After another day of uneventful driving we ended up in Memphis TN.  We found an information center and pulled in to check it out there was a huge statue of Elvis in the frontwich was kinda cool.  We though about going to check out Graceland but we got there too late and it was closed as was the Gibson Guitar factory.  What wasnt closed The HRC on Beal Street so we pulle dout of the info center and headed there.  I found a parking garage and we got out and looked around walking up and down and looking in all the shops.  I had to buy stuff not only for me but for mom and dad too because I know they would have like this place.  We ended up at BB Kings where we went in and caught a live blues show and got some drinks.  After spending a few hours on Beal Street we headed back for my truck and got back on the road.  We got another hotel for the night and crashed now we were both sick. 

The previous evening we go to the gigantic Union Station in Chicago and board a very crowded train.  The next stop seems to totally fill out carriage and I try to get comfortable to sleep.  I take decongestants and pain killers then doze and cough and sneeze!.  I have to get Andrew to pass over some cough lozenges to an old lady across the aisle who is trying to supress a cough like mine.

Into Memphis very early (6.10am) and wait until 7am to catch a taxi to our Super 8 Motel, talk the staff into letting us leave our bags with them as all rooms are full and we cant check in yet.  Walk to McDonalds for breakfast.  Meet a family off to the zoo who warn us when we see aircon units with chains and padlocks on them to leave the neighbourhood immediately!.  We walk a fair way then catch a taxi to the famous Beale Street where the soul and blues music was born.  Walk to many nearby sights and catch a trolley to do a circuit.  Once back at the Motel we book a day tour for the next day.

The tour was really good and we are shown many of the great hospitals that provide free health care thanks to some very philanthropic people like Danny Thomas.  Health care is now Tennesee's largest industry.  At 11 am we are taken into the Peabody Hotel lobby.  We wait with a small crowd in this magnificent hotel as a porter rolls out a red carpet from the elevator to the fountain in the lobby.  At precisely 11am the elevator doors open and a drake and 4 ducks run down the red carpet, climb two wooden steps and jump into the fountain!!   It is just an amazing and unexpected event that has been occuring daily since the 1950's.  The ducks live on the roof top and are allowed to spend 6 hours a day in the fountain, then they return to their penthouse apartment.  Off to Beale Street again where this time the tour includes lunch.  There are 5 of us and we sit together and swap stories over some Soul food.  This time I try the fried green tomatoes and turnip greens with my mashed potatoes and corn bread and sweet tea.  Andrew tries the meatloaf and mashed yams.

In the afternoon we are taken to Graceland.  This is a very well co-ordinated tour by the operators of Graceland.  We are given audio equipment, boarded onto one of their buses and taken over the road.  We are turned free to walk the house and gardens at our own pace.  It was not as tacky as I expected and we see the famous   Jungle Room, the lounge room, kitchen, garden, pool, billiards room and the stables area.  There is a beautiful place in the garden where Elvis, his mother and grandmother and father are buried.

We are bussed back across the road where we see several of his cars including the pink cadilac.  Two of his private aeroplanes are there one being the Lisa Marie.  There is another museum of Elvis memorabillia.  A great value tour.

Back at the motel we do mundane things like laundry in a real laundromat!  Fed up with hand washing!  There are many people on the streets with scams going to get money out of tourists like running out of petrol.  When a woman shouts out to us from the  middle of the road to get us to help push her car we are hesitant.  She is genuine and has run out opf petrol and the gas station is right there.  We push and I am very careful with my back but I do jig it up a bit.  She offers us money and we refuse!  Off for a burger and sleep