SEPTEMBER 5-9 2019

Day One    We take a short flight to Memphis—the home of American music and we kick it off with a visit to Sun Studios where you can say it all began.  Here Elvis got his start, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis rocked the house and future standouts like Ike Turner and Johnny Cash made history.  This is where the “Million Dollar Quartet” really happened.  Our next stop is a “how it’s done” tour of Gibson Guitar Factory where we will see how music is really literally made.  This evening we’ll venture out to Beale Street—the capital of the blues.

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Day Two  Start the day at the pilgrimage site of all music in America—rock, pop, country and gospel:  Graceland.  We will see it all—the home, gravesite, jets and the new Elvis museum.  Graceland complex has undergone a $45 million expansion, so if you haven’t visited lately, you haven’t visited it.  This afternoon we will change gears and visit the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and the National Civil Rights Museum.  These two powerful symbols of America’s recent history are a must see for any visit to Memphis.

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Day Three  We begin with a museum that doesn’t take itself too seriously—the Pink Palace.  It is literally a pink mansion that gives visitors an in depth look at the history of the industries that shaped the middle South.  This is a fun, educational part of the Bluff City.  Of course, we will see the march of the famous Peabody ducks—where else can you see marching waterfowl?  No visit to Memphis would be complete without a riverboat cruise along the mighty Mississippi.  You will learn about major river events that shaped Memphis like the largest maritime disaster in US history and the capture of Machine Gun Kelly.

Day Four  We take a day trip out of the city today to visit two historic sights.  The first—Shiloh Battlefield, gives us a primer on the Civil War and how it affected Tennessee and the middle South.  In the afternoon, we go back further in time to pre-history Native Americans at Pinson Mounds Archeological Park.  Here giant mounds used in burials and ceremonies dominate the landscape.  A museum displays artifacts found in the park.

Day Five Bill has one last surprise for you before we head home with music, Native American, Civil War, Civil Rights and natural beauty firmly embedded in our memories.

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