Holiday to Tennessee in Mar 2024: Day 5 – Southaven to Memphis

No tornado warnings last night, thank goodness. But it could be a whirlwind of a day with our visit to Graceland.

We were due to start off with a walk to our local Starbucks store, but the Vickster enjoyed a lie-in.

So, I drove the half mile or so to a local store to procure our caffeine hit.

We needed to be packed up and out by not long after 8am this morning so that we could get to Graceland in good time.

Our tour was due to start at 9 am, and we needed to check in at least 15 mins before that.

No large distances to be driven today. We were heading into downtown Memphis to take in the sights and to walk across the bridge into Arkansas.

Breakfast in the hotel was a much better experience than yesterday, so there was hot (unsalted) oatmeal available, and my favourite English muffins too.

We were the first into the parking lot at Graceland, so we got the pole position parking space.

For the uninitiated, Graceland is Elvis Presley’s Memphis home.

The tourist attraction (as it is now) covers 120 acres dedicated to the life and career of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

You can see his mansion, the gold records, the jeweled jumpsuits, the classic cars, and interactive exhibits.

We have never been that bothered about Elvis, but if you are in Memphis, it would be rude not to pop in and have a look around!

It was pretty dead when we walked into the ticketing center, so we took the opportunity to look around the gift shop.

There were some pretty sad things for sale!

As we waited in the queue for our tour, lots of Elvis fans arrived, kitted out with the hair style, sunglasses, and paunches that he became famous for.

Our tour started with a pre-show, which was very effective at bringing to life what Elvis achieved in his life. It certainly increased our level of interest.

We picked up iPads and headphones in the queue for the bus so we could self-guide when we reached the mansion

The bus took us across the street to the mansion itself, where we had a briefing outside the front door. Then the door opened, and we were on our own.

The rooms were decorated in a gaudy and exotic way, showing Elvis’ personality off.

There’s plenty of interest in the mansion for Elvis fans.

We even got to see his grave and the graves of his parents and rest of his immediate family. Not that we really expect them to be interned here.

The mansion was pretty impressive and was worth having a look around. But I was pleased when we got back on the bus. But that wasn’t the end of the tour.

Back on the other side of the street, we walked around the cars he owned, there was an exhibit focused on his life in the army and of course his fleet of jets – well he had two.

Every facet of his life was presented in excruciating detail.

I’m glad we visited and we found out what all of the noise was all about, but I don’t need to come back to visit Graceland again…

Then we headed to Starbucks! The closest Starbucks was on Elvis Presley Boulevard, but it wasn’t open on Wednesdays!

So we ended up going back to Southaven.

We enjoyed a spot of lunch, with the aim of that being the last food before dinner this evening. Hopefully, we might feel a tad peckish tonight on our hunt for somewhere nice to eat.

Whilst there, we also popped into the Supercharger to fill up.

Next tourist stop was a bridge across the Mississippi, which would allow us the opportunity of walking into Arkansas.

At nearly a mile in length, Big River Crossing (BRX) is the longest public pedestrian and cyclist bridge across the Mississippi.

It also features as one of the top things to do in Memphis! Unfortunately, that might say a lot about Memphis!

BRX features breathtaking views of the Memphis skyline, Arkansas floodplains, and Mississippi River.

When we got there, parking wasn’t obvious because we strictly followed the sat nav rather than following our noses.

We ended up parking on the street, which was fine, but there’s a parking area clearly signed before you reach the bridge.

The walk across the bridge wasn’t desperately exciting. The sun was nicely warm, but the trail took us on the north side of the bridge, so the walk was primarily in the shade.

The views of the river and Memphis were quite impressive.

But the view doesn’t change that much as you cross, so once you have seen it, you have seen it!

About 45 mins later, we were back at the car. We set the sat nav to Canopy by Hilton, Downtown.

Our room wasn’t ready, so we sat down and chilled for a bit. We popped out to have a brief look around Memphis – we walked up Beale Street.

We also popped into the Peabody Hotel across the street to watch the ducks waddle from the pond to the lift, so they could go up to the Duck Palace. Crazy what people do when on holiday!

We finally got into our room not long before 4pm.

In the evening we decided to stay in the hotel for dinner.

We were both hungry and the hotel restaurant looked as good as anything around.

Vick had a wedge salad to start and I tried the brussel sprouts. My sprouts had to go back because they were way too hard. Very tasty though.

For mains, Vick had a burger and I went for a pulled pork-type thing, which had a very weird tasting slaw.

Onwards to Nashville tomorrow for some country and western music.

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