Day 11 - Memphis

Up and out early for a packed day - and we will still only skim the surface of what Memphis has to offer. Grabbed a $3.50 (bargain) "all day" travel card for the trolley buses that serve downtown (except they are not trolley buses but just ordinary buses dressed up to look like trolley buses - rather bizarrely the rail lines and power lines are very much still in place. It appears that the "proper" trolleys are under repair).

1st stop, up the Madison loop, we visited the legendary "birthplace of rock 'n' roll", Sun Studio original home of producer Sam Philips and the "Million Dollar Four" - Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. Another almost religious experience up there with Preservation Hall in New Orleans. Walking in the footsteps of giants. Wow!

A brief stop at the Trolley Stop Market for milkshakes ("Americana" flavoured with blueberries, strawberries and ice-cream - yummy!), cookies, pizza and lemon pie before leaping back on the trolleys to the Civil Rights Museum that is actually built partly within the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated on the balcony outside room 306 on April 4th 1968. "Sobering" is probably the best word to describe the contents of the museum itself which describe the history of the African Americans from the start of their mass importation as slaves right up to the silent protest movement in living memory that finally resulted in black people being treated equally in the eyes of the law. Or did it? It is hard to believe, having driven through and experienced a little of Louisiana, Mississippi and now Tennessee that everything is fine and dandy. The dark and heavy weight of history is still felt in the shadows, that is for sure.

Rather incongruously, having walked through the very rooms where Martin Luther King and his entourage stayed on that fateful day 49 years ago with signs asking, quite rightly, for "silence" and "respect" one exits straight in to a brightly lit gift shop! Only in America.

Continuing the "Only in America" theme we popped in to the Peabody Hotel to catch the 5 o'clock Peabody Duck March It really has to be seen to be believed.

Our day ended some 10 miles out of town at Corky's Ribs and BBQ restaurant that had been recommended to us twice - once by a lady we met back in Natchez and again today by a guy that Gillian and Jan got talking to in the Civil Rights Museum. We were not disappointed.