Saturday 19 October - more Memphis!

Yesterday was such a lovely sunny, warm day but this morning was overcast, wet and cold!  We walked out of the hotel down to the Mud Island Reserve and Museum which opened at 10am.  We walked over the river into the museum and paid $US10 entry fee.  The assistant was happy to give us the audio headset to listen to information as we walked through the museum.  Took us 1.5hrs.  We loved it – thought it was great, especially the re-creation of the riverboats and civil war battles along the river.

View of steam ship terminal in foreground and Mud Island in background

Took the upside down trolley back to the mainland.  Walked into Union St looking for a place to have lunch and landed at Denny’s.

Had just enough time to eat and start walking to Beale St, up to the Beale St Landing to board our steamboat, the Island Queen.  She left smartly at 2.30pm for a 1.5hr fully narrated cruise.  We all agreed that it was a good thing we’d done the museum before the cruise as we understood more fully the story of the Mississipi River and events through Memphis’ history.  Loved it, even though the wind blowing was cold!

Finished the cruise and walked further uptown.  We were looking for the Lorraine Motel, the place where Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968.

Walking back to town we found Gus’ Famous Fried Chicken café.  We had heard about this place from some lovely people we spoke to at breakfast, at the Marriott.  They were all wearing red shirts which said 'Coach Jackson's Family' - they were all there to watch the football.  Unfortunately, too many of them decided to turn up for the football match and he didn't have tickets for them all!  They had recommended we try 'Gus' southern chicken' because it was 'the BEST'.....  luckily we found it!  We bought some pieces as the cafe was PACKED - probably because most of 'em were on their way home after the football....  we had to wait but it was worth it - we bought salad from the deli and had a room party!

After dining, we walked down to Beale St.  There were plenty of people, market stalls in the park.  People were dancing to a band in the park which we thought was pretty good, so we bought some drinks - starting with Kerren and her  32oz vodka punch, the Davids with 32oz beers, me and my margaritas, the 'light flasher' - the band's helper, and Kez's "dancing buddy" who just kept coming up to us with double thumbs up asking us: ‘right on?’  He was slurring so badly we had no idea what he was saying for ages.... and then one of us worked it out - we were laughing so hard!