An early start today, mainly driven by a need to escape Jimmy Buffett prison but also because I wanted to get on the road to visit a car museum in Tupelo. Before we had even left Vicksburg it was made clear to me that my family were once again going to stamp on my dreams and insisted that we drove directly to Memphis to go to a civil rights museum instead. FFS. The only saving grace was we were able to visit Denny's for breakfast.
 |
| The family truckster outside Denny's |
Breakfast was everything I dreamed it would be and I was delighted to note that Denny's has not given up on serving the pun based 'moons over my hammy' breakfast sandwich. The cherry on the cake was they even do a discounted menu for the elderly so mum's food was a bargain. As was the rest of it.
Next we hit the road for Memphis (and not the car museum) this was quite a good drive with what traffic there was happy to cruise at or around the ton for miles on end. The Yukon is ideal for the job and has an excellent feature where the driver's seat vibrates if you are about to crash into something. During this drive something magical happened. We passed through 7777 miles, those that know me will know there are few things I enjoy more than a good palindrome and 7777 is a good one.
 |
| 7777 at 77 with cruise set to 77 |
We had an interesting conversation in the car where mum asked "what are the black critters you see dead at the side of the road?" I asked if she meant the remains of post blowout tyres that litter the freeways which she assured me she did not. After pointing out a few examples it turns out that the dead critters were indeed tyres........
Thanks to being able to keep to a fast pace we arrived in Memphis in plenty of time for the civil rights museum. I had changed my mind and was delighted to be able to visit, after all who doesn't love museums that are not about cars. After some clever diagonal parking to fit the car into the Air BnB garage we walked to the museum. Only to find it wasn't open on Tuesdays. I was able to console the family by telling them a few MLK facts that I had learned from the U2 song Pride. In defence of the museum it did at least have a few old cars outside it.
 |
| some old cars outside the civil rights museum |
So we reverted to plan B which was to take a trolleybus the 200 meters to Beale street, the heart of the Memphis bar and live music district. There we spent a productive afternoon sitting in the sun drinking beer and listening to a live blues band, this was almost as good as a car museum would have been.
Following on from this we visited the famous Peabody hotel just in time to see the famous duck parade. For those that are unfamiliar it is a bit like the badger parade from Harry Hill but with ducks. Each day the ducks are paraded from the central fountain along a red carpet and into the lift. Odd but worth seeing and a Memphis tradition since the 1930s. If you like slightly fuzzy pictures of ducks getting into lifts then look no further.
 |
| some ducks getting into a lift |
We then took a trolleybus back to our Air BnB, not for any reason beyond the fact it is quite good fun and we had to get a trelfie (trolleybus selfie)
 |
| trelfie |
Emma and Mum returned to the Air BnB which we now had access to beyond just the garage. I stayed out and visited a local cigar bar where I enjoyed a quick smoke and a massive bottle of Coke.
 |
| A cigar bar - not a dating website |
The plan for the evening was to return to Beale street and eat at what was proudly billed as "the third best barbeque restaurant in the world," we chose this one as we admired their modistey and the lady staff member who we spoke to really knew a lot about barbeque. At least she appeared to, in the land of the blind the one eyed woman is king and it would be fair to say none of us had a clue when it comes to this form of cuisine.
Following dining at said restaurant we were a bit more educated and are now considering going into the barbeque food business as if that was truly the third best in the world being either first or second best should be fairly easy to achieve. That is not to say the food was bad it simply wasn't what we considered world class. Following our markedly average meal we headed out onto Beale street in search of live music. We did not have to go far:
 |
| Beale Street by night |
We went to a bar that was owned by an ex-wrestler whose name I have not bothered to remember, it might have had the title 'the lord' in the middle. As can be seen by the following picture Mum and Emma enjoyed it so much they got up and danced, the odd thing being this was during the band's break when the room was absolutely silent.
 |
| dancers |
We headed for home fairly early, chiefly because tomorrow is Elvis day so we have a lot to do. Little do the others know our Graceland tickets include admission to the Elvis Car museum so revenge will be mine.
Oh and although it does not really fit any of the narrative for the day I also took this picture:
Comments
Post a Comment