Tennessee.

Tennessee is a state with a history as rich as it is diverse. From the heights of the Smoky Mountains to the flatland's of the Memphis Delta, Tennessee has dramatic landscapes, historic sites, interesting tales and toe-tapping music. The state of Tennessee is known for its strong musical heritage. Many famous musicians, such as Johnny Cash and of course Elvis Presley, started their careers in Tennessee. Elvis lived in Memphis in the Graceland Mansion, which in 1988 I made my first visit there with my two friends, Scona and Bernie and returned again in 1992 with some of my other friends.

And of course Tennessee has its outdoor beauty, which includes The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is located in Gatlinburg. The national park spans almost symmetrically across the Tennessee and North Carolina border.

Memphis plays a big part in alot of peoples lives around the world as this was the home of one of the greatest singer entertainers the world has known " The King " Elvis Presley who sadly died on my return home from my first ever visit to The United States, on August 16, 1977.

Memphis is Located in the heart of the South, on one of the world's largest rivers, at the junction of two major interstates and three state lines, and is the birthplace of the Blues and the birthplace of Rock and Roll.

And it is situated on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River at the western border of Tennessee. It forms a gateway between two radically different regions of the USA. To the south, lie the poverty stricken farms of the delta, the swampy bayous of Louisiana and that great city of New Orleans. To the north and west are the rich farms of the Midwestern plains.

Downtown Memphis, stretches along the bluff overlooking the Mississippi. Main Street has been converted to a pedestrian mall with antique trolleys and horse drawn carriages providing convenient transportation to the entire downtown area. After the civil war, many Afro-Americans were attracted to the thriving river economy of Memphis.
When a reporter once asked a young army sergeant named Elvis Presley what he missed most about Memphis, the King simply replied, "Everything."

Beale Street, near the southern end of the downtown district, became the center of a vibrant community of black business owners and professionals. At night, it was infamous for its raucous entertainment in its many saloons and sporting houses. W. C. Handy penned the music for Saint Louis Blues, the first commercially successful Blues songs, in one of the Beale's Street bars in 1912. Today, Beale Street is still wonderfully exciting. About three blocks of the old district are packed with blues clubs, restaurants and small bars. On any given night and especially on Saturday nights, you can hear dozens of top quality blues performers. B. B. King's, Rum Boogie's, Elvis Presley's and the Hard Rock Café are all top quality clubs, but even the lowliest dives sometimes feature great entertainment. Many of the clubs also offer some great delta cooking like Bar-B-Q Memphis ribs and Cajun gumbo.

Beale Street and Sun Studios.

Historic Sun Studios is situated in a rather run-down neighborhood just a few miles east of downtown. It is small and not very impressive looking. But this was the starting point for some very young and raw singers recording there music, Muddy Waters, Ike Turner, and Howlin Wolf recorded their earliest blues recordings and Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, and a young electrical worker named Elvis Aaron Presley cut his first demonstration tape and recorded his first hit, "That's all right".

Our second visit we noticed that all the automobiles in Elvis's collection had be moved to another site where you had to pay another cover charge, as in 1988 they where all in the grounds of Graceland, our tour started across the street at the Graceland Visitor Center where we boarded a bus and where driven over the street aptly named Elvis Presley Boulevard into the grounds of Graceland, where we where organized by very professional tour guides on our journey through this magnificent home of The King, they clued up on the life and times of Elvis and where more than willing to answer any questions we cared to ask, we toured the Jungle Room, Music Room also the room where all of Elvis's Gold discs, costumes, film costumes and all memorabilia of Elvis.