Beale Street Rocks!

On 16 Mar 2007 16:47:02 -0700, "GrtArtiste"
wrote:


A dead, fat, Las Vegas lounge singer who during the 25 year period
after his death earned $37 million. Would that I could do half as well
while alive.


I'll settle for 10%. G

And you left that to go see the former home of a dead, fat, Las Vegas
lounge singer?

I remember driving up to the place with some friends, asking the guard
how much it was. He said "10 bucks", and we turned around. Guess I'm not
really a fan...

It's now up to $25 per person -- unless you want the "extended tour"
that includes a tour of Elvis' private aircraft. That tour is
something crazy, like $60 per person.

We drove past Graceland...on our way to dinner. No way would I pay
anything to see the inside of that place. We didn't even take a
picture.

Sun Records, on the other hand, was well worth the $10 per-person fee
for the tour. To stand on the exact spot where Jerry Lee Lewis,
Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and, yes, Elvis recorded their greatest
hits was a real thrill. (The place is on the National Historic
Register, perfectly preserved, and the tour guides are fantastic.)

And, if you want to know what aviation geeks we really are, we took a
couple of hours to drive over to Memphis International to watch the
"FedEx Air Show".

We saw more aircraft fly into Memphis in 10 minutes than Cedar Rapids
(Class C) gets in a 24-hour period.

To see what FedEx does in Memphis, see these videos:

http://tinyurl.com/3xcjou

and

http://tinyurl.com/2r6bjn

It's absolutely amazing.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

BTW: Which of our various airports did Atlas stay at while the family
was playing?

We parked his heinie at Olive Branch (OLV), under the Class Bravo veil
of Memphis International.

It was a bit of a drive to see some of the sights, but MUCH cheaper
than flying into the big airport. (AvGas was over $5 per gallon at
MEM.)

Any idea why the city is called "Olive Branch"? No one at the airport
had a clue.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote:

Any idea why the city is called "Olive Branch"? No one at the airport
had a clue.

From the magic of an internet search, the town was originally named
"Cowpens". They must have given them incentive to change it.

The name was supposedly settled on to commorate the peaceful negotiations
with local first nation bands. It was the name used when the first post
office opened.

Jay Honeck wrote:
It's now up to $25 per person -- unless you want the "extended tour"
that includes a tour of Elvis' private aircraft. That tour is
something crazy, like $60 per person.


We toured Graceland & both aircraft maybe ten years ago, and the price
wasn't cheap (don't remember now), but it wasn't anywhere near that price.
The mansion was interesting, but not spectacular, it impressed me by the
lack of opulence that Elvis could have had, and the aircraft were, well,
aircraft, again nothing spectacular..

BTW - in 1960 Beale Street was totally off limits to naval personnel from
the Naval Air Station north of Memphis, due to too many sailors coming back
with their nose out of joint (literally), missing teeth, mugged, etc.... We
got kicked out of the Peabody regularly - one guy would check in, then maybe
a dozen others would show up for a poker party, bribe a busboy to get a few
5ths [liters] of whiskey (all of us underage going to aviation electronics
school at the training facility), and let the party begin..... d:-))

We
got kicked out of the Peabody regularly - one guy would check in, then maybe
a dozen others would show up for a poker party, bribe a busboy to get a few
5ths [liters] of whiskey (all of us underage going to aviation electronics
school at the training facility), and let the party begin.....

You guys would have been my worst nightmare at our hotel!

;-)

College students in Iowa City can be remarkably deceptive, looking SO
nice and respectable when they check in... Then, a few hours later,
after a few drinks...look out.

My night manager gives 'em one warning -- and then they're out on the
street, no refunds, don't ever come back. We're incredibly harsh
about this, because 99% of our guests are couples out for a getaway
weekend in the hot tub suites who really do NOT want a bunch of head-
bangers across the hall.

If you've ever had the misfortune of staying in a hotel that doesn't
keep control of parties, you know what a terrible experience it can
be. I've even been told by staff at VERY reputable hotels that there
was "nothing we can do" -- and that's just complete crap.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay,

And, if you want to know what aviation geeks we really are, we took a
couple of hours to drive over to Memphis International to watch the
"FedEx Air Show".


I was privileged to do a story on the Fedex Memphis hub for the
magazine I work for once. Got to see it all. Unbelievable. That and my
visit to "GPS central" with the 2nd Space Operations Squadron in
Colorado Springs were among the most exiting assignments for me as a
reporter.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Originally Posted by Jay Honeck

We parked his heinie at Olive Branch (OLV), under the Class Bravo veil
of Memphis International.


--
Jay Honeck

Ahh, that is where I started learning to fly. If you enjoyed watching the FedEx rush hour from the ground, then you need to come back and take the tour of the sort hub. The tour actually starts around midnight and, according to several FedEx pilots, is jaw droppingly impressive. They move an inconceivable (channeling Wallace Shawn) number of packages in just a few hours.

V7

Ahh, that is where I started learning to fly. If you enjoyed watching
the FedEx rush hour from the ground, then you need to come back and
take the tour of the sort hub. The tour actually starts around
midnight and, according to several FedEx pilots, is jaw droppingly
impressive. They move an inconceivable (channeling Wallace Shawn)
number of packages in just a few hours.

THAT would be cool.

As an old newspaper guy, I've always been fascinated by the assembly,
sorting and packaging equipment at the newspapers I've worked for and
with. FedEx has taken these concepts to cosmically different levels
than I've ever experienced...

And, of course, they use really cool jets to accomplish their mission,
all landing in one area within a few hours. Amazing.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

In article .com,
Jay Honeck wrote:
Ahh, that is where I started learning to fly. If you enjoyed watching
the FedEx rush hour from the ground, then you need to come back and
take the tour of the sort hub. The tour actually starts around
midnight and, according to several FedEx pilots, is jaw droppingly
impressive. They move an inconceivable (channeling Wallace Shawn)
number of packages in just a few hours.

THAT would be cool.

I got a tour of the Memphis hub during 'peak'. Peak is their term
for the few weeks before Christmas. I was there on December 20.

As an old newspaper guy, I've always been fascinated by the assembly,
sorting and packaging equipment at the newspapers I've worked for and
with. FedEx has taken these concepts to cosmically different levels
than I've ever experienced...

The amount of sorting that goes on is amazing. The main sorting
area is three levels of conveyer belts about twenty belts wide.
The middle layer is perpendicular to the top and bottom layers.
The packages are scanned as they enter one of the conveyers on the
top level, and then the computer figures out where they need to
end up. There are hydraulic hammers along the conveyers to kick
the packages down to the next level as needed so they end up in
the right bin at the end. Make sure you have enough padding, since
your package will be getting multiple hits and drops as it is
sorted. And watch your step as you walk through the hub, since
tugs have the right of way.

And, of course, they use really cool jets to accomplish their mission,
all landing in one area within a few hours. Amazing.

Being up in the FedEx control tower watching the line of jets on
approach was really cool. They have their own control tower in
case anything happens to the FAA one, but it isn't normally staffed.
The animation of the radar plots doesn't do it justice. Looking
up and seeing 30+ planes on approach and knowing they're all FedEx
is cool.

Even the security screening is interesting. While we were waiting
for our contact at the hub, we got to watch lots of employees
showing up for work. Six or seven standing room only bus loads
would show up every few minutes, and as fast as the buses could be
unloaded, the workers were through security. The trick, besides
everyone being really familiar with going through security, was
that they didn't bother with the silly little bins for your keys.
The tables next to the walk through metal detectors had high sides,
and the workers just chucked their keys down the table as they
hustled through the metal detectors and grabbed their keys at the
end. There was a separate line off to the side for bag screening,
and a second metal detector for every three front line ones to take
care of anyone that tripped the first one. Everyone would be
through security by the time the next bus loads showed up. Even
with a high degree of automation, it still takes lots of people to
load the boxes.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/