Music, Old Friends, Music, Music, Music

Now is the time of the day that I love best.  The time when I stop doing something I am supposed to be doing and working on something that I shouldn't be.

There is still so much story left to tell from Memphis and I want to get it down before I forget the way it happened.

The day started with breakfast at the hotel.  They sure did have a nice breakfast buffet every morning.  It was nice to sit down there by the windows, read the paper, and chat while we ate our breakfast and Paul drank his coffee.  Nice way to start the day.

 

After breakfast, we headed for the trolley that would take us to Sun Studios, the recording studio that started the careers of Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis just to name a few.  While waiting for the trolley, we met a couple from Australia who just so happened to be going to the same place we were.  On the way there.....we offered to snap a picture of them......

.....and they did the same for us.  (*my favorite pic from our trip)

 

After navigating our way to the studio together with the Australians.....we finally made it to Sun Studios (about a couple of blocks away from where the trolley stop was).  In fact, if you look at the couple just in front of us (on this next picture).....that's them!

 

We did the studio tour and really enjoyed the guy leading us through the joint.....the history of the building was really fascinating  We took quite a few pictures to remember our visit.

 

There were photos on the wall showing some of those famous people recording there

 

This was the recording booth.  The building and studio is still the exact same way it

was when it first opened in the early 1950's

 

We even got to take a turn singing on a microphone used by Elvis

 

Some of us put a little more energy into their performance

 

After our amazing tour it was time to walk the few blocks back to Beale St. to meet up

with Greg and his wife for lunch.  We met at the Blues City Cafe.  Greg said it was

one of his favorite places to eat on Beale St.

 

 

It was delicious.....we feasted on fried catfish, BBQ ribs, cole slaw, baked beans, Texas Toast, and french fries.  It was a wonderful reunion and we all talked about old times, current times, and future times.  After sitting in the cafe for about 90 minutes, we wandered on down Beale St. and eventually found a nice quiet bar where we could sit and drink a cold one and continue with the good discussion.

 

Soon it was time for them to leave so we stopped and snapped a couple of pictures

to celebrate the event of meeting up again after 33 years!  Both Paul and I really

enjoyed meeting up with both Jean and Greg.

 

 

A quick walk back to the hotel and we lined up our game plan for the rest of the afternoon. 

 

I think we'll just continue with this on the next chapter of Paul and Debbie go to Memphis. 

Dark corners and scary places in Memphis

Well the last time we were working on this Memphis blog.....we had taken a small nap and were ready to see what fun we could have that evening.

Paul had been doing some research on the laptop and found several options for live music (other than Beale St.).  His first option was to drive to Mississippi and see a band there.  The drive to Mississippi was really only about 20 minutes.....because Memphis is right on the border.  This was not my first option since I really didn't want to have to drive anywhere.  The fun of staying downtown is to walk everywhere!

But after checking around some more.....he found an 80's-90's rock band that played cover music.  And it was only a block or two away from the hotel.  Yay! 

Our first destination was to walk up and down Beale St. a couple of times and check out what kind of music was on for a Sunday night.  The crowds were considerably less and there seemed to be more people around our age.  We walked awhile and stopped in at a couple of places while we enjoyed our first beer of the evening.  But then it was time to get moving to Huey's.

The band was great and the beer was cold, but Paul was getting restless and had another great idea on his mind.  He had found a female singer from Austin that was playing at another bar.  The only part of this equation that didn't work was that it was about a 15 minute drive from where we were and walking was not an option.  But he put on his thinking cap and said "let's take a cab!".

So off to the place where all the cabs were and found us a driver.  The only problem was -- he had no idea where this place was.  So between him and Paul using the GPS on their phones.....we were quickly dropped off in a quiet and dark neighborhood near downtown Memphis and we had absolutely no idea where we were.

 

The Buccaneer Lounge doesn't look so dark and shabby in the daytime.

 

Paul paid the cab driver and off we went to hear this Texas band.  As we were walking up I mentioned that I didn't hear any music playing (seriously there were only about 5 customers in the whole place).  We walk through the really dark bar and find a stage......with no band on it.  We were told that the band was on tour somewhere and there was a miscommunication.  (The only miscommunication we found was the fact that when we called they told us the music started at 9:30pm.  I guess they failed to mention that it was when they turned the juke box on).

 

So here we are with no idea where we are located, a dark Memphis neighborhood, and our cab driver just left.  Luckily, Paul had been smart enough to get the driver's phone number and we quickly called him and asked him to come back and pick us up.   Luckily he knew where to go this time and we only had to wait about 5 minutes.

 

He ended up taking us back to Huey's and we found our old familiar table and laughed about our wacky adventure.  After listening to a few tunes and eating some burgers and appetizers....it was time to head back to the hotel. 

 

 



Thanksgiving in Tucson sounds nice

After having a chat with my favorite sister the other day (haha....the only sister), we conspired together to try and get us to Tucson for Thanksgiving.

I even went as far as checking into the price of tickets.....they were expensive ($500).  But that didn't deter me, I was going to keep searching until I found cheap tickets.

But then a catastrophe last night brought our whole life back into reality check.

The ceiling in the living room started dripping and upon further investigation we found a pipe leaking in the ceiling upstairs.  It looked something like this:

And that got us thinking.  We are so so so so way behind in everything in our life.  We are completely overwhelmed and spend all our time doing stuff for PZ....that nothing gets done at our house (despite our best efforts).  Whenever we get a free moment -- we take off because we need that mental rest from the business.

We're sick and tired of living like this.  Here's a small sample of what we have to deal with:

 Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork just clutters my desk from everywhere!

 There's a bunch more of it on this side too!

 

 There always seems to be clean laundry on the kitchen table, along with whatever Pizza Zone junk that makes it home (until I get sick of looking at it and go cram it in another pile!

File boxes that need to go to the storage shed (and are still sitting in my dining room)

 Here's some more boxes on the other side of the dining room. 

I'm just trying to keep the room balanced!

 

And this happens to be our dresser.  I've discovered it's a lot easier and faster if you don't

put the clean clothes in the drawer.  Choosing the perfect ensemble works better when

everything you own is stacked up on top of the dresser.

 

 

You're probably looking at these pictures and thinking.....wow she does have a ton of things to do.  Well you're not seeing the whole picture.......these are only the pictures that I'm willing to reveal....the rest of the house shows evidence of tornadic activity as well.

 

So in the best interest of our sanity and our attempt to get back to a more normal living environment....we have made the decision to stay home for awhile and get our life together.  There are several contributing factors that helped us with that decision:  it's the busiest time of the year at Pizza Zone, we are in the middle of a million things which involve the relocation of the Kuykendahl store (and all the stress that goes with that), our house is in desperate need of decluttering and cleaning, and we need to get our butts in gear and get all the PZ work done that still needs to get done.

 

And so it is with great sadness that I report we won't be making it to Tucson this year.  Instead, I'll try to find the motivation to get all my tasks done.  In the meantime, now that the leaky pipe has been repaired.....it's time to finish cleaning up the mess that ceiling made!

 



Day 1 in Memphis.....the conclusion

Let's see.....we left off at touring Graceland. 

Since I didn't get any good pictures of the TV room and the pool room of Graceland....I had to search the World Wide Web and of course there were hundreds of excellent photos to choose from.

And since I want to look back at this blog and remember this fabulous trip.....I need to have these photos included in this journal.

So here they are:  the fabulous TV room and the very strange pool room!

Below is another place we toured.  The Raquetball court which has been turned into a place to display those infamous jumpsuits and gold records.   One interesting fact we learned was the Elvis paid $100,000 for Graceland in 1954 and paid $200,000 to have the racquetball court installed.  We saw LOTS of gold records and jumpsuits when visiting all the museums and house.

Ok.....after finally getting the whole grand VIP tour of Graceland it was definitely time to get something to eat.  Mr. Smarty Pants Paul did a google search on the best BBQ pulled pork in Memphis and I was left to the driving.

It was determined that Central BBQ was the best.  So we made our way over there and had the most AMAZING pulled pork sandwiches ever!

After eating we headed for the next stop which would be the National Civil Rights Museum and the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was shot in 1968.

We took a lot of pictures here......so here's just a few of the things that we saw.

The view from the bathroom window where James Earl Ray shot him

 

This is the view from the balcony towards the boarding house. 

Cars left where they were that day

 

 

 

It's really quite an experience to stand where such a tragic historic event took place. 

 

Now it was getting around 6pm and of course Paul was going to have a full agenda planned for our evening entertainment.......so it was off to check into our new hotel.

 

That's right.....our NEW hotel.  We decided that we wanted to spend the last 2 nights downtown so that we didn't have to worry about driving (translation:  we wanted to be able to drink and party hard and not worry about getting arrested).  So off to the downtown hotel we went.

 

We were staying at the Residence Inn Marriott downtown and couldn't have made a better choice.  It was approximately 3 blocks from Beale St. and was located right on the trolley line.  The parking was not great (but very typical of staying in downtown hotels)....and we had to park our car in a parking lot 1/2 block down.....but it ended up being a great thing because we did not drive our car the entire time we were there.  We just walked everywhere......and the weather was AWESOME!

 

 Love staying at downtown hotels!

 

Even our room was unique and different.  We had a small living room, fully equipped kitchen, dining room, and the bedroom was an elevated alcove.....that was nice except when you want to get away from a snoring husband!

 

 

Once we checked in we took about an hour power nap so that we could get ready for all the adventures that we would be having that night.

 

And since these adventures require a whole post to themselves......we will continue this story tomorrow!

Where the girls are is where we were

No time to catch you up on all the exciting details of the Memphis journey.

Last night was Where the Girls Are.  So that's where we were.  (that sentence is a mouthful).

And since we were there, I couldn't be here. 

Maybe tomorrow will allow me to be creative again.

Until then.....here's a couple of pictures from the last time we were Where the Girls Are!

Visiting Graceland

I should be working.....but I was so smart and got my dinner all prepared that I don't have to take the time to make dinner tonight.  I've got BBQ ribs in the crockpot and I made a big Pasta Salad yesterday.  Yummy......yummy......can't wait until dinner.  So since I've got a few extra minutes on my hand....I'll begin telling the tale of our journey.

Day 1 in Memphis.  A full day planned of sightseeing.

Top of the list would be Graceland.....so this is our first stop of the day.  Well actually, our second stop.  Paul needed some more coffee so we stopped at a Krispy Kreme donut shop on Elvis Presley Blvd.  Not only did we get a delicious donut for breakfast.....but this location happened to be a donut factory, so we were entertained watching the donut production machines while we ate our breakfast.

Onto Graceland we go. 

We opted for the VIP tour since the lines were long and we would have had to wait for over an hour for the tour.  VIP status allowed us to take a tour bus immediately to the house and we could go in and out of the house as much as we liked.  We also had perks such as wearing really cool badges around our neck that said VIP.  We also had admission to all the museums on the property and view a special room at Graceland.  LOL.....really impressive huh??

Here's our pictures that we took while we were there.  Paul's camera turned out to take really awesome shots inside the house.....so most of these are his.  You'll be able to tell the difference between his shots and mine :-)

This is the front of the house (obviously)

The formal living room and music room in the background

This is the formal dining room just across from the living room

This is the kitchen.  Everything was left in it's place.

 

This is the famous Jungle Room.  Looked like a really cozy den to me......

although shag carpet on the ceiling might be a little odd.

 

 

The rest of our visit was touring the museums which also gained

us access to this airplane and a private jet.

 

 

And of course, it's always nice to be able to get a picture of both us to commemmorate the event.

Although, now I am getting a clearer picture of how much we really are tourist nerds.

Do I care.......nope.  We are having a marvelous time!

 

One thing I want to point out was how friendly the people were that we rode on our tour bus with.  We met a young couple from the middle of Missouri and an older couple from California on their second visit there.  It was really fun spending the time meeting people from another part of the country and hearing their stories of why they were there.

 

Well this was only 1/2 of what we did that first tourist day in Memphis. 

The day was so filled with fun......that Part 2 of this day will be published tomorrow (hopefully).

 

 

Travelling through Mississippi

After a short night sleep of almost 6 hours....it was time to head out on the road.

We headed east on I-10 and managed to hit a huge traffic jam after only being on the road less than an hour.  Apparently, there was an LSU game in Baton Rouge and traffic was bumper to bumper for almost 20 miles.  Once we got past that mess......it was clear sailing to the Mississippi border. 

Since Paul's attempts at getting a Welcome to Mississippi sign were a little difficult to do at 70 mph....we decided to stop at the Vistor's Center for some good pictures and take a potty break.

 

You can see the weather was absolutely beautiful for a Road Trip!

Had to get a little proof that we had made it to Mississippi.  Our first time through this state.

The largest city in Mississippi that we would drive through was Jackson.  Paul got on his phone and started looking for the best pizza in Jackson.  He found The Pizza Shack and after reviewing their menu.....the GPS was programmed to head towards that destination.

The place might not have been very much.............

 

But the pizza that we got from there was pretty darn good.

 

We opted for the Chicken Cordon Blue which had Honey Mustard dressing mixed in with the sauce, Chicken, Swiss Cheese, Ham, and Tomatoes.

 

But lunch time was soon over and it was time to hit the road again.  We still had at least a 4 hour drive ahead of us before Memphis.

 

 

We were happy to see this sign.

 

Pulled into the Hotel Memphis at around 7pm to check in.  The view from the 12th floor was fantastic.  A short nap later and it was time to get ready to go out and see what Beale St. was all about.

 

We made the decision to take a cab to and from Beale St. since we wanted the ability to have a little fun and not have to worry about driving.  The hotel shuttle offered to drive us over there......what a sight it was.

 

 

Lots of places to pop in and hear live music.

 

Or just find it out on the side of the street in lots of cases.

 

Lots of cold beverages to help move you up and down the street.  We discovered these icy pina coladas in a very tall glass.  Problem was......they got drank too fast!

We decided to call it a night around 1am since the crowd was changing a little bit.  We wanted to get a good nights sleep since we would be out sight seeing all day long!