Postcards
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Postcards
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| postcard #3 |
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Day one of the Elvis Pilgrimage is almost behind us. We started the day out at the Titanic exhibition at the Pyramid--a steel and glass pyramid on the banks of the Mississippi, which we're not really sure why it's there. The exhibit highlighted hundreds of artifacts that have been recovered from the Titanic on recent exploration missions. It was well done and utilized modern exhibit display and crowd control techniques--an audio cassette tour that keeps you comfortably moving through the exhibit at a pace that guarantees certain attendance levels and profit margins.
We won't bore you with the nitty gritty details, like how the Titanic was built, and it was the second of three super luxury liners, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda. All I know is I saw my first chamber pot this morning, and I still don't understand it. Two people in a cabin, one steward for eight cabins is sixteen people. Certainly the passengers didn't cart away their own chamber pots. That's a lot of chamber pots for one Steward. Not only that, it was a lot smaller than I ever imagined. I just, well, I won't go into it. The exhibit sets the stage, and takes you through all the grandness of the ship. You feel like going down with the ship would be a small price to pay just to eat dinner they served that night. At which point, you shudder as you hear through your headphones a large thud, and chaos begins to erupt. The soundtrack walks you through the playful exuberance as the passengers start a snowball fight using ice chucks that have sprayed onto the deck, and the excitement turns to concern, and then to panic as you stand on a full-scale replica of the deck, staring into darkness as those passengers must have, looking at dangling ropes that once held the lifeboats. And then there is silence. You are invited to take a few moments to collect your thoughts, and the exhibit changes gears to focus on the heroic efforts involved in the rescue of the surviving passengers, bringing you back up just in time for a stroll through the gift shop. We had to pass on the acrylic paper weight which contains the Titanic logo and an image of the stern of the ship jetting into the air. From the Titanic, the Lisa Marie shuttled us to the Arcade Diner, Memphis' oldest diner and a favorite of Elvis Presley, where he has had a booth since 1958. It was no different than any other urban diner left over from days gone past, other than the plaque along with a photo that indicated the booth Elvis sat in. While capturing the moment on home video, a very perky TV reporter turned to me and said, "Hi, where are you from?" "Atlanta. My friends and I," I said, planting the seed, "have rented a full size conversion van to shuttle us around town." Her eyes lit up. "We call it the Lisa Marie." "Oh, really," she said. "Will you try this fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich for me?" "Of course," I said. "Have a seat here in Elvis' booth," she said as she shoved a microphone in Tony and my face. Unfortunately, I was so excited about trying a fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich, that I forgot to focus on the fact I was sitting in the same booth Elvis once had. (Although it did cross my mind when I used the restroom--I felt the connection.) We don't, at this point in time, have the ability to download the video clip that appeared on this evening's news. But we can give you a rough transcript: Anchor: With Elvis fans everywhere, we have Elvis fans trying Elvis' favorite fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. Shot of Elvis Impersonator taking a bite: "Just the way I like it." Shot of Elvis Impersonator making his own fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. Anchor tells how to make it. Shot of Tony chewing and taking a bite. Tony: "Maybe it would be a little better with wheat bread." More information on how to make the sandwich. Anchor: The sandwich, unfortunately, is high in calories. Tim: "Its unfortunate he passed before the health craze really caught on. If only he could have held on for just a few more years." Recipe for your own high calorie sandwich flashes across the screen. In less than 24 hours, we've made it on the evening news. Not quite our goal, yet. Tomorrow our goal is to go international, or at least national. After lunch, we made our way to Mud Island, an island in the Mississippi River that is home to the Mississippi River Museum, a scale model of Old Man River (that would be the Mississippi), and the Memphis Belle, the first B-something bomber to complete its tour of duty in Europe during WWII and return to the United States. Now the Mississippi River Museum has been around for a few years. It's one of those museums that came about after the days museums realized they have to engage their visitors, but long before the days of M-TV. As a result, we were a little overwhelmed with Mississippi River Information. While a collection of five arrowheads could demonstrate the area was once dominated by Indian presence, the Mississippi River Museum has determined their entire collection of 250-plus arrowheads must be shown. And it was kind of large, with a full-scale model of a showboat we walked through. In fact, it was so real, John and Phil felt compelled to belt out the theme to Showboat, which was enough to clear out the gallery. Come to think of it, our comments and actions cleared out about every gallery we went into. At the end of the museum was, of course, the Elvis Connection. It included a photo of a young shirtless Elvis wearing, and this is open for debate, either a shower cap or a straw hat. And he looked as if he should have a bottle of Soft Scrub and a sponge in his hand, about to scrub the tub after rolling out of bed on a Saturday morning. This was worth the price of admission. The tour completed in the gift shop, before we stepped out to the five-block long scale model of the Mississippi River, which Chris and I were determined to wade from the river's start, all the way to the Mississippi River Delta and the Gulf of Mexico. With every 30 inches equaling one mile, we only made it to the southern border of Illinois before we were hoofin' it far above the model's flood planes. We're back at the Elvis Suites to rest our tired feet for an exciting evening ahead. We've decided to do the room service thing to save time as we've come across an event that begs us to alter the itinerary. The Lesbian Elvis, Elvis Herselvis and her Five Straight Guys are performing at the Automatic Slim's Tonga Club in downtown. We're supposed to be at the International Dance Party at the Agricenter International, but this is a must see. We'll hit up Automatic Slim's and then head for the Agricenter. Until then...
Elvis forever,
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