Walking (well...Scooting) in Memphis

We got to Memphis in one piece (for a change) and set up in Marion, Arkansas which is not really Marion but Crawfordsville.  No wonder the poor GPS has fits.

Anyhow, we got on our trusty scooters and off we went to tour Memphis.  In 2 days we saw pretty much everything there was to see (sort of).  The highlight for us was the Crystal Grotto Shrine which is a man-made cave filled with semi-precious stones, located in a very nice cemetery.  It was absolutely amazing!   It's astounding what people will do with their spare time!

Then off we went to the Cotton Museum which was a bit pricey and a tad underwhelming.  There were bales of cotton, and a couple of videos on how cotton grows but that was pretty much it.  Maybe you have to be a cotton-picker to really appreciate it.

Then off we went to Beale Street where we managed to see the giant statue of Elvis.  Little did we know that this was the entrance to Graceland.  We didn't linger long on Beale - the noise levels were deafening and all it seemed to be were cafes and pubs.  No wonder people have guns down here - 5 minutes of that music and Nui started looking for an Uzi.  We don't know how people stand it - it's like everyone decided to play an instrument at the same time, all with different songs and in different keys. 

After Beale, we jumped in our car and headed off to Germantown to look for painted ponies.  There are 23 of them but all we found were about 8.  They are beautiful though.  On the way, we passed through the Victorian Village and saw the amazing houses there.  Forgot to mention that every time we crossed into Tennessee, we saw the giant pyramid - another thing on the Memphis list of things to see.


On Day 2, we were off to the Ornamental Metal Museum.  Again - fantastic.  We particularly liked the giant metal daffodil and the cattails at the entrance.  From there we were off to the Pink Palace which kept us pretty entertained for several hours.  There were fossils, rocks, giant working T-Rex statues, geodes, lots of info and displays on  civil war era life, medicine and dentistry and even a live exhibit of tarantulas (ugh!).  Fascinating place and we'd certainly go back. 

After that, we decided to go find Graceland, even though we weren't going to do the tour because it's far too expensive just to see some fat guy's clothes and furniture.  Besides, you
can't turn around in Memphis without seeing Elvis.  So our trusty GPS took us to Graceland which, it turns out, was just behind the giant statue of Elvis we had seen the day before.  Who knew!?  We never did get to see the outside.