Trek America - Memphis

– TREK TUESDAY –

In the continuation of the music theme, next stop is : Memphis.
A place that attracts an endless number of tourists every day, Elvis fanatics coming from all over the world to experience a place where the legend was created.

Trek America – Memphis

Driving into the city, we were warned by Erin to not leave the group and the campsite at night, plus to keep our belongings safe. Before visiting, we didn’t spare a second thinking about the ‘real’ side of the city, quite frankly – we didn’t have a clue.

Many or most parts of Memphis are run down and once you get out of the tourist spots – you will see that very clearly, very soon. Abandoned factories and houses, seeing it makes you realise how we usually only look at the ‘nice and pretty’ side of our destination, we don’t realise (or maybe choose not to) how the other ‘real’ side of the place looks like.

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Being on a tight schedule (because we loved Nashville so much), we only drove past the strip. It looked really bright and colourful, however in my opinion not as amazing as the other ones I’ve seen so far!

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Lorraine Motel

We then headed to the National Civil Rights Museum aka the Lorraine Motel. This is the place where Martin Luther King was assassinated. We didn’t get to see the museum as you need a good 2 – 3 hours, but I would definitely recommend it as I’ve heard and read really good things about it.

We saw the motel and MLK’s room from the outside and that itself was very moving. The room inside has been left exactly how it was on the day of the tragedy.

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Sun Studio

Sun Studio is the place where some of the biggest records have been created – opened in 1950s by Sam Phillip (the rock-and-roll pioneer), it became known worldwide. An endless number of artists recorded their biggest hits from BB King and Ike Turner, to Johnny Cash and the king himself : Elvis Presley.

We had a 40 minute tour in which the guide took us back in time by sharing the story of not only the place but the creator and artists themselves. The place managed to keep it’s original character over the years that makes it worth a visit, especially for the music fanatics!

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Food?

The campsite was our next stop, turns out it has a preeeettyyy cool location.. right outside Graceland aka the home of Elvis.

Absolutely starving already, we set up our tents and got ready to head into town to get some much-needed dinner. However for some reason, Erin was not in a rush and kept making strange excuses to not go just yet. After a while out h’a’nger was slowly kicking in. We then saw a pink limo stopping just outside of our tents.. the driver came out and invited us in to what we of course responded that we definitely did not order a limousine.

Turns out that Erin did.

The frustration quickly got replaced with a smile from ear to ear and we jumped into the limo excited to see where it will take us. We stopped outside a restaurant called : Marlowes – Elvis favourite BBQ joint which serves slow-smoked meats aka the best BBQ ribs in town.

The place looked like a real ‘American dinner’ if you know what I mean, something that I was waiting to see. Decorated with wood-paneled walls and lots of different signs, posters and Elvis pictures & clothes. Erin also got us to try the ‘fried pickles’ – yup, you read it right. They were amazing.

Oh.. and the place was featured on ‘Diners Drive Ins and Dives’!

Okay.. so it was worth a wait. Erin you mysterious human being! Thank you! 😀

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So this was pretty much it for Memphis.

The place is full of history, it has a lot of character and it’s worth a visit – but as an overview, it wasn’t my favourite so far. Saying that, it was definitely a great & interesting experience!