away from this conversation and I hear the clank, clank, clank of this homeless guys metal cane crossing the street. I'm just kind of gradually drifting off from the guy talking to me farther down the street with each sentence trying to break away. Finally I manage and I'm on the go and I can hear the clank, clank, clank of the guy following after me. Then, OH CRAP! I'm stuck at a crosswalk waiting on the signal it's ok to cross. Clank, Clank, Clank behind me and then he starts saying "SIR! SIR! SIR! SIR!" I don't turn around, that light changes to walk and I'm outta there! Thank god the lights in Memphis are fast! They change to don't walk before you can even make it through the intersection!
I don't have sympathy, I work hard for my money and I'm not going to support some junkies habit. I really would have liked to have eaten in B.B. King's Club or maybe the Hard Rock Cafe.
After leaving Beale Street I headed to the abandoned pyramid stadium. I heard Bass Pro bought it and is going to put a store there and some other things are going in too, kind of like a little mall.
From the Pyramid I headed to Graceland. I like Elvis, but I'm not one of those HUGE Elvis fans. I thought Graceland was pretty awesome, expensive, but awesome. They charge $10 for parking and then the tour was almost $40. They have a cheaper tour if you only want to see the mansion, it's only about $8 cheaper and you get to see a lot more places if you pay the extra $8 so it's worth paying a little more. If you have never been to Graceland, can't go to Graceland and want to, or you've been thinking about it and haven't made up your mind if it's worth the trip..... I photographed the heck out of that place!
At Graceland I had my first ever Fried Peanut Butter and Bannana Sandwhich! It was my tribute to the King and it was really good! I got to go on Elvis's planes and see his collection of cars. Well enough of that, you'll see all the picures!
After Graceland I went to The Memphis Zoo which I have to say was well worth the trip. It was amazing! The entrance is Egyptian themed, naturally since it is in Memphis. It was huge and photo friendly! I hate going to zoos and the only way you can take a picture is through scratched up glass 90 million kids have slobbered on and wipped their greasy little hands all over or you have to take a picture through fence. A few of the animals had enclosures like this, but a lot of them had clear lines of sight to photograph from and they even had some decent back drops. Especially the Tiger enclosure which was AMAZING! You'll just have to wait and see the photos of that though.
I had to rush through the zoo in about 2.5 hours, diffenetly not enough time. If you go and want to really enjoy it, plan for a whole day. After Beale Street I thought I would never venture back to Memphis again as I wasn't impressed. Graceland was great, but it's more of those one time things, I may go back just for the zoo though.
Like everywhere else in Memphis, the Zoo charges $5.00 for parking. Pretty much anywhere you go in Memphis, expect to pay for parking. Every last dollar I had, went to paying for parking.
I almost stayed another night in Memphis as there were a couple more places I wanted to go like The Sun Studio and some of the music museums. They had a free shuttle leaving from Graceland that leaves early in the morning and takes you to all those places for free. There was a Super 8 right by Graceland so I called to make reservations. The phone just rang and rang! Thinking they were probably busy with a customer at the desk I waited patiantly after about the 10th ring an automated guy picked up and so I waited longer. So finally after about 6 minutes I got to a live person. I asked if their "high speed internet" was wireless in the rooms. Because some motels advertise "high speed internet, but then they just have a shared computer in the lobby for people to use. Wireless in my room is a big one for me obviously. Well the lady couldn't tell me if it was wireless, so she said she was going to give me a $30 credit towards my next stay with them. I thought ok cool, one of those guarentee deals like "if you can find it at a lower price we'll meet it and give you X percent off too" only more like "if we can't help you". Well she transfers me to another lady and I figured it was just like customer service. Well it was one of those scam deals, sign up with no obligation and we'll give you $40 towards your next stay. (yeah it went up $10). Well I kept telling the lady I'm not interested, but she would not take no for an answer!!!! "But you can cancel at any time", "there is no obligation", "it's only $1 for the first month". They were running scams like this in Branson a couple years ago, by using the coupon you are excepting their services and now by the fine print you are contractually obligated blah blah blah. But there was no being nice to this lady, "I'm sorry, I'm not interested", "No thank you, I'm not signing up for anything" that would work. I just had to hang up on her.
So I left Memphis and I'm back in Arkansas now. I stopped at a state park only to get there 2 hours after it closed. I took a picture of the visitor center and the sign, so I'm counting it as one of the places I've been! Plus I drove about 25 miles out of my way to get there which sucked!
Gas is way cheaper here though, $3.38 is the cheapest I've seen so far, most places are in the low $3.40s range. Much better than the $3.59 it is in Lebanon right now.
I stopped and got a motel for the night, it's a pretty nice room and I'm so tired I can't really enjoy it which sucks. I went to Wal-mart to get something to drink and some microwave pizzas to eat back at the room and so I could get some cash back. I haven't seen a Commerce Bank around, I'm not even sure if there are any down here. I'm to cheap to use a different brand of ATM and pay $5 in penalty fees just to get a couple $20s out. It's bad enough I broke down twice and bought a couple expensive sodas. Usually I'll die of dehydration before I'll pay $2-3 for something to drink. I guess two moments of bad economics won't kill me though.
Between Wal-mart and the motel I stopped at a Popeye's. I've been wanting Popeye's for a year now, they tormented me with their commercials of chicken deliciousness and there aren't any Popeye's even remotely close to where I live. So the Popeye's craving has been satisfied! Delicious spicy chicken tenders, cajun fries, a biscuit and an orange soda. I'm full :) Which is a good feeling, other than that Peanut Butter and Bannana sandwhich at Graceland that was all I had to eat today.
I'm going to get some sleep, I've got National Lampoon's Vacation playing on the tv here in the motel room. Blisters on my feet and I'm exhausted. Plus I'm still not feeling the best, the nose has stopped running but now I have a very annoying cough.
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