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Yesterday, we woke up to clear skies after the big tornado and thunderstorms of the night before.\u00a0 High was going to be 59 with a light wind.\u00a0 Just right for hiking through the concrete canyons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We hit the streets and rounded the corner to this little shotgun restaurant that I had stopped by the night before.\u00a0 It advertised Mississippi (one of my favorite words!) mud coffee and a nice southern style breakfast.\u00a0 Getting a table, we got our first cup of coffee.\u00a0 It was wonderful.\u00a0 The taste is deep, rich, and very aromatic.\u00a0 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?\u00a0 And it was slathered up with some good gravy.\u00a0 The grits were awesome.\u00a0 Love Cockadoo’s!<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 Our quest was really to find the B.B. King statue that commerates the man and his music in this city.\u00a0 Over hill and dale, because Memphis is a rolling river town with its great hills, we found the building.\u00a0 Yep, B.B. was standing there waiting for us.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I miss southern hospitality and charm.\u00a0 By the way, Elvis is in the building there, but you can only worship one King at\u00a0a time.<\/p>\n
So we wondered back up to Main Street to find some other locations.\u00a0 Turned out that the Ghost River Brewing Company was way on the other side of town.\u00a0 I had already decided that if I couldn’t walk to it or take the Trolley, I would find something else to do.\u00a0 We can get their beer all over town. We debated hoping the trolley, but decided that we still had breakfast to walk off.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Go West, young people.<\/p>\n
We walked down the Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel.\u00a0 This is where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The exhibits show the chronological order of the civil right movements and ends with the issues we still fight today.\u00a0 The movie being shown, “The Witness,”\u00a0highlighted Rev. Dr. Billy Kyles.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
So now, it is late afternoon.\u00a0 I’m not hungry enough for a late lunch (Thank you, Cockadoo), but Rich is getting that hungry feeling himself.\u00a0 We wonder back to Beale Street to see what we can find.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Hope she’s surviving Rick.\u00a0 Of course, EVERYTHING is open on Beale Street.\u00a0 I decide I want to do some souvenir shopping so we might as well stop at B.B. King’s place first.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Man, B.B. wasn’t home!\u00a0 They let us in the door anyway and set us up with a table.\u00a0 Rich orders wings and a beer.\u00a0 I’m just thirsty and not ready for anything more than Coke. It’s a photo op while we wait.\u00a0 I took pictures of the stage and the Lucille wall.\u00a0 The bar reminds me of some of the places back home.\u00a0 Definitely designed for music and not for looks. Wings arrive and they are good.\u00a0 Yes, I tried one and that was I could handle.\u00a0 Another beer later, we hit the gift shop and pick up our official t-shirts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We go next door to A. Schwab’s. This is the original general store in the downtown area.\u00a0 It still looks like that, too! There are so many trinkets and gadgets that probably don’t apply to our lives today.\u00a0 The museum for the store is upstairs.\u00a0 Rich decides to explore and I just wonder around downstairs.\u00a0 Found a great gift for Rick, but just couldn’t spend the money.\u00a0 There was a chain-mail shirt with hood for only $275.\u00a0 Sorry, Rick, how about a nice t-shirt instead?<\/p>\n
We continue through the shops on Beale Street for a while looking at the touristy stuff and trying to find some odd and unusual.\u00a0 With that behind us, it was time for another bar stop.\u00a0 So many bars, so few time.\u00a0 This time, we decided to drop in at the Beale Street Tap Room.\u00a0 This is mostly a tap and bottle bar.\u00a0 It was definitely typical.\u00a0 Rich ordered up Ghost River Pale Ale to check out the local stuff.\u00a0 It wasn’t bad.\u00a0 I discovered a speciality I hadn’t heard about before.\u00a0 They mix Guiness with champagne and call it Black Velvet.\u00a0 I like the song, so I’m going to have to try that before I leave town.<\/p>\n
After a short rest back at the hotel, it was time for dinner.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I get the tamales and chili and Rich gets a half rack of ribs.\u00a0 Did you know that the form of tamales we eat came from Memphis?\u00a0 Neither did I!\u00a0 They were excellent.\u00a0 Ribs were awesome!<\/p>\n
Gary Hardy and the Memphis 2 take the stage and get the show on the road.\u00a0 Now, we are two of about 8 people sitting there at the beginning and we are up front.\u00a0 They can’t miss us.\u00a0 Gary centers his show around the famous Million Dollar Quartet picture behind him.\u00a0 His show is really a history lesson, examples of music, and his just rambling on about whatever comes into his head.\u00a0 You might think that would be scary, but it was great fun.\u00a0 I learned that a song doesn’t end until somebody jumps up in the air. Gary was walking history himself though.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Thanks, Gary and band, for a wonderful hour.<\/p>\n
Time to move on.\u00a0 We wondered the street a little bit.\u00a0 Rich really wanted blues music, but the sounds coming out of the bars was a mix or just rock.\u00a0 Finally, we walk by Mr. Handy’s Blues Hall.\u00a0 Yep, that was blues music of the old persuasion.\u00a0 So in we went.\u00a0 Dr. Feelgood Potts Band was on stage, all 4 of them.\u00a0 The lead guitar, bass, drums and the front man, Dr. Feelgood, on harmonica.\u00a0 We sit at the bar and Rich orders up a beer.\u00a0 I’m looking around at the place, which looks like it was last decorated about 1890.\u00a0 Really cool though.\u00a0 The bartender asks what I want and I just say water.\u00a0 No Black Velvet yet.\u00a0 I look over and Rich is holding a Beale Big Ass Beer!\u00a0 It’s a small keg in your hand.<\/p>\n
We hang out here for almost 2 hours.\u00a0 Dr. Feelgood comes out in the crowd to sell CDs.\u00a0 We strike up a conversation and he finds out we are from Chicago and asks for a holler from the crowd.\u00a0 Everyone loves that we are from Chicago.\u00a0 The second mecca of blues they say. I’m really impressed with the lead guitar player and bass player.\u00a0 Lead is really good.\u00a0 I don’t think there isn’t anything he can’t play.\u00a0 The bass player is great because she is this little Japanese lady holding this rather large bass guitar.\u00a0 But her moves are great.\u00a0 They call her the ice queen because it takes a lot for her to smile.\u00a0 My favorite song of the night:\u00a0 My In-Laws!\u00a0 Feelgood says, “My in-laws are my outlaws.”\u00a0 Hey, that’s what the Zurek in-laws are all called!<\/p>\n
So we stumble out in the night and think maybe it’s time to rest.\u00a0 We’ve been walking all day, had a lot of food, drank some beer, and sleep sounds good.\u00a0 We make our way back up Beale Street.\u00a0 Of course, you can’t just walk.\u00a0 Everyone has something to say.\u00a0 We wave at Kokomo Joe on our way.\u00a0 We say good-night to the doorman at the Blue City Club and thank him for letting us in earlier.\u00a0 And up the street we go to our hotel.<\/p>\n
Wonder what we’ll do tomorrow? Roundevez for sure.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 I need a notebook to record them, but I have yet to buy something.\u00a0 So I’m missing some of the best parts here.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a>