Yesterday, we woke up to clear skies after the big tornado and thunderstorms of the night before.  High was going to be 59 with a light wind.  Just right for hiking through the concrete canyons. 

We hit the streets and rounded the corner to this little shotgun restaurant that I had stopped by the night before.  It advertised Mississippi (one of my favorite words!) mud coffee and a nice southern style breakfast.  Getting a table, we got our first cup of coffee.  It was wonderful.  The taste is deep, rich, and very aromatic.  Rich ordered the biscuits and gravy and I got one too with a side of grits. How can you say that you have just eaten the best biscuit in the world?  And it was slathered up with some good gravy.  The grits were awesome.  Love Cockadoo’s!

With breakfast well applied, we headed out to the river again to find the Visitor’s Center. We had almost made it there on Sunday, but they wouldn’t have been open.  Our quest was really to find the B.B. King statue that commerates the man and his music in this city.  Over hill and dale, because Memphis is a rolling river town with its great hills, we found the building.  Yep, B.B. was standing there waiting for us.  Larger than life and all in bronze. Rich got his picture taken and I had an interesting conversation with the little old lady behind the counter.  I miss southern hospitality and charm.  By the way, Elvis is in the building there, but you can only worship one King at a time.

So we wondered back up to Main Street to find some other locations.  Turned out that the Ghost River Brewing Company was way on the other side of town.  I had already decided that if I couldn’t walk to it or take the Trolley, I would find something else to do.  We can get their beer all over town. We debated hoping the trolley, but decided that we still had breakfast to walk off.  Stopping by the hotel, which is just so centrally located, to freshen up and drop off what we purchased in the area, we headed out again.  Go West, young people.

We walked down the Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel.  This is where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed.  The outer part of the hotel is preserved from that time in 1968, but the inside is renovated into a very nice museum that chronicles the Black culture throughout American history from 1619 through today.  The exhibits show the chronological order of the civil right movements and ends with the issues we still fight today.  The movie being shown, “The Witness,” highlighted Rev. Dr. Billy Kyles.  Rev Kyles was a local minister who was helping to lead the civil rights efforts in Memphis and was standing with Dr. King on the balcony at the time of the shooting. Very insightful man speaking of Dr. King and the movement.

So now, it is late afternoon.  I’m not hungry enough for a late lunch (Thank you, Cockadoo), but Rich is getting that hungry feeling himself.  We wonder back to Beale Street to see what we can find.  I see a border collie riding on one of the horse and carriage outfits and feel a little homesick for my Husky wannabe with a little border collie thrown in for good measure.  Hope she’s surviving Rick.  Of course, EVERYTHING is open on Beale Street.  I decide I want to do some souvenir shopping so we might as well stop at B.B. King’s place first. 

Man, B.B. wasn’t home!  They let us in the door anyway and set us up with a table.  Rich orders wings and a beer.  I’m just thirsty and not ready for anything more than Coke. It’s a photo op while we wait.  I took pictures of the stage and the Lucille wall.  The bar reminds me of some of the places back home.  Definitely designed for music and not for looks. Wings arrive and they are good.  Yes, I tried one and that was I could handle.  Another beer later, we hit the gift shop and pick up our official t-shirts. 

We go next door to A. Schwab’s. This is the original general store in the downtown area.  It still looks like that, too! There are so many trinkets and gadgets that probably don’t apply to our lives today.  The museum for the store is upstairs.  Rich decides to explore and I just wonder around downstairs.  Found a great gift for Rick, but just couldn’t spend the money.  There was a chain-mail shirt with hood for only $275.  Sorry, Rick, how about a nice t-shirt instead?

We continue through the shops on Beale Street for a while looking at the touristy stuff and trying to find some odd and unusual.  With that behind us, it was time for another bar stop.  So many bars, so few time.  This time, we decided to drop in at the Beale Street Tap Room.  This is mostly a tap and bottle bar.  It was definitely typical.  Rich ordered up Ghost River Pale Ale to check out the local stuff.  It wasn’t bad.  I discovered a speciality I hadn’t heard about before.  They mix Guiness with champagne and call it Black Velvet.  I like the song, so I’m going to have to try that before I leave town.

After a short rest back at the hotel, it was time for dinner.  Since the Roundevez is closed today, we’ll have to hit Blues City Club. Now according to my source from the first day (Kokomo Joe), this is the second best place in town for ribs.  There’s a band at 7:00 so the timing works out perfectly for us. We get our table, order our beers, and decide on the food.  I get the tamales and chili and Rich gets a half rack of ribs.  Did you know that the form of tamales we eat came from Memphis?  Neither did I!  They were excellent.  Ribs were awesome!

Gary Hardy and the Memphis 2 take the stage and get the show on the road.  Now, we are two of about 8 people sitting there at the beginning and we are up front.  They can’t miss us.  Gary centers his show around the famous Million Dollar Quartet picture behind him.  His show is really a history lesson, examples of music, and his just rambling on about whatever comes into his head.  You might think that would be scary, but it was great fun.  I learned that a song doesn’t end until somebody jumps up in the air. Gary was walking history himself though.  He told stories about the people he knew (Jerry Lee Lewis, Ringo Starr, Carl Perkins, George Harrison), things he did (buy the Sun Records building), and why all the music is important.  Thanks, Gary and band, for a wonderful hour.

Time to move on.  We wondered the street a little bit.  Rich really wanted blues music, but the sounds coming out of the bars was a mix or just rock.  Finally, we walk by Mr. Handy’s Blues Hall.  Yep, that was blues music of the old persuasion.  So in we went.  Dr. Feelgood Potts Band was on stage, all 4 of them.  The lead guitar, bass, drums and the front man, Dr. Feelgood, on harmonica.  We sit at the bar and Rich orders up a beer.  I’m looking around at the place, which looks like it was last decorated about 1890.  Really cool though.  The bartender asks what I want and I just say water.  No Black Velvet yet.  I look over and Rich is holding a Beale Big Ass Beer!  It’s a small keg in your hand.

We hang out here for almost 2 hours.  Dr. Feelgood comes out in the crowd to sell CDs.  We strike up a conversation and he finds out we are from Chicago and asks for a holler from the crowd.  Everyone loves that we are from Chicago.  The second mecca of blues they say. I’m really impressed with the lead guitar player and bass player.  Lead is really good.  I don’t think there isn’t anything he can’t play.  The bass player is great because she is this little Japanese lady holding this rather large bass guitar.  But her moves are great.  They call her the ice queen because it takes a lot for her to smile.  My favorite song of the night:  My In-Laws!  Feelgood says, “My in-laws are my outlaws.”  Hey, that’s what the Zurek in-laws are all called!

So we stumble out in the night and think maybe it’s time to rest.  We’ve been walking all day, had a lot of food, drank some beer, and sleep sounds good.  We make our way back up Beale Street.  Of course, you can’t just walk.  Everyone has something to say.  We wave at Kokomo Joe on our way.  We say good-night to the doorman at the Blue City Club and thank him for letting us in earlier.  And up the street we go to our hotel.

Wonder what we’ll do tomorrow? Roundevez for sure.

P.S. There are all these things that we hear, say, or do during the course of the day that I keep trying to remember, but I can’t.  I need a notebook to record them, but I have yet to buy something.  So I’m missing some of the best parts here.