America Day 18 19 20 & 21 - Memphis and Dallas

Wow… I have been so busy I have not been able to update this is ages. Sorry to Dad and Ducky whom I think are the main two reading this. I’m sure you guys are missing reading about my amazing adventures and incredible embarrassments. So here is as much as I can remember at the moment about what I have been up to for the past 4 days.

DAY 18

After the massive drive from New Orleans to Memphis we literally had like ½ an hour to drop our bags at the hotel, get changed and get to our Basketball game. We went to watch the Memphis Grizzles Vs Houston Rockets. It was really cool to be in the stadium although I had no idea what was going on.

Me and Keri at the Basketball

Although the Memphis Grizzles didn’t win and I was going for them, we did get an extra little treat. Ray Parker Jr performed at half time. Now you may be like me and be like ‘Ray who’??? Well he is the original singer ‘Ghostbusters’. And he sung Ghostbusters! It was pretty cool. They had people dressed as Ghostbusters too.

Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!!!

Well after a fun filled exciting game of Basketball we headed into Beale Street, which reminds me of Bourbon Street. I think this is why Memphis is now one of my favorite places in the world. Nothing will top the fun I have in New Orleans but Memphis was still amazing. Here are just a few photos…

Beale Street!!!

I completely forgot about this drink. It had a bit of everything from behind the bar, EVEN beer! But surprisingly it was pretty good!

Ohhhh... yummy American beer! That's a lie, American beer is terrible.

I have a new obsession with these kind of photos!

The famous BB King bar... amazing live music!

DAY 19

The next day we were up again bright and early to go see Elvis. Not the alligator again unfortunately but the real Elvis. Graceland is such a tourist attraction now. I know it’s stupid of me to say that because of cause it is but seriously it is just overdone! It was still amazing to see it all. Again, here are just a few pictures…

The lounge room

Elvis' parents room

The dining room

Kitchen (with carpet!!!)

The awesome den!

The jungle room

This is the room where elvis sat and he played that piano and sang the morning of his death

As you entered the place where Elvis is buried (in the backyard of Graceland)

The very dressed up graves of Elvis and his family

Elvis' grave

Out the front of Graceland

After Graceland we went past the hotel that Martin Luther King Jr was shot.

The hotel MLK was staying in!

The place where MLK was killed

The hotel is now actually a civil rights museum. We didn’t go to it though. Instead we went and spoke to this lady across the street. She asks people to boycott the museum and has been protesting that the hotel should be used for the things Martin Luther King Jr believed in. She spoke about the about of homeless on the streets surrounding the museum and that the hotel could be used to help these people.

Jacqueline Smith protesting - Look how many days she has been doing this!

She was actually really interesting and because I have had enough of museums in America I’m all behind her.

THEN, that afternoon was one of my favorite parts of the trip so far. In Memphis there is this hotel called the Peabody. Now, the story goes that back over 70 years ago, the General Manager of the hotel and his friends were on a hunting trip. At the time they used live duck decoys when hunting. So, after a few too many whiskeys’ they thought it would be funny to put their live duck decoy’s in the fountain of the hotel lobby.

When they came down the next day the found that not only were the ducks still there, they also had gathered a large crowd. Since then the hotel hired a trainer to train the duck to each day at 11am walk out of their very own ducky penthouse, into the elevator, down the elevator to the ground floor, along the red carpet and into the fountain were they stay all day until 5pm, at which point the whole thing is done in reverse.

This was the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life!

The ducky's in the fountain

Ducky's walking the red carpet

The stop to shake off.... so cute!

After such a massive day, we had a terrible included dinner (it was just yuck) and went to bed.

DAY 20

Another long drive all the way to Dallas, Texas. On the way we stopped in this little town called ‘Texarkana’. They call it that because it is on the boarder of Texas and Arkansas. Half the town is in each state.

On the border!

We then drove and drove and drove and drove and drove. It went on forever. We finally got to Texas late that night and went past this massive area covered in Longhorn statues. It was really cool because there was so many.

Can you imagine if lightening struck these and they came alive!! :) I was bored while looking at them and this thought crossed my mind.

But we had driven all day and just wanted to get to the hotel. That night we had Mexican for dinner. Dallas was not what I expected. I thought it was going to be a little more, well Texasy. It really just reminded me of a city. Not even a pretty one, somewhat like Sydney without the harbor.

Anyway, we made the most of it with another Karaoke night. Again, I think I had too many cocktails and sung. Me and another guy did a duet of Bohemian Rhapsody. I think everyone else had a bit too much to drink too because they thought we were good! Weirdos!!

DAY 21

Now the next day we got to go see some of the real Texas. We went to visit the Fortworth Stockyards. It was cool cause there was drive of Longhorns through the main street so we got to see big cows and some cowboys.

Longhorns coming down the street

And being that I was in Fortworth, I had to play with the beautiful horses, which I later regretted because I got all kind of allergic reactions. Not the best allergy to have while in Texas because there are horses everywhere!!

Isn't he such a pretty horsey!

Then, I decided that I missed New Orleans and got back on a bull.

This is Big Jake!

Then we all got a little over the cowboy lifestyle and played a little football in the car park. This is our typical bus stop activities so I though I’d throw it in here.

Why would I even try? I'm way too short!

If that wasn’t enough to fill the day we then went to the Sixth Floor JFK Museum. It is a museum dedicated to the assassination of JFK and is set in the warehouse that Lee Harvey Oswald was in when he “allegedly” fired the fatal shot that killed John F Kennedy.

This is the building where the museum is

It was really cool looking out from the window that he would have and they had a self guided audio tour that pointed out where the procession would have turned. They had the videos and pictures and they also had parts of the warehouse set up like it would have been on the day. Unfortunately, you couldn’t take photos inside the museum.

Outside view of the building where Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK from

X marks the spot where the fatal bullet struck JFK in the head

The grassy knoll where another gunshot was fired from but by whom? The FBI? The soviets? My guess is it was Elvis!

We were so wrecked after all this but me being so stupid, packed lots of warm clothes but no warm shoes. I had one pair of walking shoes and that is it. Not the best when we had to go out in the below freezing temperatures in Dallas. So, we went shopping!! Thank god I found an amazing pair of leather Steve Madden boots for only $100!!! Best investment on this trip so far!

Okay after this massive massive day it was literally dinner and into bed. I didn’t even have dinner. I went out with everyone but only got a dessert! Yummy!

So bed then onto real cowboy country in Texas tomorrow, Amarillo!