#357 Dub Patton Recreation Area below Memphis

We found this federally owned Recreation Center that was fairly near Memphis and we liked it because it's half off with the senior card it was a nice full hook up on a very pretty lake. With the discount is only 10 bucks a night. We went into Memphis the next day and we didn't know exactly what to do. We had been a little spooked too because someone on the TV or something said Memphis had a high crime/murder rate. Finally, we decided that early in the day would be fine but maybe not so good at 2 am.

We ended up taking one of those bus tours it does the whole town and all of the cool sites like a hop-on-hop-off thing but most of the things were closed because of Covid.

I became quick friends with the driver and a person who was in training learning the ropes. I tipped them both well because I wanted to let them know that we appreciate everything that they're going through. We were aware that because of COVID-19 there have been very few tours, tips and so they had very little money coming in lately. We wanted to pay it forward and they were pretty blown away. They thought it was very nice of us and it felt good to pass along some of the stimulus money.

It would have been nice to go to Graceland but it has become a wee bit pricey. For maybe $40 per person, you're allowed to just see to his airplane and that's about it. For $80 a person you're allowed to go into the house but only in a few rooms. For like 150 and you're allowed to see Graceland and I was saying that's okay and I like Elvis and all but it was kind of a bit much. She dropped us off at the visitor center for a while and we just kind of did some reading about the history there.

After that, we went to Sun Records and that was about the end of the tour.

Sun records were the highlight of our trip to Memphis. We learned about the history of how it all got started. We learned about how Elvis had walked in there and sang a quick song and was ignored by Sam Phillips for a year. His secretary forced him to listen to Elvis a little bit more and he said fine I’ll record him I guess and that was what started the whole thing.

It was so cool to be standing in the same spot in the same room looking at the mic where Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash had all been standing. I got goosebumps just being in the same room where all that history happened.

Someone told us to go to the Bass Pro Shop which is the giant pyramid. It's supposed to be heaven on earth but unless you're buying bass tackle or a boat will you weren't quite so blown away. There was a cool elevator that went to the top of a restaurant that was closed for COVID-19 so that sucked. There were all kinds of waterways along the floor with live fish and that was great.

There was a story about how the pyramid had been an indoor stadium and it didn't make it financially so I think that fact they turned it into this had been financially a success story. We left there and went downtown and park and decided to go to the BB King Blues Club restaurant.

Of course, I would have been happier if that had been later in the evening when we could have listened to some good blues music, but all was well. We had a nice overpriced meal but we had a wonderful instant relationship with the waitress. I told her that in my opinion, black lives do matter and we are not the problem and we're sorry that the world is sucking so bad right now. Because I have to tell everybody every thought I have with no filter. She was a gorgeous young African-American lady and I just told her that I think the reason they're such hatred and meanness in our country is it all goes back to some point when white people owned people of color. Even though they were forced to stop owning people they're kind of still pissed off about it 200 years later and I think that that's what makes him soon mean and hateful.

She said I don't know what planet you're from but that's just the coolest thing anybody ever said to me. I don't think anybody's ever been so honest with me. We had the most wonderful experience together. I gave her a 20 tip as well to share the stimulus. With that, I headed back to the campground and we had a nice day of it.

3905 ARKABUTLA DAM ROAD

COLDWATER, MS 38618-6548