I think I have finally recovered from the Texas trip this past weekend/week.  It’s a shame that the weekend is already upon me and I have to do it all over again…minus the 40 hours in a car.  Onto the details.

I drove down to Louisville last Thursday.  When I got into town, I stopped by Maniwa’s so I could go hang out with my little bro and catch up on some things.  I miss the days of old when Maniwa would always be at my apartment.  Maniwa and the Rotten family need to move up to Morris area so there could be more of those days again but I digress.  We caught some supper at Ryan’s and then it was back to Ian’s to prepare for the trip to Texas.  It was a long night but a fun one nonetheless.  Lots of ideas being tossed around and fun had by all.

Friday started off real early with a 6 am wake up call and a drive to Bedford, Indiana.  We then return to Louisville and wait for David Parks and Vince Jones to show up so we can leave for Memphis.  It was an entertaining drive to Memphis as we watched the 4 Horsemen DVD.  Hands down the best wrestling dvd documentary that I have seen.  I loved it.  It brought back a lot of great memories and made me a wrestling fan again.  It was the second time in three days that I had watched it and it was just as good the second time.  We had a lot of ignorance and prank calls going on to Axl on the ride.  We started getting closer to Memphis and used Vince’s GPS unit to get some info on hotels.  Then came a lot of hilarious phone calls from Ian calling the hotels and finding out information on the neighborhood “is my shit going to get stolen?” (one hotel actually told us that it might!!!) and price.   He asked The Heartbreak Hotel if Lisa Marie performs sexual favors to anyone that rents a room with that high of a rate.  That provided the best entertainment of the trip.

The next morning was tourist time.  We used the GPS to get to Sun Records in Memphis.  They were the first record studio to sign Elvis and they also had Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis.  We did the tour and I highly suggest it to anyone that passes through Memphis.  The tour guide we had was stoned and kept adding things like “I think that is awesome” or “How cool is that?” to the end of his statements.  You get to stand in the exact spot that Elvis recorded his first song and to take a picture with the very microphone that everyone that recorded at Sun Records ever used.  Here are some pictures from Sun Records:

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Who is cooler than Vince Jones just chillin’ up against the building?

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David Parks and I then scouted out this shopping plaza up the street called the TPI Plaza.  We decided that it was worthy of a picture and when we got up by the sign, we realized that the building behind the sign was Mid-South!  Definitely worth a pic:

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Here is the guitar case for Elvis’

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Here is the outfit that Elvis wore on his very first ever television appearance.  They even play a tape of the performance!:

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They had to sell Elvis’ contract to another company to pay off debt (can anyone say Curse of the Bambino?)  Elvis stopped in one day and sang with Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash & Carl Perkins and the owner recorded it without the singers knowing it.  They released the cd years after Elvis’ death (due to copyright laws) and sell the cd there.  The “Million Dollar Quartet” forget most of the words of the songs and just ad lib and that is included on the cd.

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Here is Ian and me belting one out on the microphone used by Elvis, Orbison, Cash, U2 and everyone else that passed through Sun Records:

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It was then time to take in the historic Mid-South Coliseum before it gets tore down in a couple of weeks.  Many wrestling legends worked there and it was an honor to get to stand outside the building and be able to say that I was at the Mid-South Coliseum.

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We then drove past the venue that has taken over all the action in Memphis making the Coliseum expendable:

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We then made it to San Antonio at about 6 am in the morning on Sunday.  Sleep and on to the building we go.  You can read the results of the show on the IWA Message board so I won’t go into detail on here.  Let me just say that I was very impressed by Low Ki vs. Hotstuff Hernandez…very impressed.

I was also very impressed with Whataburger.  The best cheeseburgers that I have ever had especially from a fast food place.  Yummy Yummy Yummy.  Too damn bad they are only in the farthest south states such as AZ, TX, FL, GA, AL and MS.  I am going to have withdrawal before getting back to Texas in August.

The after party was a good time as well.  A couple of fans hung out with me and asked questions and were very respectful.  I even took a picture of this one guy that had an awesome tshirt:

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We went back to the hotel and slept and then headed back out to Memphis again but we only made it to Texarkana.  That night at the hotel was a great time and something great was taped.  More details later when it becomes available.

I guess that really sums up the trip.  Lots of driving and lots of fun.  I would highly recommend visiting San Antonio and Memphis if you have never been.

Good day.