Memphis (October 14)

view from our cabin's balcony this morning

Bike Rental Saga 

We thought renting bikes would be a great idea this morning. Our waitress gave us the name of an app for company, saying that we should download a second app for another company just in case.

When we got to the bike stand, there was only one bike. And it was from yet another company. While I downloaded that app, set it up and pulled the bike out, Pam walked down to the next station where there were bikes. There were more bikes, however only one was fit to ride. My app would not allow me to access the second bike even though it said I could. We had to spend yet more time downloading and setting up the app on Pam's phone. 

The reason we are tied up at the other end of the island;
a competing cruise line boat tied up at "our" pier.

Finally we were on our way, riding to Mud Island River Park at the south end where after all that, there wasn't much of interest to see.

On our way back, someone told us that there was another bike rack at the top of the access to the parking lot where AMERICA was moored, however, we could not have known that at the time we started on our adventure because we had the wrong rental apps.

After lunch aboard, we headed ashore again for a city orientation tour.

Other than the Lorraine Motel, which is now the National Civil Rights Museum, it was a relatively uninteresting tour that included the Kentucky Visitors Center, Sun Studios and the Peabody Hotel. 

Mosaic Egg outside Visitors Center

Inside the Visitors Center - two kings

From the Visitors Center, we headed to Sun Studios, passing some elegant Memphis (former) homes along the way.

Woodfuff-Fontaine House Museum

All we did there was take some pictures.  We will be returning tomorrow for a tour of the studio, so no big deal.

Can you name the four famous singers in this picture
(answer will be in the blog post about the studio tour)

Our next stop was the Lorraine Motel. This is where Martin Luther King was shot. Today, we were only able to walk around outside it.  On tomorrow's tour, we will go inside.

Our last stop on the tour was the Peabody Hotel to see the duck parade.  Every evening the ducks that swim in the lobby fountain all day walk from it to an elevator that whisks them to their overnight quarters on the roof of the hotel.  It draws a lot of tourists, jamming the lobby and 2nd floor balcony.  

We arrived with plenty of time to choose our viewing sight. Pam & I allowed that we could sacrifice locale in favor of looking around the hotel.  We therefore hopped an elevator to the top floor where we could walk out onto the roof. The view was nothing special, but it was fun to envision the elegant parties that must have been held there over the decades since the hotel was built in 1869.

Returning to the second floor, we found a room containing some of the hotel's artifacts.

We continued to explore, including the huge banquet hall on the second floor where, according to our guide, generations of high school students held their senior prom.

Back on the ground floor, we spent some time in Lansky Bros. - Clothier to the King. This time the King was Elvis.  The story goes that the founder of the store befriended before Elvis became famous.  The racks included some unique clothing.  On all the walls were guitars from famous musicians who had shopped in the store. Whatever I may have thought about the interesting styles and attention-getting colors, clearly the store was to be taken seriously.

note the Peabody ducks in the windows

After the duck parade, we returned to AMERICA which soon backed off the riverbank and proceeded downriver to the Beale Street Landing.

While I am sure there was no cause-and-effect, in the morning, I had written a rather mixed review of ACL management in response to an online mid-trip query. 

This evening, a waitress in the dining room dropped an entire tray of drinks down my back creating what I dubbed the "Frozen Harry". Lots of napkins and apologies flew. The waitress was embarrassed, but not nearly as embarrassed as I was when I had to walk the entire length of the dining room, passed tables of people who had no idea of what had happened, looking like I had wet my pants.

nicknamed the Dolly Parton Bridge