Memphis Day 2

Today is our last full day in Memphis. This morning we did not smell the tar in our room when we woke up, so I guess it is back up to a 2 star again, but there were no muffins at the free breakfast, so maybe back down to a 1 star? Oh well, I'm sure we will not starve. First stop of the day is to take the trolley car, there is a loop that goes around Memphis, it costs $1.00 every time you get on. This was fun, you get to see more of Memphis that we hadn't seen yet, and ride a trolley car from the 1920's.

 

We looped around to the National Civil Rights museum and got off there. What an amazing museum this was. The museum is at the hotel where Martin Luther King was shot and killed, the balcony where he was shot, and the hotel front are all still there, but the inside has all been changed and is where the museum is. The museum covers the entire civil rights history, not just Martin Luther King. Really a fantastic museum, so hard to believe most of this has happened in our lifetimes, in many ways our world has changed for the better. We spent around 3 hours in this museum before we had enough, we definitely could have spent much more time here if we wanted to read more.

 

After the museum we walked to a diner a couple of blocks away that is the oldest diner in Memphis. When you sat in the booth you definitely knew it was an old diner, there was no padding! It was really a step back in time, fun to see. After this we continued on along the trolley loop to the tourist information centre, here we picked up maps for our drive to Nashville, and other brochures.

 

Next we walked back to our hotel, picked up the car and headed off to Nashville along the Music Highway. Yep, that is what the highway is called. This is a 4 lane highway that may be one of the busiest highways I have ever driven. It was not stop and start, but it was constant traffic, and a lot of it was truckers. So, it was a long 3.5 hour drive. We did make one stop part way for ice cream to break up the trip at a pretty cool spot that was an old country store, lots of fun things to look at. Get to our hotel, I got this on Priceline, it is a beautiful Marriott about 3 miles from downtown. Definitely an upgrade from our last hotel, but nicer hotels always nickel and dime you, I hate that. Parking is $21 per day, no free wi fi in the room, not free breakfast, and all of these things we had free at our 2 star in Memphis. But, the room is very very nice, we have a view of a huge university football stadium, too bad nothing is going on there while we are here. Off to diner at a place I had bought on groupon, which was very good, though again too much food. Lucky for us it was within walking distance of our hotel so we did not need to drive. So now ready to have some fun in Nashville starting tomorrow. Oh, here is something I got by email yesterday, we will be there!!

 

“Can't be here for the main event? We're taking it to you! Tune in to CNN or CNN.com at 11:10pm/CT on Saturday, December 31 to watch some of the music, the big midnight "Music Drop" and fireworks as we rock in to 2012 in Music City!”