Any day that starts with Elvis and ends with Fried Chicken is OK with me!

We have emerged this morning unscathed from our first USA tenting experience, in Memphis, Tennessee. We are staying across the road from Graceland, Elvis Presley's home. We spent half a day there, and it was so much fun! There were far too many touristy shops, but seeing his house was just incredible. Elvis had style. We've picked up some style tips from his home decor that might help:

• Green shaggy carpet is in. Especially when you have it on the floor and roof.
• Your living room MUST have a minimum of three adjoining televisions.
• Speaking of minimums, you must have at least 10 golf carts for riding around the backyard in.
• Every chair in your living room must resemble some sort of wild animal.
• That waterfall you always dreamed of? It needs to be indoor. 

The piano where Elvis worked his magic. Can we just say, his house was pure 70's glory.

Elvis' lounge. This fails to capture the fact that the walls are covered in green carpet also

Elvis' mucho famous pink Caddy

After the retro awesomeness of Elvis, our day took a more sombre but equally interesting turn when we went to the National Civil Rights Museum. They have transformed the hotel where Martin Luther King was shot into this awesome and informative museum. Very cool. A statue of Rosa Parks sits inside a replica bus, where she refused to move from her seat for a white passenger. And when you sit down in a seat near her, a speaker from the busdriver starts to play, addressing you as if you are a black person in a white seat. So intimidating! Go Rosa.

The hotel (now museum) where Martin Luther King Jr was shot

We had to rush but we made it to the famous duck walk at the Peabody Hotel. For the un-informed, hundreds of people crowd into the hotel lobby of this big ol' hotel to watch a man in uniform (the Duckmaster! no joke) lead 5 ducks out of their pond, down a red carpet and into a waiting elevator. It's part of a tradition that's been going on for like 70 years. Maybe you had to be there, but.... it was awesome.

One of the ducks sprints down the aisle

Then, as luck would have it, there was a 5km road race on in central Memphis. We had just enough time to go back to the campsite, get the running gear and make the start line. My use of "we" is a strong word - Jess was worried about getting too sweaty - so cheered me on instead. I got to the start line just in time, in a horrible position in the starting grid. Thankfully though, right before the starting gun (and I'm not kidding) everyone closed their eyes and put their hands over their hearts to sing the Star Spangled Banner. Far from being patriotic, I saw this as my perfect opportunity to sneak up a few hundred places in the starting line. Apart from my confusion through the entire race as to whether I was running 5 miles or 5 kilometres, it went pretty well.

Then to finish the night we went to one of those rare places that lived up to both its name and reputation - Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken. Previous looks on the menu had shown some rather over the top options - the 37 piece chicken meal or the 1 gallon (approx 4 litre) coke drink. We shared a comparatively tiny 5 piece meal to finish the day in true Southern style. It was deeeeeeelicious!

Best chicken EVER.