Memphis Road Trip: First Half Day


And the saga continues.  We had an uneventful drive down to Memphis yesterday morning.  Not much traffic on a Sunday morning.  I so wanted to stop in New Madrid and see the earthquake zone and museum.  Just probably not open at 10:30 on a Sunday.  So we continued down Interstate 55.  Maybe on the return.

We arrived at our hotel in downtown Memphis about 12:00. Not much stirring out there and it was easy to find where we need to go.  Great location!  We got checked in, settled in, and ready to explore.  The hotel is about 3 city blocks from Beale Street.  Nice stretch of the legs to go listen to blues and have a brew. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Beale Street.  I was thinking it was your average street that closed up at night and just had the local nightlife that looked blank during the day.  No, sir, this is Memphis!  The street is blocked for most of the long block.  At 1:00 on Sunday, it was hopping.  Trucks were bringing in supplies.  Bands were unloading equipment.  Music was blaring out of open doors.  There was band in the courtyard and the very busty lead singer was wandering the street looking for action.  Yes, there were tourists everywhere, including us, snapping shots of the action and landmark buildings.

About halfway down, we were stopped by a gentleman who called out, “Do you want to know the best BBQ in town?”  Now, Rich was going to go on by.  Something about the guy made me stop.  This is where Kokomo Joe’s spiel began.  He asks us to be involved in a little math game.  You know the one.  Pick a number and perform all these math processes to it.  So we picked numbers.  Joe began to tell us a little history of Beale Street and ticked off all of the things we needed to see.  Yep, he withheld the name of the best BBQ joint for awhile.  I let his carry on with his talk.  He had a great style and a lot of information.  We finally got down to divulging our numbers to him and getting his list of the top 3 BBQ joints. Then he requested pay for his hard work, but I felt he had done his job. Thanks, Kokomo, everything you said so far is true.

Down at the end of Beale Street is the W. C. Handy house.  W.C. is considered to be the father of the blues and recognized to have written the first blues song back around the turn of the century.  The house was a little bigger than I expected, but he was a band leader back at that time.  We walked by the Daisy Theater and I just had to get a picture of Curious Daisy to see.  The Gibson Guitar Museum was around the corner.  Now this was a must for Rich.  Probably more for Rick, but he didn’t come so I had to stop and get a t-shirt.   It was like walking a kid through a candy store in there.  The employees would be bored and play guitars.  The patrons stared and shuffled their fit as they walked by the guitar of their favorite star.  And that was just in the gift shop.  We decided against the tour itself since we knew how they made guitars.

I was starving by now.  The clerk at the hotel recommended Gus’ Famous Chicken when we were ready for chicken.  It was Sunday and that sounded good.  It was a little bit of a hike up and over the hill to find it.  The smell outside was great.  Pushing open the door, the place was packed with people waiting.  We put our names on the list and waiting in line.  Tables opened pretty quickly at this point and we got seated.  We ordered up our chicken and fried green tomatoes as the appetizer.  Rich ordered up sweet tea and then commented that he understood why so many southerners had diabetes.  I told him it might be best to order unsweetened and do the work yourself.  Chicken was great and we left room for sweet potato pie.  Unfortunately, they had run out!  Maybe next time.

Back out on the street, we decided to walk to the river.  That’s the mighty Mississippi.  Love that word!  We walked through some of the business district to get there.  Lots of downtown lofts available.  We made it to the Confederate Park overlooking the river.  This the vantage point the Confederate Army had in the Battle of Memphis.  The last brigade left in town defended their position here against the Union naval attack and the incoming infantry as the last of the Confederates left town.  The battle was about 90 minutes and then everyone pulled out. Can you tell I’ve been reading informational signs and Shelby Foote’s Civil War?  I love history and anything that I can read on it. 

The clerk had told us that bad weather was moving into the area for the night.  It was starting to sprinkle and I was tired.  We made our way back in the direction of our hotel.  Of course, this meant exploring the streets as we went.  We made it to Main St as two trolley cars were coming up.  These are electric cars with overhead cables that circle the downtown area.  One convenient stop is right at the head of Beale Street.  The cars look to be 1940s-1950s vintage in green and yellow.  I don’t remember hearing any clanging bells though.  I guess the flashing railroad lights take care of that.

Back at the hotel, we put up our feet and checked out the weather.  Yep, there was a big one coming in.  We opted to watch the end of the Baltimore and New England football game.  We decided that maybe tonight wasn’t the time to go out and about.  We decided to go to The Flying Fish for a bite to eat and maybe to the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium to check it out.  So catfish seemed to be meal of the day.  Rich got his fried okra.  The food good, but the atmosphere was great.  Fish everywhere.  The Billy Bass Adoption Wall was great.  It covered most of the room.  The Liar’s Wall was fun.  Unbelievable claims! 

We wondered up the block to The Flying Saucer Draught Emporium in a light rain.  Entering, it looked like a game room.  Then we spied the bar.  There across the back wall were 57 taps with each dispensing a different beer!  It was a beautiful thing.  We sat at the bar and worked through the  menu until we came up with our choices.  I had a Lazy Magnolia Pecan Ale and Rich went for flight of beers.  Mine was so-so.  They have a daily fire sale too.  That’s the beer of the day to the rest of us.  Now that was excellent.  It was a Belhaven Scottish Ale.

So time to return to the hotel.  The wind had picked up quite a bit, but the rain was still holding off.  The pavement was very wet and slick, but it was all humidity!  We watched the end of the 49s-Giants game with all the interruptions for the tornado warnings and thunderstorm watches.  About 9:45, the tornado sirens went off in downtown.  We had been following the Weather Channel and Weather Bug and could see where the bow echos were showing up.  Most were north and south of town.  We went to the bathroom as the storm hit and waited it out as we watched Weather Bug on our phones.  It was pretty fast and we survived.  Finally, it was 11:00 and I could go to bed. 

This morning, it is bright sunshine and expected to be in the 50s.  We are ready for breakfast and more walking.

Billy Bass Adoption Wall at Flying Fish
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
One of the tap walls at The Flying Saucer Draught Emporium