Beale Street Rocks!

And you left that to go see the former home of a dead, fat, Las Vegas
lounge singer?

I remember driving up to the place with some friends, asking the guard
how much it was. He said "10 bucks", and we turned around. Guess I'm not
really a fan...

It's now up to $25 per person -- unless you want the "extended tour"
that includes a tour of Elvis' private aircraft. That tour is
something crazy, like $60 per person.

We drove past Graceland...on our way to dinner. No way would I pay
anything to see the inside of that place. We didn't even take a
picture.

Sun Records, on the other hand, was well worth the $10 per-person fee
for the tour. To stand on the exact spot where Jerry Lee Lewis,
Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and, yes, Elvis recorded their greatest
hits was a real thrill. (The place is on the National Historic
Register, perfectly preserved, and the tour guides are fantastic.)

And, if you want to know what aviation geeks we really are, we took a
couple of hours to drive over to Memphis International to watch the
"FedEx Air Show".

We saw more aircraft fly into Memphis in 10 minutes than Cedar Rapids
(Class C) gets in a 24-hour period.

To see what FedEx does in Memphis, see these videos:

http://tinyurl.com/3xcjou

and

http://tinyurl.com/2r6bjn

It's absolutely amazing.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
It's now up to $25 per person -- unless you want the "extended tour"
that includes a tour of Elvis' private aircraft. That tour is
something crazy, like $60 per person.


We toured Graceland & both aircraft maybe ten years ago, and the price
wasn't cheap (don't remember now), but it wasn't anywhere near that price.
The mansion was interesting, but not spectacular, it impressed me by the
lack of opulence that Elvis could have had, and the aircraft were, well,
aircraft, again nothing spectacular..

BTW - in 1960 Beale Street was totally off limits to naval personnel from
the Naval Air Station north of Memphis, due to too many sailors coming back
with their nose out of joint (literally), missing teeth, mugged, etc.... We
got kicked out of the Peabody regularly - one guy would check in, then maybe
a dozen others would show up for a poker party, bribe a busboy to get a few
5ths [liters] of whiskey (all of us underage going to aviation electronics
school at the training facility), and let the party begin..... d:-))

We
got kicked out of the Peabody regularly - one guy would check in, then maybe
a dozen others would show up for a poker party, bribe a busboy to get a few
5ths [liters] of whiskey (all of us underage going to aviation electronics
school at the training facility), and let the party begin.....

You guys would have been my worst nightmare at our hotel!

;-)

College students in Iowa City can be remarkably deceptive, looking SO
nice and respectable when they check in... Then, a few hours later,
after a few drinks...look out.

My night manager gives 'em one warning -- and then they're out on the
street, no refunds, don't ever come back. We're incredibly harsh
about this, because 99% of our guests are couples out for a getaway
weekend in the hot tub suites who really do NOT want a bunch of head-
bangers across the hall.

If you've ever had the misfortune of staying in a hotel that doesn't
keep control of parties, you know what a terrible experience it can
be. I've even been told by staff at VERY reputable hotels that there
was "nothing we can do" -- and that's just complete crap.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay,

And, if you want to know what aviation geeks we really are, we took a
couple of hours to drive over to Memphis International to watch the
"FedEx Air Show".


I was privileged to do a story on the Fedex Memphis hub for the
magazine I work for once. Got to see it all. Unbelievable. That and my
visit to "GPS central" with the 2nd Space Operations Squadron in
Colorado Springs were among the most exiting assignments for me as a
reporter.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)