Memphis pt. 1

Memphis is a bucket list trip for me. If you’re a Memphis hater, stop reading now because this is the coolest city in America. 

I love New York and Chicago, and I haven’t been to New Orleans or Austin yet, but so far, Memphis takes the cake. 

Over the past few weeks I have heard nothing but negative comments about how dangerous, how dirty, how horrible Memphis is. But that just makes me want to go even more. See, I like to make my own opinions about places, as you can probably already tell. I’m a smart girl and won’t go anywhere too dangerous but if we didn’t go anywhere where something bad has happened we would just sit in our own houses. And I’m not about that. 

So back to Memphis. We stayed in Germantown at the Agricenter International RV Park about 20 minutes outside the heart of Memphis. We just had to play “Walking in Memphis” as we drove into town and now we know all the words. 

Another major bucket list thing for me is the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel. Some words of advice: eat before you go, bring a jacket, and be prepared to be completely emotionally drained after. It is one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had. 

The museum explains everything from the beginning of slavery to present day discrimination among all different races and the struggles people still face today. 

It ends in the hotel room where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed on the balcony of room 306 of the Lorraine Motel. They have preserved everything, even the unmade bed. 

It is an incredible experience. We spent almost 3 hours in the museum reading every piece of information we could, learning everything we could possibly take in. The museum has over 20 different exhibits from the beginning of slavery to standing in the bathroom where the assassin fired the fatal shot. 

Take your time, do not miss anything. 

You walk out of there feeling so emotional and luckily there is one of the best BBQ places in town, Central BBQ, right across the street to energize you for your walk down Beale Street. 

On a happier note, I had no idea what Marc Cohn was talking about when he said  “With my feet 10 feet off of Beale” until I learned it was a famous street with nothing but blues bars here in downtown Memphis. Don’t worry, Kaitlin already told me I was a dumb dumb for not knowing that. 

But anyway, the blues is some of my favorite music, and it radiated down the street. We stopped at a little gazebo for a beer where a band of old blues players were jamming. 

I stood up to take a picture and they pulled me up on stage! The guitar player placed the guitar strap on my shoulder, put his arms around me, and played BB King like a pro. Just when I thought that was it, he told me to sit on a stool and put the guitar in my lap, then he played with his tongue! It was absolutely insane. These guys were so talented and of course we bought a CD. 

We ended our day at Sun Studio. 

I know in Tennessee they say you never meet a stranger, but these people who worked here were the nicest and coolest people I have ever met. We were so drained from our day at the Civil Rights Museum we didn’t know if we could handle another tour. They gave us a chocolate milkshake and told us we had to take it and handed us two free tickets. 

This was not just another museum, this was a cool, little, old soda fountain shop with aspiring musicians and sound techs working to share the history of rock and roll with the world. I loved every minute of it. 

They let us sit in the recoding studio right where Sam Phillips recorded some of the greats like the King himself, Elvis Presley, and my personal favorite, Johnny Cash. 

If you still aren’t convinced that Memphis is one of the coolest places, wait until you read part 2 of my Memphis experience. This city is so great it takes two articles to get through it all.