Tuesday, August 31, 2010

About that barbecued spaghetti sauce, I read about it on the menu and my first thought, was...EWWW!! They mix barbecue sauce half and half with spaghetti sauce. But, when Ron got it instead of his potato salad, he tried it, then, had me try it. It wasn't really that bad tasting, it must have been a popular dish as we saw several people had it on their plates.

After dinner, we finally headed for home, only to have the GPS take us on a backroads adventure. Why it didn't bring us home the way it took us is beyond me, but, at one point, we were on a local backroad and I had my doubts it would get us to the right place, but, we finally did get home...

We are still at Cherokee Landing Thousand Trails, but, will be leaving to head west on Wed, the 1st. Will update you on our further adventures when we get to our next destination.

Ron's dinner of half a rack of ribs, french fries and barbecued spaghetti. He ordered potato salad, but, got spaghetti instead...

My dinner of a half rack of ribs, baked beans and coleslaw

It not only has a steering wheel but a gear shift knob!! That must be interesting to drive....

These were some interesting looking three wheeled motorcycles, there was also another interesting thing about them....

Ron really liked these toilet seats...only $180...they glow in the dark!...we didn't buy one...

Beale Street

By the time we got back from Mud Island, it was 6PM and we were hungry. But, since Beale Street was close by, we decided we were going to walk down the street to see what we could see. We had heard about a restaurant called Neely's from some friends, apparently it is on the Food Network, so we wanted to try it. It was not on Beale Street and although there were a lot of famous restaurants on Beale Street, we figured we'll try one of them next time we come through here.

A far away view of the monorail we rode on. The top part of the bridge is where you can walk over to the island

Mississippi River boat tours

View of the Memphis skyline

A nice view of the I-40 bridge across the river

After going through the museum, we finally went outside and looked at the river in miniature

That is a nice looking juke box

Home made musical instruments

Looking at the cannons sticking out of the ship firing away

Down in the ships' bowels where the cannons are booming

As we walked farther into the museum, we walked into a re-creation of a battle in the river during the Revolutionary War. At the beginning of the museum, you can take units with headphones that tell you what each exhibit is, with sound effects and excerpts from actual individuals telling about certain things. In the battle, you can hear the cannons booming and excited yells from the men.

Monday, August 30, 2010

A simulation of riding on a barge, it looked real with small birdies flying over the cargo

Looking up at the bridge

A nice big wood stove to keep everyone toasty

Inside the ship where a cocktail lounge is. Here is Ron trying to take a picture of us in the mirror

One of the neat things that was in the museum was the replica of a portion of a river boat...

Tools used to build the river boats

Ancient artifacts of the Indians in the area

Uh oh, we better be careful.....

Not the greatest picture, but, here we are passing another monorail

Trolley cars run throughout the downtown area of Memphis

Looking north where I-40 goes across the river and the pyramid building which is going to be a new Bass Pro Shop

View from the top, looking south down the river, waiting for the monorail to leave

The Mud Island River Park has recreated the Mississippi River as it looks following the last 1,000 miles down to the Gulf of Mexico. It also shows other rivers flowing into it, such as the Tennessee, Ohio and Missouri Rivers. There is also an excellent museum on the premises that tells the history of the Mississippi River from the ancient Indians who lived there all the way through to the present time. Come follow along as I show you pictures of what we saw going through the museum. To get over there, we boarded a monorail to make the short trip across the water, you can also walk the 1/3 mile, but, it was rather warm that day, so we decided to ride.....

The one...the only.....ELVIS!!

B.B. King

Looking up at the spiral staircase

Inside the Center, they had a spiral staircase going up to nowhere. They also had some great statues of B.B. King and Elvis Presley.

In front of the Visitor's Center

Our next stop was in downtown Memphis. We stopped at the Visitor's Center to talk to the personnel inside to get some information on the Mud Island River Park, which was right across the street from the Visitor's Center. The lady at the desk told us we could stay parked in the center's lot to visit Mud Island. So, for those of you who go to Memphis, don't park in the pay lots, park at the Visitor's Center for free.

His pink cadillac

The family cemetery

All his gold records and costumes are housed in a separate building on the property

Game and music room in the basement

The back of the house

Very unusual furniture

Elvis spent lots of hours in this room, you can't see it in the picture, but, there is water running down the wall

This was an interesting looking room, note the walls and ceiling made with material

We are told by Lisa Presley, through the earphones, that the house was always full of guests and family roaming the house all hours of the day and night. Apparently, someone was always cooking in the kitchen for all these people.

dining room

The inside of the house with 70's furnishings, is still as it was when he died. Notice the pretty stained glass peacocks

The other one...

One of two historic landmark signs at the house