For reasons I can not explain there is some part of me that wants to see...

After a quality nights sleep in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Knoxville I was off to Memphis; a pilgrimage that I had been planning on for 15 years. In the fall of 1986, early in my sophomore year of college, I bought the album (yes, album, you know vinyl?) Graceland by Paul Simon, which my hallmates and I played into the ground for the rest of the year. MMMmmmm, late night games of Euchre, Cottage Inn pizza, and Graceland on the stereo......well anyhow, ever since I bought that album I promised myself that one day I would visit the real Graceland and play the Paul Simon song as I drove into town. I can actually remember the first time I heard an Elvis song. It must have been in early '78, shortly after his death. I was living in Iran at the time, and my best friend Robbie and I had been invited to a party that the older sister of a friend of ours was having. We were pretty excited to be hanging out with 8th graders (we being in the 5th grade). I remember that our friend's sister and her friends were playing Elvis tapes and dancing around, and we were totally into the music. Later that year when we were vacationing in Thailand I got a couple of bootleg Elvis tapes (which to this day make up my entire collection) that I played to death over the next few years.

I headed into the city for some dinner, I can't remember the name of the street I found, but it is a famous street with a bunch of Blues bars. I had some great barbecue ribs (although I still give the nod to the Dinosaur in Syracuse NY as the best ribs I have ever had), and wandered around for a while listening to music. I wanted to get up early to get to Graceland and then get on the road so I took off for the closest Wal-Mart, which happened to be just over the border in Mississippi. Little did I know as I fell asleep bathed in the warm glow of sodium vapor lights that the next day would bring a challenge that would complete my initiation into the world of VW ownership.....