Memphis

I woke up early on Monday 8th February, I wanted to get an early bus to Memphis and spend the day visiting Graceland's. I had to visit it on the Monday as it was closed on Tuesdays and I didn't want to stay the extra day there. I got my local bus and everything went as expected, I arrived into Memphis on time. Unfortunately Memphis had just been hit by it's worst snow storm in ten years and Graceland's was closed for the day. I would have to stay the extra day after all. I called Aaron, my couchsurfing host and he said that he would come and pick me up from the bus station. He had no school due to the weather and had the day off. The Memphis Greyhound station had police officers stationed there and if that wasn't enough an armed security guard as well. In common with other bus stations it's in a bad part of town. The really bad news is that the bad part of town pretty much covers the whole city. The Peabody, the best and most famous hotel in Memphis is one block away from Greyhound.I went to wait outside but you're not allowed to do that and the guard asked me to wait inside. It was no hardship as it was raining heavily, I was not happy about the weather for my arrival in the city. Aaron arrived and he took me back to his apartment. He had stuff to do, so I elected to spend the day there. I didn't want to wander around in the rain and it didn't look like it was going to ease up any time soon.
Aaron has a nice apartment but he has a problem with his cat at the moment, it has just started to pee everywhere. So the apartment smells and I was worried that the cat would pee on my rucksack. Heavens knows how I would get that out if it did. I would probably have to buy Meghan a new bag, that would not be cheap. I spent the afternoon on the computer trying to get stuff up to date but my heart wasn't really in it and I ended up watching a lot of "Law and Order". I guess I deserved a day off. I had dinner with Aaron and his girlfriend Kirsten.
Tuesday turned out to be a much better day, for a start it wasn't raining. I was able to get out of the apartment and get my bearings in the city. I really need to get somewhere under my own steam to have an idea of where things are and how to get around. I appreciated Aaron picking me up the previous day but it had deprived me of the opportunity to get around by myself on my first day. I caught the local bus into the downtown area and wandered through Beale St.. The street is home to lots of Blues clubs, including one opened by B.B.King. Of course I was too early for any of them to be open and I probably wouldn't go at night as everyone repeatedly told me how dangerous the city was. I went to Sun Studios, this is where Elvis Presley made his first record for his mother. The studio is tiny, it's hard to comprehend that so much amazing music came out of there. The guy leading the tour was funny and informative, I hadn't known that Sam Phillips the owner of the studio didn't make Elvis's first recording, it was his secretary as Sam wasn't in the office when Elvis showed up. And then Sam hadn't liked the record when his secretary played it for him. It took a year and other recordings before "It's all right Momma" was released and the Elvis Presley story really began. I got to stand in the studio and hear session recordings where Elvis, Johnny Cash and others were just messing around. The whole experience was so great because listening to my mothers record collection meant that I knew of and had listened to most of the artists mentioned on the tour. This was the total opposite of what had happened during the Ryman tour in Nashville. I guess I can safely say that my parents are not Country music fans.
I walked back into the downtown area and went to take my second look at the Mississippi river, my first being in St. Louis, from Riverfront park. The river was still running high, not surprising after the rain of the previous day. The visitor centre is also here and I got the rest of the information I needed, including a recommendation for a BBQ restaurant. Memphis is famous for BBQ and I have to have whatever a city is famous for. I went to take a look at the glass pyramid, it was built as a conference centre and to mimic the pyramid in the it's namesake city. Now it just stands empty, you can't even travel to the top to take a look at the view. What a waste of time and money.