Blues, BBQ, Bison, Birds, Bass Pro (and Elvis)

Memphis, TN & Land Between the Lakes 

In May, 2016 Garry and I drove from our home in Muskego, WI to Memphis, TN. Neither of us had been there before, and we wanted to check out Beale St. blues, BBQ and the (Grace)land of Elvis. We stayed two nights in a hotel in Memphis and then camped a few nights at the  Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area  in southwestern Kentucky. 

Beale St. (Sorry about the garbage can photos)

We tried BBQ at The Pig On Beale one night and the next night went to  Silky O'Sullivan's, sat outside on the patio, listened to some great live blues and watched the diving goats. An Irish bar with BBQ and diving goats, yes, that's true. I didn't ask the goats if they were really Irish.

Everyone told us we needed to see Graceland while we were in Memphis. We were amazed at the size of the entire operation. Our basic ticket gave us access to the home and grounds tour and the car museum, as well as the memorabilia spread over several small museums in connected buildings. (I'm the car fan, Garry could care less). We saw a huge variety of costumes, gold records, movie memorabilia, as well as the cars. Of course there are several gift shops featuring every Elvis themed item you could think of. The actual home is across the street from the museum portion and the home was very modest by today's "celebrity" standards. 

A display outside of the museums and shops at Graceland

Graceland, the home itself. 

Outside of Museum of Elvis' cars. Big fins!

The Peacock Room at Graceland . We tried to imagine how many interesting people had been in the house during the time that Elvis lived there!

Memphis Riverfront

We took a tram over to the riverfront history museum, which has an outdoor scale replica of the entire Mississippi River.

The end of the scale model of the Mississippi River

 We also visited the Bass Pro store at the Pyramid. Garry wanted to see the the  Ducks Unlimited museum there. It also has a lodge and restaurant. 

Bass Pro at the Pyramid, Memphis, TN

After leaving Memphis, we drove to a camping area we reserved at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. Garry asked me to find the shortest route on the printed map. I didn't recognize the map symbol for "ferry", so I mistakenly took us to the end of the road, where we had to ride this tiny ferry across the Cumberland Lake. It cost $1.00 and we had to phone the driver from our car and ask him to come across. It looked scary at first but was actually a calm & fun ride. 

We had no trouble finding our campsite and were pleased with the view. It was unseasonably cold, and I had to borrow some of Garry's clothes to add layers. Predicted nighttime temp of 60 was more like 40. But the showers and toilets were warm! 

We went to a nature center in the park. We also drove through a gated area where bison and elk are being kept. We stopped for quite a while to watch the bison. A big male came very close to the car and licked the wheels. 

Bison

Fallow Deer

Eastern Bluebird (Male)

Great Blue Heron