New Orleans Road Trip - Day 4 - Memphis

Had a relaxed morning. Aimee cooked corn muffins for breakfast and we did some laundry. Greg checked out my furnace and we concluded that the smoke detector was going off because of the new smell (the oily surface burning off) so we took the battery out of the detector, opened the windows and let it run until it didn't smell new anymore. That seemed to work.

Looking established - slide out, electricity, water and sewer all hooked up.

Its a nice campsite, considering it is in a city, as there are lots of mature trees (with leaves on!)

After walking around the campsite, Aimee and I walked across the parking lot to Graceland. When George and I were here 8 years ago (on our way to Texas) there was just a small strip mall across from the mansion with a souvenir shop and a place to get tickets, now it is an extensive complex with a large reception area, multiple stores and restaurants.

We plan on going tomorrow.

After lunch we headed into Memphis itself to see a couple of places we had found of interest, on the internet.

Our first stop was the Civil Rights Museum in the Lorraine Motel.

This is where Martin Luther King was assassinated, in 1968, right up there on the balcony in front of Room 306.

It was one of the few motels in Memphis that catered to black people.

There were extensive rooms and displays depicting King's life and his role in the civil rights movement. A video and many more rooms followed the movement from the days of slavery, through various strikes, court cases, segregated bus boycotts,  imprisonment, violent and peaceful protests all the way up to the Black Lives Matter Movement. It was sad, discouraging, embarrassing, shameful but at the same time amazing to think about the persistence and bravery of so many people. It bought me to tears in places. It reminded me of how I felt at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg.

The next stop was to the Victorian Village area, otherwise known as Millionaire's Row. At one point there were 37 huge Victorian houses in the area but there are just a few left now, used as museums, hotels, bed and breakfasts, restaurants and clubs.

We walked the street admiring the facades

believing that we were there just as the houses were closing for the day.

When we got back to the truck we realized that Aimee's watch was slow by an hour (hadn't realized we were in another time zone) and we were able to get into the Woodruff - Fontaine House.

A team of volunteers were starting to put up Christmas decorations. This is looking up the main staircase.

We were given a brief history of the house and the families that lived in it and then encouraged to wander at our own pace. There were just 5 of us visiting at this point in the day. More volunteers than patrons in the house.

Some rooms we peered into from the doorway and others we could walk right into.

Some of the furnishings were original but all were of the time period.

We were able to climb all the way up into the tower rooms and, later, down into the basement too.

A chair used by Charles Dickens was donated. It was quite low, he must have been short.

The beds either had woven bedspreads

or hand stitched quilts.

The "Bubble" quilt in the Master bedroom had been hand made by the lady of the house.

The bubbles were stuffed with batting or with little pieces of paper indicating where the cloth had come from.

Most of the rooms also displayed clothing of the period. It was the era of corsets and they had amazingly tiny waists.

Embroidered and beaded capes that would have been worn over evening gowns. All the volunteers were knowledgeable, passionate about the house and very willing to answer questions and share information.

Embroidered sheers in the dining room. The draperies, rugs and wallpaper were all lovely. The ceiling in the ballroom had started to fall down and under it they found the original painted ceiling that just needed a little touching up.

In the garden, a donated Victorian playhouse.

Back to the campsite and Greg BBQed hamburgers which we had with salad. A game of cards and then we retired to our respective trailers for the evening.