{"id":467,"date":"2012-01-23T08:38:54","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T14:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=467"},"modified":"2012-01-23T08:38:54","modified_gmt":"2012-01-23T14:38:54","slug":"memphis-road-trip-first-half-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=467","title":{"rendered":"Memphis Road Trip: First Half Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

And the saga continues.\u00a0 We had an uneventful drive down to Memphis yesterday morning.\u00a0 Not much traffic on a Sunday morning.\u00a0 I so wanted to stop in New Madrid and see the earthquake zone and museum.\u00a0 Just probably not open at 10:30 on a Sunday.\u00a0 So we continued down Interstate 55.\u00a0 Maybe on the return.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Great location!\u00a0 We got checked in, settled in, and ready to explore.\u00a0 The hotel is about 3 city blocks from Beale Street.\u00a0 Nice stretch of the legs to go listen to blues and have a brew.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Beale Street.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 No, sir, this is Memphis!\u00a0 The street is blocked for most of the long block.\u00a0 At 1:00 on Sunday, it was hopping.\u00a0 Trucks were bringing in supplies.\u00a0 Bands were unloading equipment.\u00a0 Music was blaring out of open doors.\u00a0 There was band in the courtyard and the very busty lead singer was wandering the street looking for action.\u00a0 Yes, there were tourists everywhere, including us, snapping shots of the action and landmark buildings.<\/p>\n

About halfway down, we were stopped by a gentleman who called out, “Do you want to know the best BBQ in town?”\u00a0 Now, Rich was going to go on by.\u00a0 Something about the guy made me stop.\u00a0 This is where Kokomo Joe’s spiel began.\u00a0 He asks us to be involved in a little math game.\u00a0 You know the one.\u00a0 Pick a number and perform all these math processes to it.\u00a0 So we picked numbers.\u00a0 Joe began to tell us a little history of Beale Street and ticked off all of the things we needed to see.\u00a0 Yep, he withheld the name of the best BBQ joint for awhile.\u00a0 I let his carry on with his talk.\u00a0 He had a great style and a lot of information.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Down at the end of Beale Street is the W. C. Handy house.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The house was a little bigger than I expected, but he was a band leader back at that time.\u00a0 We walked by the Daisy Theater and I just had to get a picture of Curious Daisy to see.\u00a0 The Gibson Guitar Museum was around the corner.\u00a0 Now this was a must for Rich.\u00a0 Probably more for Rick, but he didn’t come so I had to stop and get a t-shirt.\u00a0\u00a0 It was like walking a kid through a candy store in there.\u00a0 The employees would be bored and play guitars.\u00a0 The patrons stared and shuffled their fit as they walked by the guitar of their favorite star.\u00a0 And that was just in the gift shop.\u00a0 We decided against the tour itself since we knew how they made guitars.<\/p>\n

I was starving by now.\u00a0 The clerk at the hotel recommended Gus’ Famous Chicken when we were ready for chicken.\u00a0 It was Sunday and that sounded good.\u00a0 It was a little bit of a hike up and over the hill to find it.\u00a0 The smell outside was great.\u00a0 Pushing open the door, the place was packed with people waiting.\u00a0 We put our names on the list and waiting in line.\u00a0 Tables opened pretty quickly at this point and we got seated.\u00a0 We ordered up our chicken and fried green tomatoes as the appetizer.\u00a0 Rich ordered up sweet tea and then commented that he understood why so many southerners had diabetes.\u00a0 I told him it might be best to order unsweetened and do the work yourself.\u00a0 Chicken was great and we left room for sweet potato pie.\u00a0 Unfortunately, they had run out!\u00a0 Maybe next time.<\/p>\n

Back out on the street, we decided to walk to the river.\u00a0 That’s the mighty Mississippi.\u00a0 Love that word!\u00a0 We walked through some of the business district to get there.\u00a0 Lots of downtown lofts available.\u00a0 We made it to the Confederate Park overlooking the river.\u00a0 This the vantage point the Confederate Army had in the Battle of Memphis.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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<\/em>?\u00a0 I love history and anything that I can read on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The clerk had told us that bad weather was moving into the area for the night.\u00a0 It was starting to sprinkle and I was tired.\u00a0 We made our way back in the direction of our hotel.\u00a0 Of course, this meant exploring the streets as we went.\u00a0 We made it to Main St as two trolley cars were coming up.\u00a0 These are electric cars with overhead cables that circle the downtown area.\u00a0 One convenient stop is right at the head of Beale Street.\u00a0 The cars look to be 1940s-1950s vintage in green and yellow.\u00a0 I don’t remember hearing any clanging bells though.\u00a0 I guess the flashing railroad lights take care of that.<\/p>\n

Back at the hotel, we put up our feet and checked out the weather.\u00a0 Yep, there was a big one coming in.\u00a0 We opted to watch the end of the Baltimore and New England football game.\u00a0 We decided that maybe tonight wasn’t the time to go out and about.\u00a0 We decided to go to The Flying Fish for a bite to eat and maybe to the Flying Saucer\u00a0Draught\u00a0Emporium\u00a0to check it out.\u00a0 So catfish seemed to be meal of the day.\u00a0 Rich got his fried okra.\u00a0 The food good, but the atmosphere was\u00a0great.\u00a0 Fish everywhere.\u00a0 The Billy Bass Adoption Wall was great.\u00a0 It covered most of the room.\u00a0 The Liar’s Wall was fun.\u00a0 Unbelievable claims!\u00a0<\/p>\n

We wondered up the block to The Flying Saucer Draught Emporium in a light rain.\u00a0 Entering, it looked like a game room.\u00a0 Then we spied the bar.\u00a0 There across the back wall were 57 taps with each dispensing a different beer!\u00a0 It was a beautiful thing.\u00a0 We sat at the bar and worked through the\u00a0 menu until we came up with our choices.\u00a0 I had a Lazy Magnolia Pecan Ale and Rich went for flight of beers.\u00a0 Mine was so-so.\u00a0 They have a daily fire sale too.\u00a0 That’s the beer of the day to the rest of us.\u00a0 Now that was excellent.\u00a0 It was a Belhaven Scottish Ale.<\/p>\n

So time to return to the hotel.\u00a0 The wind had picked up quite a bit, but the rain was still holding off.\u00a0 The pavement was very wet and slick, but it was all humidity!\u00a0 We watched the end of the 49s-Giants game with all the interruptions for the tornado warnings and thunderstorm watches.\u00a0 About 9:45, the tornado sirens went off in downtown.\u00a0 We had been following the Weather Channel and Weather Bug and could see where the bow echos were showing up.\u00a0 Most were north and south of town.\u00a0 We went to the bathroom as the storm hit and waited it out as we watched Weather Bug on our phones.\u00a0 It was pretty fast and we survived.\u00a0 Finally, it was 11:00 and I could go to bed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This morning, it is bright sunshine and expected to\u00a0be in the 50s.\u00a0 We are ready for breakfast and more walking.<\/p>\n

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Billy Bass Adoption Wall at Flying Fish<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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One of the tap walls at The Flying Saucer Draught Emporium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And the saga continues.\u00a0 We had an uneventful drive down to Memphis yesterday morning.\u00a0 Not much traffic on a Sunday morning.\u00a0 I so wanted to stop in New Madrid and see the earthquake zone and museum.\u00a0 Just probably not open at 10:30 on a Sunday.\u00a0 So we continued down Interstate 55.\u00a0 Maybe on the return. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}