Day 7: Memphis TN -> Jackson MO

So I opened the blind this morning - yesterday the afternoon sun was shining full on the window so it was closed on arrival - and found this:

BRIDGE!!1!

Moreover, whenever the lift in the hotel arrived at the ground floor it made a noise like a puppy having its tail trodden on.  This is all you need to know about the Best Western Plus Gen X Inn in Memphis, TN.

So what else is Memphis known for?  Well, it seems that a Mr E.A. Presley used to live here.  Some sort of front man for a Popular Beat Combo, I'm told.  His former residence is open to the vulgar gaze of the public so 'tis off we go to Graceland.

This, you understand, is not actually Graceland because that's on the opposite side of the main road.  No, this is the reset of the complex containing numerous halls devoted to all aspects of Elvis' life, also restaurants, gift shops and the parking lot, and to get to Chez Elvis you must board a shuttle bus and Lo!

It's nowhere near as big as I thought it might be and frankly nowhere near as kitsch either.  I mean, we Larringtons had one of these wine dispenser gadgets:

although ours was only the single-barrelled version.  This munkeh though:

Don't have nightmares, kids...

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

because it's apparently for smoking cigars through.  Weirdo.

Elvis has indeed left the building

Once you're done with the house it's back across the road for the ancillaries.  Cars:

Oh Lord, won't you buy me...

Motorcycles:

I think this Honda Dream is the same model as that ridden by Robert
Pirsig on the road trip in "Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance"

Tractors^[1]:

Aircraft:

Convair 880 "Lisa Marie"

And footbridges:

There's also a hall dedicated to people who have cited Elvis as an influence.  Kiss?  Joe Perry out off of Aerosmith?  Def Leppard's Joe Elliott?  A bunch of presumed country singers I've never heard of.  And Dolly:

Next to Dolly are The Judds and the only thing I know about The Judds is that they figure prominently in the Puscifer song Cuntry Boner.  Yes, it was co-written by RATM's Tom Morello.  No, you can look the lyrics up yourself.  Graceland: worth a visit?  Yes.  Value for money?  No.  The Delta Blues Museum wins that one hands-down.  Clicky here for MOAR Graceland photos.

Gracelanded-out by lunchtime, I instructed Emily to take me to the bridge where the rivers collide.  According to one Andrew "Pokey LaFarge" Heissler anyway.  This required about three hours northbound up I-55, where the continued high temperatures and heavy truck traffic provided good hunting for the Goodyear's southern buzzard, a large raptor that lives off the carcasses of exploded lorry tyres^[2].  The rivers in question are the Ohio and the Mississippi, and they collide just south of Cairo IL.  Where, it must be said, the Ohio carries considerably more water than the Mississippi.  Thus according to the geographers the Ohio ought to be considered the main stem.  With that and the most distant source being the headwaters of the Missouri on the Montana/Idaho border, the actual Mississippi starts to look like a bit of a fraud.  Also, there isn't a bridge where the rivers collide:

To the left, the Ohio; to the right the Mississippi

There are bridges over both rivers not far upstream but...  The song in question is called Cairo Illinois, Cairo being the nearest thing to a ghost town I've ever seen without actually being one.  I've seen livelier cemeteries.  So it's not inconceivable that if you did fetch up in Cairo on a Saturday night jumping in the river might be the closest thing to entertainment on offer.  The far bank of the Ohio is Kentucky, so I popped over there to notch up five states in a day before returning to Missouri and heading north again.

1. Just the one tractor, actually
2. May contain traces of Lie