First of all, I need to put in an update about the Smoky Mountains. Within the first 3 miles of our hike, we heard a crashing noise in the woods and looked over to see a black, fuzzy butt running away from us. BEAR SPOTTING!!! This was the first bear Nick and I have seen in the wild on a hiking trip, and it was pretty exciting.
So our Exec Dec proved to be a great decision because when we woke up, we were able to take our time, woke up in a bed, etc. it was just nice. The drive was only going to be ~3.5 hours so off we went. Tennessee proved to be a lot more hilly/mountainous than I thought, so it made for a pretty drive. Once we got to Memphis, it was around 2 PM and our first stop was Graceland. I felt a little touristy doing this, but how many times am I going to be in Memphis. I wasn't sure how this was going to go considering the last house tour I went on in Newport, RI wasn't super exciting. We bought our tour tickets and headed off in the bus, which only drove us about 150 yards to the house. My first impression was that the house was not as big as I thought it would be. As soon as we entered the house, my attitude turned around. The décor in the rooms was so 70’s and gaudy, pretty much what Elvis’s brand was. I loved it. My favorite room was the TV room in the basement, but the Jungle Room was just as sweet. I’ll pull up some pics soon, but the Jungle Room was finished with green shag carpeting on the floors and ceiling. We then finished up the tour of the estate by going through the rest of the grounds and his trophy room. The trophy room had all of his gold records, and I was blown away by what he had achieved. I knew that he was a big deal, but I had no idea how big. I liked how in every video clip of him, he was surrounded by gorgeous women, whether it was Priscilla or some girls on movie set, I must have been good to be the King. Next we saw his car collection that, needless to say, was very impressive. After that was his 2 private planes. One was a jet, Hound Dog II, and the other was just a full blown plane, Lisa Marie. The jet had a classic Elvis color scheme of lime green and yellow on the inside, and the plane was just ridiculous.
After that we headed off for the hotel, had to switch rooms due to A/C malfunction, but got a free breakfast out of it. We then headed downtown to get some delicious Memphis BBQ, and it was delicious. We went to Charles Vergos’ Rendevous BBQ and I would def recommend this place. It is set back in an alleyway which immediately adds to the ambience of it. You then walk down into the basement where it is decorated with all sorts of random crap from the deep South. We were able to sit at the bar and I got the ribs/brisket combo, while Nick got the ribs/pulled pork combo. Both were delicious, and what better way to wash down some delicious BBQ than with a ice-cold draft ULTRA. Oh yeah, they had ULTRA and one other beer on draft; I was in heaven. We finished up dinner and headed down to Beale Street which was bumping. It reminded me of Bourbon Street a little bit, with people walking with beers in the street and live music coming from every bar. We then headed down to walk along the Might Mississippi as we made our way back to the hotel.
The river was not as wide as I remembered it, but I think that was because we crossed near the delta last time. None-the-less it was still very impressive. Watching the sun set over the “dividing river of the east and west,” I was very ready to keep driving west to see what our adventure had in store for us. Back at the hotel, we went for a swim to get in some sort of ULTRA activity. After that, it was off to bed to head towards the Big-D tomorrow. ULTRA day 4/39: COMPLETE
JM
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