Memphis

Six am Friday morning we board the bus after saying goodbye to our Colorado hosts. Thanks to Adam and Bai Perney for a wonderful place to crash and a fantastic dinner. Great breakfast burritos for the road really saved the day once we hit the eternal grasslands of Kansas. We drove 18 hours and found ourselves pushing Amber around a Walmart parking lot in a grocery cart before calling it a day. I was startled from sleep at 4 am after several hours sleep when Sarah fired the bus up to continue our ride to Memphis and Graceland.

We did the Elvis tour and Will graced the dash of the bus with a bobble head Elvis. On we rolled to stay with our friends Micah and Dawn Rapoport. The girls decided to stay in and get ribs from Central while Micah took Will and I on a blitz tour of Memphis. Our tour began at The Cozy Corner BBQ joint. While we waited for the best BBQ ever we met the owner and had our picture taken with her. Micah bought us shirts and our food was ready. Into the car and across town we went. Our destination was Gus’s for the best fried chicken in the world. While the chicken was being readied we headed to a waterfront park to watch a beautiful sunset accented by a huge thunderstorm. With the BBQ finished we headed to Gus’s to pick up our chicken. Had a beer and headed back to the park to finish off the chicken. Next on the agenda was the Peabody Hotel. What a treat.

In the lobby is a water fountain surrounded by couches with a bar on one end and a piano player on the other. Every morning the elevator opens and a red carpet is rolled out so that the famous Peabody Ducks can march into the fountain until the evening when they reverse the procedure and head to their penthouse on the roof. We missed the ducks leaving as we arrived rather late so Micah took us to the roof to see them. While on the roof we also took in the amazing views of the city. A quick duck into another restaurant to look at the famous pictures on the walls and we were off to Beale Street to catch some blues. We stopped in at B.B. Kings for a really good cover band and a cold one.

Afterward back to the car and a short trip to see the hotel where Dr. Martin Luther King was shot. I had seen pictures of the place my whole life but standing there where such a horrible event took place really stops you cold. Time to head to the house and some much needed rest. A big thank you to Micah and Dawn for such a great time. We love this town!