Memphis Go Home, You're Too Hot

Day 18; Memphis; 20th July

Sun Studios
Waking up was painful; an early start so we could get on the road and cross into and through Mississippi and into Tennessee by the evening.
Manic pack by dumping the entire contents on the bed into my bag and we were good to go; well, apart from having to leave half of my beads behind :( 

*There's a line in my diary here that says 'need to start wearing underwear'. So I can only assume I didn't wear underwear on this particular day? Glad I documented only the important bits on the trip*

As we're packing up the bus we have our final farewells with Joe before he embarks on his solo travelling to the East coast. Hope he isn't too scarred with what happened last night! 

Getting on the bus today I had a new bus buddy - Hello Matt :) 
Matt, however looked a bit different this morning.
I couldn't quite put my finger on it ....

Matts shaved head.
Photo Credit: Alan Ly
Alan proceeds to tell us how Matt had tried (& failed) to shave his own head last night. 
Hilarious

Into Mississippi and we're off to Walmart (yeeeeey) for our daily food shop. 
A little complication over getting alcohol for Matt because he left his I.D on the bus;
It would seem that if you're buying drink for someone, don't let them stand next to you at the checkout because chances are that its probably 100% likely that they'll also get asked to show I.D which they don't have on them. 

A lunch stop was to follow with the usual sandwich making and our first try of a Twinkie. 
I still don't know what to make of this creation. 
It wasn't horrible, it just wasn't nice either ha. 

A key fact about Emily here; she's never watched any Lord of the Rings or Hobbit films. 
Oh the horror and shame of calling her a friend. 
Colin luckily brought his tablet on the trip and had all the films so we could fix this. 
Forcing her through what probably seemed like 12 days of just the first film I could tell she was hooked ;) 

Many hours later and we crossed the border into Tennessee and headed to our first destination;
Memphis. 
Memphis is home to rock & roll so it was only fitting that we visited the famous Sun Studios where the likes to Elvis recorded songs back in the day. 
Now I'm not really a rock & roll / blues / soul / Elvis fan so this wasn't exactly an exciting activity for me and tbh I found it quite boring. 


Arrived at camp which was just across the road from Graceland, Elvis' home 
Yeeeey, more Elvis :/
& we set up camp, whilst sweating buckets. 
It was bloody hot in Memphis.
Hot & humid. 
Unbearably hot and humid!!
& what do we have for dinner ..... curry! HOT curry!
WHYYY?!!

Our evening plans were to head into Beale St.
We parked up and walked over to the Lorraine Motel; the place where Martin Luther King was shot. 
Great way to set the tone for the evening I know ;) 
Now we're all outside the motel Adrian starts telling us about MLK and that we're outside the room that he was shot and its all very serious. 
& then we're like :/ 
Oh wait, isn't it that room over there?
You know, the one with the memorial flowers & plaque outside?
Maybe. 

So for future reference for anyone planning to visit the Lorraine Motel (now the Civil Rights Museum), it is room 306. But I'm sure you'll figure it out when you see the room with the big wreath outside it. 
Civil Rights Museum
Room 306 ;) 
Onto Beale St and in comparison to New Orleans' Bourbon St it just wasn't that great. Maybe it had something to do with the fact it was a Monday, but still Memphis just wasn't cutting out to be that fun.
We had an hour to wonder down the street so we did a lap and me & Em fell into a bar and had some drinks - Coke if I'm correct? Cray! 

Beale St
Buzzing off the coca cola 
Back to Griffin and back to camp it was early nights all round. 
Pffft, or so we thought.
Into the tent and I get my first glimpse of what mosquitos look like. 
They were everywhere. 
We spent a good hour swatting & squishing the bugs before we were happy to try and sleep.
But sleep we did not.
It was too hot and humid so zero sleep it was. 
Our tent was basically a puddle of sweat by the morning. 
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