Culture in Memphis before the concert

I was up for about 3 hours in the middle of the night (6.00am UK time) so I did some work and then managed to sleep again until 7.00am.

I had the included breakfast and had a long chat to a friend on the phone so I didn't leave until about 9.30am. I drove into Downtown Memphis and spent about 30 minutes driving around looking for the National Civil Rights Museum. Eventually I pulled into the Memphis Tourist Center and asked for directions. It appears that my Yahoo directions were telling me to turn left on a road that didn't start to a block further back!

The museum was fascinating and was very well laid out. It's been built into the side of the Lorraine Motel which is where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in 1968. The photo above is taken from the outside and if you look to the right of the wreath then you can see people looking out as they've replicated his hotel room up there. They also have the actual bus which Rosa Parks was arrested on when she refused to move for a white man.

Afterwards I drove up Beale Street (the place in Memphis where all the clubs and music places are) and went to Sun Studio. This is the studio where Elvis Presley made his first recordings as well as loads of others like Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and even recently U2.

I drove out to Tunica and found The Grand Casino quite easily. All along the 61 there (a road about 15 miles long) they have different boards to advertise the various casinos and there wasn't a single one that mentioned The New Cars! Even when I got to the casino (I just turned around in their car park) I could see nothing advertising tonight's concert! Considering The Grand Casino is away from most of the casinos in Tunica, I thought they'd be advertising all their forthcoming shows more. (There were several of the Truck and Roll boxes in the car park.)

I had some lunch and got back to my room by 4.00pm. I did some work and now I'm just about to leave for the first concert of The New Cars Road Rage Tour!!