Memphis (October 16)

This morning was cool and clear with a breeze.  

On this morning's tour, our first stop was the Rockin' Soul Museum. The two buses departed at the same time and thus arrived at the museum at the same time.  The theater that showed the introductory movie could seat only one bus at a time.  We were on the second bus. Good-bye 15 minutes of seeing the exhibits. This was too bad because the exhibits were well done. There was a no-picture-taking policy.

We got back on the bus.  We waited for two people who had gone missing.  Eventually we moved on to the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, where we found the missing couple.  They had walked the two blocks.

The Memphis Music Hall of Fame had some interesting items, but it was not nearly as good as Rockin' Soul Museum.  

The King's luggable mobile phone

Grammy's

Isaac Hayes; watch

Jerry Lee Lewis' car above which was the quote,
"If I'm going to hell, I'm going there playing the piano."

The museum was located across the street from BB King's Blues Club and next to the Hard Rock Cafe.  Pam & I decided we'd like to wander around a bit and then walk back to the bus.  When we told this to the tour director from the ship, she threw us attitude, and in doing so concluded the transition in my mind that started at feeling a bit sorry for her and ended in the conviction that she was not up to her job aboard AMERICA.  

In the afternoon, we were back on a bus on route the National Civil Rights Museum.  

The displays in the museum were moving and disturbing. The path through it culminated with passing by the room from which Martin Luther King stepped out onto the balcony where he was shot.

We decided not to cross the street to see the sniper perch used by James Earl Ray.  Instead, we walked a block to a trolley stop where this time we were actually able to catch one, riding it to a stop within a few blocks of AMERICA.

We got back to AMERICA in time to hear a great presentation by lecturer Tom Hook about the birth and early development of jazz and the blues along the Mississippi.  "Ragtime" was a shortening of "ragged time".  "Blues" came from "blue notes".  

After a (too) long stay in Memphis, AMERICA got underway to continue our trip downriver.