Last full day in Memphis. Rich says I’m leaving out a lot of details that he thinks I should include. I think it’s fine or it would be a novel. I don’t time for a novel!
Rick is taking over my house! So I called Rick late last night since we had been out wondering around town again. Sascha is doing fine without me. Good to know. But not to break her routine of sleeping under my side of the bed, he moved in there for the week. She appreciated that since she just couldn’t figure out where to be. Now he tells me that he has moved his guitars into my room. He moved his computer and the PS3 into the living room. Wait, this is only for a week, right?
Some of us woke up a little later today. Couldn’t be those later nights out listening to blues and have a libation or two. We walked down to The Street for breakfast at Miss Sally’s Soul Food. Rich was thinking about chicken and waffles, but opted for a BBQ special omelette. That’s right, BBQ pork right inside the folded eggs with gravy on top. I got the Down South, which was sausage in the omelette. It was good.
After breakfast, we ambled over to the Gibson Guitar Museum again. This time, we went on the factory tour where they show how a guitar is made from start to finish. The tour takes you right on the factory floor in between the stations. It’s a small factory there of only about 65 workers who make the most beautiful things. It was fun to watch the paint booth painting up guitars. The details are incredible. We saw a lavendar guitar made up for Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters. Too bad you couldn’t take one home with you as a souvenir.
We continued our amble back up to the Peabody Hotel. This is a large and rather fancy hotel across the street from our rather modest hotel. As a tradition dating back 79 years, they have a group of ducks that they bring down in the morning and put to bed every evening. The ducks remain in the lobby fountain all day enjoying the guests. We had missed the parade until now. We were determined to watch the 5:00 ceremony to take them back up to their penthouse suite. That’s right, the Peabody ducks living in a special dwelling on the penthouse. In the 1930s, a trainer for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus trained a set of ducks to get on an elevator, come to the lobby and then return by elevator to their penthouse suite. This is the parade that you see everyday at 11:00 and 5:00. We talked to the Duck Master for a few minutes and got all the details we need for the parade.
After a rest at our hotel for a little while, it was time to go back out to The Street for our new 3:00 habit. We returned to Silky’s Oyster Bar for oysters on the half shell and beer accompanied by some blues music from Bill and Lawrence. Yep, the duo now recognized us from the day before and had to stop by our table to chat. We are getting well known on Beale Street. So yesterday was my first day trying the oysters. This time, we got a full dozen and took our time eating them. The larger ones don’t really taste like anything. However, the small ones taste like you are sitting by the ocean. It was wonderful. I just don’t know how I’m going to keep up my new 3:00 habit back home.
Now it was about 4:15. We had plenty of time to walk back to the Peabody and get a place to watch the duck parade. We actually arrived a little early and decided to look in the shops of the hotel lobby. Rich went into Lansky’s. Now, Mr. Lansky had the privilege to dress Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. That ought to tell you something to start with. So he finds this beautiful bowling shirt with embroidiered landmarks of Memphis. It was nice and 100% silk. Then the shock set in when he revealed the price tag. Nope, he just couldn’t justify $140 for a shirt that he couldn’t think of one place to wear it.
So we get our place at the end of the ropes where the red carpet is rolled out. The ducks are excited and bobbing their heads up and down. The Duck Master does his introduction and presents an honorary certificate to someone. Then the steps are put into the water and the ducks walk up and out of the fountain. They proceed to waddle up the red carpet to the bank of elevators, where a door has been left open for their use. The nightly duck parade ceremony is completed for public viewing.
Did I mention that Kix Brooks was in town? His tour bus was parked outside of the lobby entrance when we came in for the duck parade. I didn’t see him personally, but there were a lot of cowboys with silver-tipped boots walking around the lobby and bar area talking in funny accents.
Now it was time for dinner. We returned to The Street for our last evening out. We went to the King’s Palace Cafe for a little seafood. When you looked at pictures of Beale Street from the 20s and 30s, this building and name are there. We started off with gator bites. These were bite-sized pieces of alligator that had been deep fried. Quite tasty, though a little chewier than I had thought they might be. We finished up dinner with some bread pudding. The bourbon sauce covering the dessert was wonderful. It wasn’t a bad last meal for us in Memphis.
Since it was too early to hit Mr. Handy’s Blues Hall, we returned to The Flying Saucer where I had seen a drink I just had to try. We walked in to find the place packed. Our luck, Memphis was playing a home basketball game that night. Everyone was hitting the Saucer before walking over to the Forum for the game. We found seats at an island and waited for the server to come by. Turns out the guy next to us was in a talkative mood. This stranger mentioned a coconut beer and Rich ordered that. Me, I ordered a Black Velvet. I have a new favorite drink. A Black Velvet is half champagne and half Guiness. It was wonderful.
We continued to have a conversation with the Stranger next to us, who had a lot of information. There are plates all over the ceiling celebrating each individual who drank beers by the 200s. The stranger had a 5-plate, which indicated 1,000 beers. When he found out that Rich liked hoppy beers, he recommended the Yazoo Hop Project. It was the perfect choice for Rich. So the basketball game started and we got into that for a while. Then it was 8:00 and time to go. We never got the stranger’s name.
Back out on Beale Street, we made our way through the crowd of basketball fans still streaming down to the Forum. We ducked into Mr. Handy’s Blues Hall and Juke Joint right before the band was starting up. This time, we were able to find a table right off. We settled in to listen to Chris McDaniel and the Bluesmasters. After the first set, Chris came by the table to ask how we were. He noticed us from the other night and was checking in since we had returned. We told him our plans and how much we enjoyed the band and the music they played. He thanked us for our support and hoped we enjoyed tonight as well. It was great. A little bit of blues and little bit of soul. We had a great time.
Then we stumbled our way back to the hotel. Definitely going to miss walking around Memphis, seeing the sights, all the Southern hospitality, and hearing the great blues. It is so nice walking Beale Street and getting into places without a cover charge. When can we come back?
