Week ending Nov 19, 2015 Memphis

Friday morning we decided to take a look at T.O. Fuller State Park. It had been recommended to us by fellow rv'ers, but our research indicated it had too many trees to allow us to get satellite signal, and this weekend is a big curling weekend. Our investigation proved that our research was correct. We are really happy at Tom Sawyer RV park. We then headed to downtown Memphis. John had looked up parking lots and as we were following Greta's direction to a parking lot John had decided on, Joan made a sharp turn left and parked in free parking along the river.  We discovered that by happy accident we had parked at the Tom Lee Memorial. Tom Lee saved 32 lives with his boat "Zev" when the steamer US Norman sank about 20 miles below Memphis in 1925.  

 Queen of the Mississippi

We then walked up to Beale Street, the heart of Memphis entertainment and food scene. We stopped at Silky O'Sullivan's for lunch, where not only did we enjoy some music but Silky's Irish Red ale and John had a BBQ sampler and Joan a very tasty bowl of gumbo.

After our lunch break we wandered down Beale Street and then passed the Gibson factory to the Lorraine Hotel. The Lorraine Hotel is the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and is now the National Civil Rights Museum. The museum is very well done.  We couldn't be in downtown Memphis without a stop at "the Pyramid" more commonly known as the Bass Pro Shop. Not only is the building a huge pyramid shaped store, but a hotel as well. Quite a store.                         

It even has an alligator pond.

Saturday morning we did a tour of Sun Studios, the birthplace of rock and roll. It is also the studio where Elvis got his start. We enjoyed the tour and got to listen to snippets of all sorts of early rock and roll. It was very interesting to learn about the history of Sun Studio from an excellent tour guide.

 Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash
Elvis jamming at Sun Studios

After our Sun Studio tour we headed to Graceland. You can't got to Memphis without visiting Graceland. The tour we choose took us on a video interactive tour of Graceland, the archives experience and Elvis automobile museum. Although we found it interesting and are glad we did it but really we found the Sun Studio tour more interesting. We arrived back at the trailer late afternoon to watch curling.

Sunday Joan spent most of the day recovering from a cold she picked up somewhere along the way. It was a good day to do nothing as lots of curling was on, the Phoenix Nascar race (which was delayed so long that we didn't get to watch it) and of course lots of football for John.

Monday Joan took advantage of the great laundry room here.  They have 6 new high efficiency washers and matching dryers. When we were first told laundry was complementary here we wondered about the quality of the machines. They are some of the best we have seem. John did some maintenance around the trailer. We had a Wii rematch in bowling (Joan finally won a game)and a few games of golf. John also fixed Joan's computer. On Thursday she lost access to almost everything, no internet, every time she tried to do anything the computer froze. What a pain. After spending many hours trying to figure out what files were missing and causing this problem he gave up and did a recovery.  We didn't know whether the recovery would revert back to Windows 8.1, but it as still on Windows 10. Now Joan is back in business, email, internet and everything else works. What a relief. We would have hated to have to replace this computer since its only a few months old. Joan also made John's dark fruitcake.

Tuesday was haircut day. After Joan cut John's hair we went to Walmart where Joan got a haircut.  We then stopped at a drugstore to pick up some cold medication for John, a liquor store for some treats and finally went back to the trailer. A storm was blowing in, rainy and big winds, so we decided to stay an extra day to let the wind settle down. Tuesday night the wind howled, the rain came down hard enough that the satellite signal was hit and miss.

Wednesday morning after a night of little sleep, we watched the debris floating down the river. John no sooner opened the door of the trailer than the neighbour lady came over. Her husband had left about an hour earlier for a course he was taking.  When she tried to get back in the trailer after having a smoke, she discovered she had locked herself out of her trailer, with the keys inside. It was a cold windy morning and she was in her housecoat and cold.  We provided her warm shelter  until her husband came back with keys to let her into her trailer.   John's cold was now full blown, so he spent the day dosing and doing very little. Joan made rum balls.  They along with the fruitcake should be perfect by Christmas. The good news is the weather has sorted itself out and the wind has died down and there is no rain in the foreseeable future.


Thursday morning we packed up with Tupelo, Mississippi as our destination. The trees are still turning color here, so the trip down the Natchez Trace Parkway promises to be beautiful.