3 states. Standing in 2. 1 day.

24th May

The next day, I awoke from my ribs-coma and it was time to bid Tennessee farewell. Luckily, that took all of 5 minutes, because Memphis actually straddles the border between Tennessee and Arkansas. After that, we had about 8ish hours of driving to get to our next stop – Fort Worth, Texas.

There isn’t much to write about driving for prolonged periods, but this will probably give you a good idea of how our drive day went.

Wake up.

Go to hotel breakfast. Breaking hearts is taken very seriously here, I assume, because they serve a variety of cakes, muffins and donuts as breakfast, which I guess is an attempt to actually induce coronary failure in the patrons. 

Resist actually having a donut for breakfast. Reward your self-restraint with a Banana-Pecan Muffin.

Repack. Despite not having bought anything yet, your suitcase is contracting and this task is getting harder every day.

Jump into Elvis (our hire car. He was red).

Turn on the radio. Listen for a couple of seconds to get your bearings, “yesterday the Boy Scouts of America voted to allow openly gay scouts for the first time in its history…” [thoughts: good, a news station…] “which I think we can all agree reflects the moral degeneration of society and will result in the Boy Scouts changing their motto to “Be Fabulous””.

Change channel.

 ♫ Just give me a reason, just a little bit’s enough….♫ Listen for a while.

♫ If I ever did that, I think I’d have a heart attack….♫ Keep listening.

♫  I want you to stayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy….♫ Keep listening.

♫ Baby you’re a song, you make me wanna roll my windows down and cruuuuuuise….♫ Sing along.

♫ Just give me a reason, just a little bit’s enough….♫ Listen for a while.

♫ If I ever did that, I think I’d have a heart attack….♫ Keep listening.

♫  I want you to stayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy….♫ Keep listening.

♫ Baby you’re a song, you make me wanna roll my windows down and cruuuuuuise….♫ Sing along.

♫ Just give me a reason, just a little bit’s enough….♫ Listen for a while.

♫ If I ever did that, I think I’d have a heart attack….♫ Keep listening.

♫  I want you to stayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy….♫ Keep listening.

♫ Baby you’re a song, you make me wanna roll my windows down and cruuuuuuise….♫ Sing along.

♫ Just give me a reas….♫ [Seriously? Again?]

Change channel.

“Praise Jesus…” *change* “ ….Obama’s economic terrorism” *change* “… the best way to care for your truck is to…” *change* ♫ …I think I’d have a heart attack….♫ *change* “The reckoning is coming….” *change*♫ …country music….♫ *change*♫ …country music….♫ *change* “and we’ll like to welcome our guest to comment on the Boy Scouts of America issue, Governor Rick Perry…” [I’m intrigued]…”Governor, it’s great to have you… Well thanks Buck, and before you ask anything, I’d just like to say that this is a complete abomination that will destroy the societal fabric of Americ…” *change*.

♫ Just give me a reason, just a little bit’s enough….♫ Listen resentfully.  

Continue for 6hours. Periodically rotating through the smorgasbord of homophobic, bible-bashing, truck-caring radio programming of Arkansas.

See, I had a driving playlist planned. And if only I’d had my way, our drive would have sounded a bit more like Of Monsters and Men, Temper Trap, Two Door Cinema Club, Tegan and Sara, The Wombats, Bombay Bicycle Club and a fairly significant number of show tunes, drawing heavily from this year’s Tony nominees. Instead, it was an obnoxious rotation of Rhianna, Demi Lovado, Pink, and country music. Speaking country music, someone should do a poll – I’m not sure if there is a single country song that doesn’t mention a truck, and a good two-thirds of them mention the state of Georgia. I should make full disclosure at this point, through sheer repetition, I have developed a Stockholm Syndrome-esque love for the song Cruise by Florida Georgia Line, and even the remix featuring Nelly.

So after a solid morning’s drive, it was time for a bit of a break, and we cunningly chose to stop in the city of Texarkana. You guessed it. A town on the border of Arkansas and Texas. We drove down the line for a bit (but actually literally – the border goes smack down the middle of the highway, and my lane-placement is horrible).

The town’s post office is the only building built smack bang on the border (building the highway sneakily stopped anyone else from profiting from the novelty factor).

After that, we continued onwards and further into Texas. I thought I’d have another crack at the radio, but after checking into a full blown discussion of just *how* morally degenerate the Boy Scouts of America had become (seriously – it just wasn’t *that* big of a story), it Just g[a]ve me a reason to give up and Stay with the existing radio and risk a rage-induced Heart attack.

I was there. 

Memphis

Next stop - Memphis, and more importantly, the Heartbreak Hotel.

I am the first to admit that I have had an appalling (to say the least) education in "classics", thus I was wholly unaware that Elvis was actually a movie star - a fact that was quickly remedied by the Elvis movies played on loop 24hrs/day in the Hotel.

But it was still pretty fun to wander around Graceland - it's been left completely as it was at the time of Elvis' death

Elvis was a pretty nice guy - this is his parent's room on the ground floor in Graceland.
But even they weren't allowed upstairs. No one was allowed upstairs. 

The dining room. 

Elvis loved his TV room, and it was lavishly decorated. 

In bright yellow and blue. With a ceiling made entirely from mirrors.
A perfect TV watching environment. 

The pool room. 

The "Jungle Room" - interestingly, Elvis never called it that - it got its nickname after Graceland was opened to the public. What isn't easily visible is the shag pile carpet which covers every surface. It means that the room has pretty great acoustics and Elvis recorded a bunch of songs in here. 

This building was a smokehouse, which was part of the original Graceland farm. To put the next building in context,  it was about 3 metres squared. 

Which Elvis thought made it perfect sized for a shooting range.
I'll repeat. It was 3m long.
*I* could hit a target 3m away. 

Just a few awards. No biggie. 

Wedding outfits. 

Elvis was a fan of squash, so he had a shed converted  into several courts, but then he also put in a lounge, arcade and piano room in. 

They've converted the actual courts into another display of Elvis' later costumes. 

And of course, Elvis', along with his parents, was buried at Graceland. 

So after Graceland, we went for a wander around downtown. And by downtown, I mean Beale St, which was oddly pumping for a Thursday night. 

Beale St

We found this great odds-and-ends shop 

Complete with motivational pants

And an impressive collection of wacky hats

And about this time, it was time to search for dinner. 

It was hard to walk past this though...

But I was rewarded with this - Tennessee BBQ.
Not to be confused with Texan, Georgian, or any kind of Carolina BBQ.
Each state has their own.
Tennessee's is characterised by pork ribs and sweet, tomato-based sauces.
The beans were the greatest things I have ever eaten. No joke. 

And now bordering on falling into a food coma, we casually strolled down the street to listen to what Beale had to offer. 

This guy was singing Brown-Eyed Girl. A lot.
And when he ran out of verses... he just repeated them.
All of them. 

Classic South.
Moonshine is still a thing. 

This was a great band - they did (predictably) quite a few Elvis covers, but they also busted out Yakkity Sax.
The lead singer also danced with an elderly lady (I want to say she was 90) called something like Phyllis or Ivy or something. The best thing was that everyone then clapped and congratulated and generally wanted to chat with Ivy/Phyllis. It turns out Ivy/Phyllis was in town for her grandson's wedding. And so the grandson and his fiancée were pulled up on stage and serenaded with an a capella version of "The Chapel of Love". It was pretty lovely. 

A random street in Memphis