Ducks, MLK and a Limo Ride!!!

15 Jun 2013--On Thursday we headed into another part of town, primarily to see the National Civil Rights Museum and the Lorraine Hotel where Martin Luther King was assassinated, but 1st we stopped at The Peabody, a hotel famous for its ducks.  Yup, ducks!



It is a pretty upscale hotel that brings in tourists to its lobby twice a day, at 11 am and 5 pm.  They have a handful of ducks that actually live on the roof, but have been trained to come down on the elevator every day at 11 am to the big water fountain in the lobby. They swim there all day, until 5 pm, when they return to the elevator and the roof of the building.  They are led by their "duck master",  who makes a grand show of the spectacle!



This starts out a little dark because I am up on the balcony, but then lightens up considerably so you can see the ducks on the red carpet and into the water fountain.  It was cute!



After the show we went up to the roof to see where they lived and to look out on the city.



This is called The National Civil Rights Museum, and they had a lot on the Civil Rights movement, but it is primarily a documentation of the death of MLK at the Lorraine Hotel in 1968.  The street leading to it was lined with flags of famous and not-so-famous heroes of the movement.

 



MLK was shot from the small window in the center of the picture.  It is the bathroom window of a boarding house directly across the street from the motel.



The entrance to the Museum...this gate states his famous quote"...I may not get there with you..." which incredibly was given the day before he was murdered.



The historic perspective is laid out back to the 1600s and thru the sit-ins, etc of the 1960s.



He was here in Memphis to support this worker's rights march.



They also document the FBI's attempt to discredit him and his movement through propaganda, etc.



I don't think I knew that James Earl Ray was an escaped convict.  This 2nd picture is a display of the room he stayed in at the boarding house as it was the day he killed MLK.  Directly down the hall, where you see light on the left side of the picture, is the community bathroom from which he fired.



I also don't think I knew, or I certainly forgot if I ever did, that Ray wasn't caught for quite a while after the assassination, and in London no less.  This map shows where he traveled to before being caught.   And that's the rifle he used.



The museum was a pretty depressing place, so we sought out a church (needed a prayer).  This is an Episcopal Cathedral, pretty but not anywhere near as pretty as most of the Catholic ones we have found.



Capping off our day and our stay in Memphis was a ride in a pink Cadillac to Marlowe's, a barbecue restaurant a couple miles away from Graceland and the RV Park we stayed at.  Class all the way!!!  haha

 

Elvis actually did eat here and they have all kinds of pictures and posters of him.  And each table is populated with a different theme of Elvis pics.  Our table, unfortunately, had Elvis during his latter, chubby years!  Oh well,I still loved him!  haha




And the ride home...this was fun!!!



I am typing this blog as Cathy and I travel back to San Antonio for a month before taking off somewhere else for a little while.  Not sure where we are going then...we keep changing our plans so I guess we will decide later.

Glad to have had the past 3 weeks.  It was good to keep busy and see some nice and fun things.  Hope you enjoyed it, too!