Memphis

Day#17

I am with my husband in Memphis for a business meeting.

We left Ohio at 5:30 am on Tuesday.

5:30 am.

There were birds in the airport at our gate.

I took pictures to make sure I wasn't just hallucinating 

since it was 5:30 am.

Then there were two.

The lady talking REALLY LOUD obviously didn't get the memo that I purposely wasn't drinking any coffee so I could sleep on the plane

or

 that it was 5:30 am.

Memphis is behind us by an hour so when we landed it was still pretty early so we went to a breakfast place Monte had researched.

The Arcade is the oldest restaurant in Memphis opening in 1919. 

Elvis was a regular customer.

Just outside the restaurant was a historical marker about Memphis and movie making.

I never got to finish reading it because Monte had to take this picture. 

And it started raining.

After a fabulous omelet and deep fried French toast breakfast, we decided to check out the ducks at the Peabody hotel downtown.

Just as we parked in a lot, the skies really opened up. It was pouring! 

We didn't have an umbrella and we weren't super close to the hotel, so we decided to move on to Graceland.

We had been told that it was expensive and underwhelming but I still wanted to at least drive by.

You could see the house from the very busy street in front of it.

Isn't it lovely?

We couldn't slow down enough to get a good clear picture.

It was quite crowded for a Tuesday morning in October.

Across the street we saw Elvis' plane named Lisa Marie.

Again, stunning shot.

And I am guessing this is his car.

Thank you, thank you very much.

About this time my eye started to get really red and itchy and swollen and Monte sneezed and sneezed and sneezed and sneezed and sneezed.

We stopped at a Walgreen's for eye drops.

Well, I can't imagine seeing any more of Elvis 

at Graceland than I did at that Walgreen's.

I wish I had taken pictures of the life-size cut out Elvis's 

but my eye was compromised.

We decided the previous renter of the Jeep rental vehicle must've been a cat lady.

We are both irritated by cats.

In more ways than one.

We decided to find our hotel and see if we could persuade them to let us in early even though it wasn't even lunch time yet.

They wouldn't.

So we went to a few shops.

Had coffee at a Whole Foods that was being renovated 

so the bathrooms were basically port-o-pots in the back of a truck.

Monte decided to take us to a place for lunch that claimed it had world famous fried chicken.

And hopefully bathrooms not in the back of a truck.

Inside was packed with customers and the ceilings were made of rusty tin.

"Tin roof, rusted!"

You're welcome for putting "Love Shack"
into your humming subconscious.

It made for a very loud restaurant so we asked to be seated outside since the rain had stopped.

I loved this chippy door from the patio to the restaurant.

The ladies room door was painted turquoise. I couldn't figure out how to take a picture of it without looking like I was hanging out by the bathrooms taking pictures.

The food was amazing.

My all-brown plate of food.
Fried chicken and fried green tomatoes.

The breading was so spicy I had to pick it off.

It made my lips chapped it was that spicy.

We decided after our meal to order more chicken rather than dessert.

It made a lot of sense at the time.

We saw this parked across the street from the restaurant.

It says "Chicken to die for".  Get it? It's a hearse.

I wonder what the siren is for? 

Parades? 

Express orders?

It reminded me of a hearse that we saw for sale at a gas station in Tennessee on the way home from Orlando over spring break.

Wait a minute! 

Do you think the fine people of Gus's fried chicken bought this hearse last April and turned it into the chicken mobile 
with the siren??

Yeah, me too.

Juan and Carisa really missed out. I texted them a picture of the hearse last 

April telling them to buy it to deliver their delicious Cuco's food in. 

I even said to paint, "Mexican food to die for" on it.

I'm not even kidding!
I am ahead of my time.

After lunch we decided to go to the hotel and plant ourselves in the lobby since hanging out in the rental car made my irritated eye feel like a cat was continuously licking it for sport.

And all the sneezing made it hard for Monte to navigate.

We were a sight to behold.

And slaphappy from the lack of sleep.

We contemplated the sculpture in the lobby.

It is a metal man holding up a woman holding up a kid.

When you ride the glass elevator you get an up close and personal look at their hind ends.

The front desk guy let us in our room early out of either weariness of Monte asking him if our room was ready every 15 minutes or pity at our sneezy, red itchy swollen eye selves.

He even gave us warm cookies.

Every hotel should give out warm cookies.
It helped my eye.

We napped when we got to our room ignoring the air conditioner unit that crackled like it was catching on fire.

We had dinner at Monte's boss's house which was lovely.

Rain kept us from touring their newly renovated patio/pool area.

We had a much needed healthy dinner of 

salmon, green beans and salad.

Monte did what he always does and made the dinner party guests answer a million questions around the table, which was fun.

We talked about favorite movies and concerts. 

Then the conversation turned to all the sculptures in and around their house.

Monte's boss's wife's father was a sculptor.

(Did you follow that?)

He worked in stone and metal.

Get this:

he sculpted the piece in the lobby of our hotel!

The metal man holding up a woman holding up a kid.

They walked right under it at their wedding.

At a different location, 

not the lobby of the Doubletree hotel.

They tried to buy it from the hotel but they wouldn't sell.

What a small world.