We’ve already been over this….again, patience….Reminds me of that joke of the jackass and his master in the desert. I’ll tell it to you sometime in real life if you’ll remind me.

I want to see Graceland. I’ve always loved Elvis. But for the longest, I didn’t really have anybody who shared in this interest, and if they did, they’d already seen it. Evidently for the majority, this is a one and done trip. And I understand that Memphis isn’t the best city to be alone in, so I needed a road trip buddy.

I still don’t know if I have that. I’m wanting to stay at The Peabody. This is a historical hotel, and it is a bit pricey. But if this is the only time I’m ever going to visit Memphis, I want to live it up and make the most of my time there. I don’t want to drive over from wherever I’m staying and risk missing the ducks’ pilgrimage. I don’t want to have to trust a shady Uber driver to get me from the bars on Beale back over to my VRBO across town. I want to be able to stagger down the sidewalk and into the lobby of my ritzy hotel.

I want to immerse myself in the culture of jazz and see all the things that make it the Delta. I haven’t spent much time at all in West Tennessee, just passing through, so I want the full experience. I want to gawk at the mighty Mississippi and smell the mud and maybe take a ride on a paddleboat through its murky passage. I want to look over fields of cotton, hot and dry, and talk to an old black man on the wood floored porch of a gas station at a four corner dirt road intersection. I can find one. I want to try barbecue everywhere I go and drift dollars down into saxophone cases. I want to sweat and sing and stare into neon lights and wonder where my life will take me if I have the pleasure of living another ten years.

And I want to eat at the Bluebird Cafe.

I expressed my concern to a fellow Elvis fanatic recently about getting to Graceland while it was still there. I’m not convinced that he’ll have enough of a following a decade from now to warrant Graceland being maintained as a museum. She’s confident his fan base is strong, however. But I’m not taking any chances. I gotta get there. To me, it’s now or never. Just like he said. I might even rent a convertible Caddy for cruisin’ while I’m there.