Approximately 45 minutes later it resembled something you could sleep inside of. Leaving Murphy to guard the campsite, we headed down to Beale St. to see what the fuss was all about. The fuss is mainly about neon lights, boozy slushies, and 100 oz. beers, but there is also live music and really good food that will comfort you right into an early grave. We opted for beef and pepper tamales with spicy beef chili and a smoked sausage sampler at the Blues City Cafe.
(Just in case anyone thought we had gone vegetarian after yesterday's post)
Beale St. will go down as the place where we officially realized that we are old people. Within 5 minutes of arriving, Lauren clicked her teeth and remarked disapprovingly about a group of college-age girls, "Look at those tiny little dresses. I mean, it's cold out! Put a jacket on, people." I can't give her a hard time though because I found myself muttering, "These guys weren't even alive when this music came out," as we walked by a bar featuring a J. Giles cover band. Ugh. Kids today.
B.B. King and his band on Beale Street in 1955
Beale Street, circa November 13th, 2009
It wasn't all disappointment and disdain though. After taking our friend Christoph's recommendation and seeking out the elusive and remarkably potent "Call-a-Cab" slushy, we stumbled upon Jerry Lee Lewis' sidewalk square and then a serendipitous wrong turn on the way back to the campsite led us to legendary Sun Studios.
Forgetting to set our clocks back, we showed up an hour early for our 10 am Graceland tour reservation on Saturday morning. There were already a dozen people in line for the shuttle bus. The house itself is fairly modest by today's mansion standards, but it does feature a racquetball court, a "jungle room" (fairly self-explanatory), a meditation garden, which has become Elvis' final resting place, and a sweeeeeeet basement rec room. I particularly enjoyed seeing the actual jumpsuit from the Aloha from Hawaii concert, which was seen via satellite by over 1.5 billion people in 40 countries in 1973. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but it was seen by more Americans than the moon landing.
What? You don't have a Jungle Room with faux fur lamp shades?
The Presley car collection did not disappoint, nor did a tour of his absurdly humongous airplane, the Lisa Marie, or his more reasonably sized airplane, the Hound Dog II.
Elvis' pink Cadillac, which he later gave to his mom, making sons everywhere look like deadbeats.
The seat belt buckles are 24 karat gold plated. I mean, come on.
Now we're rolling towards New Orleans with an ETA of 8:30 pm and looking forward to some gumbo and Bourbon Street nonsense. Along the way, we'll stop off in Jackson, MS where I will subject Lauren to my rendition of the Johnny Cash and June Carter song. I will of course be performing both the male and female vocal parts.
I knew the health wouldn't last! Looks like Graceland was a blast...can't wait for pix of Nolans (in my best bayou accent ;0)) Miss you guys bunches....PS: I'm sure flat grices would have LOVED to be pictured by the Lisa Marie as well!!!!
ReplyDelete