In the fall of 2010, I decided to rent a car and head east. My trip took me to the east coast and then north to New England.

The first stop was Little Rock Arkansas, where I stopped at the Clinton Presidential Library.

This is a replica of the Cabinet Room in the White House during the Clinton Administration.

My next stop was Memphis, Tennessee. Of course no visit to Memphis is complete without an evening of bar hopping on Beale Street.

Morning coffee on the banks of the Mississippi River in Memphis

Writing diary notes

I was amused to stumble onto Jefferson Davis Park (he apparently lived near here and worked as an insurance salesman,)

It's odd to see statues of BB King and memorials to Howlin Wolf and all of the blues pioneers juxtaposed with statues of Jefferson Davis and monuments to the Confederacy….

…not to mention the Lorraine Motel, the site where Martin Luther King was assassinated. The wreath marks the spot on the balcony where he was standing.

This is the studio where the first recordings of Howlin’ Wolf, Johnny Cash, Elvis, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis were made.

In the early 1950's Sun Records was a small recording studio located here at 706 Union. Owned and operated by Sam C. Phillips, Sun Records became nationally known for giving many local area artists, both black and white, their start in the recording industry.

These included Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Charlie Rich, B. B. King, Rufus Thomas, Howlin' Wolf and others.

--from the historical plaque outside the studio