The King's House and the Lorraine Motel

Plot and Duck expected Graceland to be garish and overstuffed, to show how over the top Elvis Presley was in his real life. But it ain't so. You leave Graceland feeling like Elvis was in his heart a country musician who found himself on this train that took off and brought him to professional levels he'd never even imagined, while down deep he wasn't much more than a country kid. Graceland has its crazily-decorated rooms, and its display cases of memorabilia, but really it's not all that fancy. Plot has been in dozens of homes in Southern California that, except for the white picket fences and horses grazing, would be considered far, far fancier than Elvis's home.

Plot would kill for his little side building with the upright piano and all the leather chairs. Of course, there's a racketball court there too.



It takes far longer to wait in the line and take the shuttle bus into the grounds than it does to walk through the grounds and back to the shuttle bus. With Senior Discount: $24.

Afterwards, Plot and Duck and DC Niecie and Chris drove downtown and toured the National Civil Rights Museum. Plot will write more about this later on -- it's stunning, but they don't allow any photos at all. The museum is built on the site of the Lorraine Motel, where MLK was shot, and his room is still there the way he left it when he walked out onto the balcony. The motel sign itself stops your heart when you see it, and then you look over at the balcony where a giant wreath marks the spot where the man fell.

Inside you begin to feel the scope of the struggle -- living in the West, we forget how much fear went along with segregation -- one group dominating another by force in every aspect of their lives. When we who are not black ask ourselves why modern black culture seems to have taken so long to begin recovering, and why it is still downtrodden on many levels, even though legal restrictions have been removed, we need to remind ourselves how bitter was the opposition, and what they were up against for so long. You can't visit Memphis without seeing this museum and the lump in your throat will remain with you.

Barbecue: the other night it was chopped. Tonight it will be sliced. Or maybe tonight's the fried chicken.