A neon silhouette of “The Million Dollar Quartet”
Sun Studio, Memphis, Tennessee
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If you are not an Elvis fan, you may want to skip this post. Either way, I invite you to take a trip back in time to 1953. Eisenhower was in office, television was still new, and a young singer from Tupelo, Mississippi was about to become the most famous person on Earth.
In Memphis, Tennessee, on the corner of Union and Marshall Avenue, sat a small record label named Sun Studio. Sam Phillips, it’s owner, had already recorded a number of artists that would go on to become very successful. However, he was struggling to make ends meet when an 18-year-old named Elvis Presley walked into his studio to cut his first record. Initially not impressed, it would be another year before Mr. Phillips invited Elvis back for a recording session that would ignite the career of the most beloved musical icon in American music. The rest, as they say, is history.
Elvis’ musical influence can still be heard today. He is Rock and Roll’s first rebel, yet he remained decent enough to be adored by the old as well as the young. Elvis embodied the American Dream…an authentic original who has been endlessly imitated but never replaced. His untimely death on August 16th, 1977 was mourned around the world and almost 40 years later, his fans continue to converge on the place he called home: Graceland.
The property has been completely preserved from the time shortly after Elvis’ passing and it’s still impressive in all of its gaudy glory. There are numerous exhibits that take you through every stage of Elvis’ career and more gift shops that you can shake a hip at. I could write for hours about what we experienced but I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.
We were short on time after seeing all that Graceland has to offer but I couldn’t leave Memphis without visiting the iconic Sun Studio. After walking all day, we were happy to sit for the short ride downtown on the free shuttle service Sun provides. The place was really hoppin’ and we had to wait an hour and a half for the tour, but it was totally worth it to sit in the same room where Elvis, Johnny Cash, Howlin’ Wolf, BB King and other musical icons cut their teeth.
After the tour, the shuttle brought us back to the Heartbreak Hotel. We added our names to the sidewalk graffiti outside of Graceland and got lucky when another tourist asked a Graceland employee if they would close the famous front gates for a few pictures.
We just settled in at another Walmart parking lot outside of Nashville. Tomorrow, we will continue our musical journey with some good ole honky-tonk fun on Music Row…stay tuned!
Hot Springs National Park is the first piece of land set aside by the federal government to be preserved for recreation. The park is located right in the middle of downtown Hot Springs, which is a huge tourist town and the childhood home of President Bill Clinton. Visitors come from all over to tour the old bathhouses and fill up their water jugs full of 143-degree spring water, and we were no exception. We visited several of the bathhouse buildings and filled two one gallon jugs at one of the public fountains. We also had a drink in the famous Ohio Club, an old gangster hangout and popular watering hole.
Memphis, Tennessee was our next stop and a mandatory one. We are both big music fans and are looking forward to exploring the musical history of Memphis. Also, I have to see Graceland so we chose the Graceland RV Park for our accommodations.
As we approached the RV park off of Elvis Presley Boulevard, I almost died when I saw the Heartbreak Hotel, sitting at the end of Lonely Street! The park was in the back of the hotel but almost directly across the street from Graceland. While checking in, we found out that the RV park offered a shuttle service to Beale Street and it was only $6 round trip! This was going to save us a bunch of money on taxis.
After hooking up Lady T, we had a bite to eat and walked to the Heartbreak Hotel. Tickets for the shuttle can be purchased at the front desk and pick up point is just outside. Unfortunately, the 7 PM shuttle was sold out so we had to wait an hour. We checked out the first floor of the hotel and visited the gift shop while we waited.
The ride to Beale was about 20 minutes and as we got closer, the neon glow was unmistakable. Arguably the most famous street in the world, Beale Street is where some of the most important American music was cultivated. Blues, Soul, Rock and Roll: it all lives here. Beale street definitely had a different vibe than Bourbon, maybe slightly too commercial. There is also a huge police presence, which I’m sure puts a cap on how festive visitors can be.
However, there are still a few authentic juke joints blasting out great local music. We must have walked up and down 10 times, stopping every so often to listen to the blended sounds emanating from the bars. There are also several gift shops and restaurants, including BB King’s Blues Café. Some places on Beale charge a cover to enter and some don’t so be sure to bring a little extra money.
We spent a good three hours downtown before the shuttle arrived at 11:30 PM to bring us back to Lonely Street. Tomorrow, we will be up early to do some laundry and visit the King’s castle!
We started the day by visiting Texarkana, Arkansas this morning. Or was it Texas? It’s actually both! We have to admit that we came here for pure novelty but it’s a nice little town, We took some pictures at the Visitor Center/Post Office and then hit the road.
Jay had been reading recently about Crater of Diamonds State Park and wanted to check it out. In August, a women found a 4 carat diamond on the surface of the crater. That would certainly allow us to travel a bit longer but we weren’t expecting any miracles!
By the way, have I mentioned that Arkansas is hot? When we arrived at the park, it was about 96 degrees outside and climbing. We were about to pay to walk into a crater, exposed to the blazing sun to dig in the dirt on out hands and knees for shiny rocks. No one has ever accused us of being wimps. Or brain surgeons 😉
At the park, you can purchase a souvenir bag that includes a small shovel and a magnifying glass or you can rent your gear. We did both, each buying a souvenir set to take home with us and renting a larger shovel, screen and bucket for carrying our huge diamond!
To enter the crater, you descend a set of stairs from the visitor’s center, We brought two umbrellas to shield us from the sun but it was completely useless. Within a half hour, I was dehydrated and felt a bit sick. I trudged up to the bathroom to splash cold water on my face and take a break while Jay pressed on. Crazy, but we ended up staying in the crater for three hours! We didn’t find anything but a few small pieces of agate and a lot of dirt. Jay was a bit disappointed but I was happy to leave the punishing heat.
We hit the road around 3:30 PM, making our way to Gulpha Gorge Campground in Hot Springs National Park. The GPS indicated we would arrive after 5 PM so I called ahead to ask about our options. The person I spoke with stated there was an after hours check-in. When we arrived, we were directed to a vending machine in a small information center. You select your site on a keypad, enter your moolah, and out comes your receipt, which you then attach to a wooden post at the campsite. We had never seen anything like that before and it was pretty cool!
Tomorrow, we will explore more of the park and maybe find some hot springs water to take home with us.
Check back for more J&J fun!
After leaving NOLA yesterday, I still had my passport in hand searching for more national parks on our route when I discovered the Natchez Trace Parkway. The Natchez Trace Parkway extends 444 miles through three states, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee, and is one of the most scenic drives in the country. We are all about scenic drives so we decided to skip Baton Rouge, which was our next planned stop, and explore the parkway instead.
We didn’t know it, but the NTP was about a half mile from the Walmart that we stayed at last night. We began the day by visiting the Natchez National Historical Park, also pretty close, then backtracked and jumped on the parkway. After just a few minutes of driving, we were happy we changed our plans!
The two-lane parkway is maintained by the National Parks Service and offers spectacular views with several historical sites along the way. We drove most of the Natchez to Jackson leg, stopping at Mount Locust, Sunken Trace and Rocky Springs. The parkway is motorhome friendly with a few exceptions and the speed limit is 55, so you can actually enjoy the scenery.
Vicksburg National Historical Park was our next and final stop for the day. We arrived at the park later in the afternoon so we didn’t drive the 16 miles around the battlefield but we did explore several other monuments. We then drove about four hours to Texarkana, Arkansas to crash at yet another Walmart. At this point, we should be calling this trip the Walmart Tour 2015 🙂
Stay tuned tomorrow to see if we can continue our road trip permanently after finding a few diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park!
