Day 2 -> Welcome to my world

Day 2 starts early at the Motel 6 in Texarkana, the hotel was a little prison like, but the ac worked and no-one shot me, so its all good. I did find one of life's little contradictions on the night stand, an ashtray with a no smoking sign.... * On a sad personal note, I had taken one of my 10 year old down pillows with me because being gone 10 days, I just wanted one of my goooshy pillows. Let it at the Motel 6 in Texarkana. Tragedy abounds. * Josh and I load up and head to the Wafflehouse for breakfast, we fuel up on waffles and syrup. Outside, we check out the brake warning light and determine it's just a loose switch at the e-brake handle - a little fiddling and it went away. We also taped up the hood where it was rubbing on the positive battery terminal so we could at least detect if was continuing to rub. With those issues under control, we planned to make a break for Memphis, looking for a personal experience with The King. Day two is a light day, only 275 Miles, basically blasting through Arkansas. Arkansas smells nice, surprisingly, and the weather great - around 72F. We pull into Memphis about 12 or 1-ish and find that the annual "May in Memphis" celebration is going on, so there are tons of people floating around. We circle around downtown and look for cheap diggs... first hotel $259/night.... ok..... Look there is the "Kings Court".... we pull in and find a $95 room that has just finished being remodeled. The Motel is nice and right slightly to the left of smack dab in the center of the action. Memphis has apparently spent the last few years gentrifying the downtown area, there is a new baseball stadium and Beale street looks good. First things first, Graceland. We plug the address into my handy TomTom and off we go. $8 parking, but it is worth every penny because we get the opportunity to park next to a pristine looking corvette that is parked about by itself in the back 40 of the parking lot. I would have loved to been there when this obviously anal retentive dude came out to find our $250 VW next to his car. I love this. $28 dollars later we are on our way to the Kings House with our little electronic headphone tour guide.... The Kings song comes on "Welcome to my world" repeatedly during the tour. Josh and I find ourselves singing the chorus randomly throughout the night, cracking a smile each time. We spend two hours and get Elvis'd out. I find myself wondering if the property taxes went up or down when they buried Elvis there. Wrong I know.... Off to the rock and roll grill and I get a grilled penutbutter and banana sandwich, in memory of the King. Welcome to my world.... then the ceremonial adding of the bumper sticker to the trunk lid. We return to the hotel and there is a baseball game going on across the street and BBQ Fest crowds walking around. We walk down to Beale Street via the Peabody and are amazed at Beale Street. It is like Sixth Street in Austin, only with booze in the streets and more people wondering around. Its more like after the bar lets out on Sixth street. Josh and I wonder around and get a frozen drink called a "walk me down." We find a really talented street performer who is playing an instrument like I have never seen. It is a cigar box with two broom sticks and four stings and the sound is amazing.

He takes a break and we start looking for food. We settle on "Pig with attitude" and both get the ribs and tea. The Elvis impersonator gets up and the all of the sudden the "walk me down" has snuck up on both of us. We listen to Elvis songs and get a pic with Elvis... Welcome to my world....

[josh] Chris also noticed a tingling on his right arm. He was on the south side on the way across Arkansas, and since we're rolling with the windows down, he got a nice sunburn on one arm. We'll fix that on the return trip. [/josh] Back to the Hotel for an early night. I am amazed how quickly the frozen drink has zapped my will to be out, all I want is bed. We stop on the way there for a couple more bumper stickers and that is it for the night.