Have Mercy

From Lisa:
Welcome to Memphis. And what a welcome we have received.

We have a little mascot for our great adventure and he's featured in the above photo. Tiny Elvis! He waves hello to the open road! He will be accompanying us to all of the exciting road trip destinations. We had him stuck up on the dashboard, you know, so he could see out the window, and when I made a turn, he fell off and hit the ground. I called out, "Elvis! Have mercy." Hence the title of today's blog.

Truckin' across Texas, we stopped at the nicest Whataburger in the history of ever. I'm talking marble countertops, impressionist paintings, and no sign of neon orange vinyl anywhere. It was pretty amazing. We crossed the Natural State (Arkansas) and headed over the Mighty Mississip into Memphis. Bright lights and big city! We were super excited to get into town and we decided to grab some good ol' southern BBQ. Take it away Amber...


Amber:
In our quest for authentic local fare, we might have gotten in over our heads. According to the guide book, Dan Neely's Interstate BBQ is the spot for that "down home, funky feel," but they didn't tell the whole story. Here's a brief run-down. Potato Salad - delish. Waitresses - unreliable at best. Atmosphere - uncomfortably out of place. Bathroom #1 - whole toilet paper rolls in the bowl. Which brings us to Bathroom #2 - the door was unlocked, I walk in on our waitress who is holding a baggie of drugs. Seriously. I am 98% sure that's what those crystals were. We pay for the food and high-tail it of there.

My favorite quote of the day came from the gentleman with the grill in the parking lot: "Hey pretty little white girls, did yall just come from church?"

Luckily the night improved when we ventured downtown...

Batey:

So after all the BBQ/restroom hulabuloo, we headed downtown and found Beale Street!! I had downloaded "Walking in Memphis" specifically for this occasion, but I neglected to put the song on my iPod, so we just had to sing it ourselves. Beale Street was so much fun!! It was very busy and lively, and the 3 of us definitely were not dressed for the occasion, but oh well. We walked up and down the street, heard some GOOD live music featuring a female base player who may or may not have had teeth, took my picture with a stranger by the Beale St. sign, and saw a man literally doing backflips down the street. After all of this craziness, we were pooped, so we headed to the Holiday Inn, where we are now writing this. Tomorrow morning we are headed to Graceland - Tiny Elvis is so excited!

Read on tomorrow for an update of our day!!