Jim and Jamies Great Adventure!

Another tour of Memphis was to the Lorraine hotel, where Martin Luther king was shot, and the civil rights museum. It was definitely a somber tour reminding us all of the terrible days of segregation. We toured the museum and the hotel room King stayed in. From there we went to another recording studio called Stax records. This studio was started by Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle in Jim’s father-in-law’s garage in the late 50’s. After he started getting…

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The Graceland house was the first house Elvis bought at age 22. The house was named after the previous owner’s daughter and he kept the name. He wanted his parents to be comfortable after growing up very poor so he purchased this large home and property and they lived with him. They all stayed in this house till they died and it now belongs to Lisa Marie who still uses it on occasion but when she’s not using it she…

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There are two parts to Graceland, the house and the museum. The museum section contains all kinds of artifacts, picture and history of Elvis from childhood till his death. Oh, and plenty of gift shops. We started off here in his auto museum room. He was definitely into things that you rode in with a large collection of cars, motorcycles, golf carts, snow mobiles, planes and other interesting vehicles. Oh, and horses, too. The museum was fairly large and took…

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One of our tours in Memphis was to Sun studios which was started in the 50’s by Sam Phillips. He turned out many great artists and recordings including Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison. I’ll stop there, the picture below gives a nice sampling of past and present artists that have found their way through Sun studios. They even have a drum set that was used by U2 to record a fairly recent album. The beginning of Elvis’…

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After one day in Tupelo (which was plenty) we headed for Memphis and parked at an rv park that is part of the Graceland property. We were able to walk right across the parking lot to the Graceland museum. Some interesting street names in the campground. Unfortunately, we both had to go to work the next day but when we got back we began our touring of Memphis. We started downtown with an attraction that was recommended to me, the…

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We left Alabama the next day on our way to Memphis but on the way we passed through Tupelo, Ms, birthplace of Elvis Presley. They have his original home and church he attended available to tour so we thought that might be a interesting stop. As expected it was nothing spectacular but it was a very nice tribute. They had the original two room house (complete with outhouse) he lived in until he was 13 when they left for Memphis…

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The next day Jamie said she needed a break. Of course I don’t know how to do that so I headed to the Dick Barber Motorsport Museum. It was another place that was recommended to me and I wasn’t sure what to expect but, as usual, it was another great find. The whole complex sits on an 880 acre property and includes 2.38 mile indy track, the motorsport museum and a park. They’ve been holding the IndyCar Series’ Grand Prix…

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On our way home we decided to stop at the National Space Museum in Huntsville, Al. I probably wouldn’t have even known about it but I remember a couple of years ago Jamie mentioning they had a space camp their and at the time our granddaughter, Cadence, was saying she wanted to be an astronaut and it turns out this is where that space camp is held. Kinda neat in that it has summer camps for kids from 9 years old…

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Friday we took a ride trip to Muscle Shoals, AL. It was a suggested stop by one of Jim’s colleagues at work. I’ve heard of it but didn’t really know much it. Turns out this middle of nowhere place was started by a guy named Rick Hall back in the 50’s and his story is amazing. He basically grew up having nothing and living in a shack with dirt floors. As a teenager he learned how to play the guitar…

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With Jamie’s back and Jim’s mom on the mend we left Jacksonville to start our trek north as summer was on it’s way. First stop was supposed to be Montgomery, AL but our delay had us bypassing that stop. Maybe we’ll be back when we head south for the fall. So our first, and only stop in Alabama this spring was Birmingham. This also happened to be where Jim’s college roommate and his wife, Brenda live. So Jim was excited…

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