Walking In Memphis (also Driving)

 Wednesday/Thursday, August 25-26,2021

I didn't plan well enough for this vacation, I think. This was our 3rd time through Memphis, and we've seen the most compelling museums-- Graceland, and the National Museum of Civil Rights, and the Rock and Soul Museum. So I started searching the Internet and finally decided we would go to the Stax Records Museum of American Soul Music. But meanwhile, we realized we had a number of items we needed, and that finding a Walmart might help.

So we decided we'd go to Walmart, then to lunch, and then to the Stax museum. The park is about 15-20 minutes away from downtown, but it is the same distance also from Walmart (in a different direction.) We went to Walmart, where besides picking up what we needed, Joe was able to dump the old oil he'd drained a week earlier at Betsy's. That was all successful, but we messed up our plan by buying meat. We couldn't leave the meat in the car while we went elsewhere, so instead we went back to the RV, unloaded all the stuff, and had lunch there, opting to put BBQ off until dinner.

At about 2pm, we went back into town to go to the Stax Museum. It turned out to be a really good museum. There weren't many people there, and they were being active about cleaning everything all the time (the entire county was under a mandatory mask order--so you can't go ANYWHERE in Memphis at the moment without a mask, including restaurants.) In any case, almost no one else was with us in the museum. So we weren't worried as we wended our way through exhibits on the history of Stax Records, the development of soul music in Memphis, the impact of stars such as Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes, and wonderful stories about the founders of Stax Records. There were also exhibits about soul music from other cities, and a cute area with a dance floor which was playing vintage video clips from Soul Train. It was almost impossible not to dance along with the audiences on the screen!

Ike and Tina Turner Memorabilia

Isaac Hayes's Gold-Plated Cadillac

Soul Train (dance along and Express Yourself)

"Soul Man"

When we left the museum, we decided it was too early to eat dinner. But we didn't feel like calling it a day. So we drove to Beale Street. We'd been there two years ago, at night, when the place was jumping in neon and music and energy. But at 5pm, the souvenir shops were already closed, but the restaurants and bars hadn't gotten started yet. Other than a few other tourists like us wandering aimlessly, there was not much to do or see there, although i did take a few photos. It was STILL too early to eat dinner (although the menus posted in restaurant windows made Joe think he COULD eat, so once again, we went back to the RV for about an hour. We had a big discussion as to which BBQ place to go to, and eventually, after looking at 10 Best and 16 Best lists, decided on Central BBQ, which appears on all the lists and which we hadn't tried last time. So for the third time in one day, we drove back into the city. 

Central BBQ has a few locations, but we went to the one in the center of town--just a block from the Museum of Civil Rights, and a block from where we'd driven only a few hours earlier. The restaurant had tables split up so there was plenty of space to eat. But despite the fact that Central is rated high on all the Best BBQ lists, we were totally underwhelmed. We thought it was really just average, nothing special at all. My best "bite" was my collard greens, and Joe's was his baked beans. The ribs were very disappointing, he said, and my chicken was just average. I took half the latter home, but without much enthusiasm. I was wishing we'd just gone back to the BBQ Shop, where we ate last time we were here, and loved. Or even to someplace on Beale Street (none of those restaurants are ever on any lists--I guess they are just for tourists) where at least it would have been lively. But we just drove back to the RV again, the exact same route we'd taken a couple of hours earlier.

Joey on Beale Street

Thursday, we woke up determined to get some good BBQ at the BBQ Shop, but other than that, I could not find anything at all we really wanted to do! The museum we wanted (The Mississippi River Museum on Mud Island) was closed, and nothing else sounded that exciting. We frittered away the morning with a very late start, so we decided we'd 1) go for lunch, and then 2) decide what to do. 

We headed for the BBQ Shop, but were SO upset when we got there-- it was closed this week so they could refinish their floors!!!!  Besides being disappointed and hungry, we were then at a total loss. We got back in the car and looked up the Best Lists yet again, and finally decided that we'd go to wherever was closest. That turned out to be Payne's, about a mile away.  So we headed that direction.

 Payne's is a tiny place in a cinderblock building with peeling paint in a very decrepit part of town. Inside, the place had 4 tables set up around the perimeter and a small counter with a menu containing about 12 items (all pork, which i don't normally eat) and only 4 side dishes. And yet..... WOW!  The raves were absolutely correct-- the chopped pork sandwich (which is what we both got) was FANTASTIC. It was served on a bun with sauce and slaw. I had them hold my slaw, because i'm not a big slaw fan, but we got it on the side. It was a bizarre yellow color, and upon tasting it, was sort of mustard-vinegary flavored. It was fabulous, and I quickly piled some onto my meat where it "belonged." I didn't eat my bun (extra calories) but the meat was amazing. Joe was moaning with joy, and he proclaimed his baked bean side dish to be "not just good--SPECTACULAR."  (Even I liked them.) This was definitely the kind of place where, if it was local to us, Joe would eat at a couple of times/week. The whole time we were there, a steady stream of customer came by the little service window and left with bags of BBQ. Our only regret was that we had not tasted the sausage and cheese, which was also highly recommended. But I know Joe will want to go back there (he was ready to go back at dinner time!) So our disappointment meant that we'd found a new favorite place.

After leaving, we had to decide what to do. Our choices were 1) the zoo, 2) another small music musuem, and 3) return my dress to JJill, and then go to an antique mall. It was stinking hot again, making the zoo an unappealing option. And we weren't really up for another museum. So we drove further east, found a JJill, and I returned a dress I'd bought before we left home (an errand which had been following us since we left the beach.) Then we drove 10 more minutes to the antique mall. Although I did see some Roseville, none of it was appealing, and there was nothing else to be had. And so, after frittering away the entire day in Memphis, we drove back to the RV. It's hard to find things to do when it is 100% outside, and we just wanted to relax "at home." So that is what we did.

Tennessee

2019-08-19 Monday

We woke up this morning in Tennessee, drove all day (over 400 miles), and we are STILL in Tennessee! But if we just walked over the bridge which is over our heads at the moment, we’d be crossing the Mississippi River into Arkansas. That’s for tomorrow.

But today was all about getting to Memphis. It was in the 90s and felt like 100–I don’t know how we would have survived without air conditioning, frankly. We left our interstate rest stop at 9am, and didn’t make it to Memphis until about 7pm— and that was with the extra hour we gained someplace during the day. So we were driving for about 11 hours today. We made 3 stops for gas, because we want to always have a full tank (and besides, a few of the fills cost a mere $2.16/gallon, which is ridiculously low lately.) We also spent almost 3 hours at a Walmart in Lebanon, TN (a little east of Nashville) to have some lunch and do some shopping—we needed groceries, and that new Jeep battery. Joe handled the battery purchase, and then he left me to finish the food shopping while he went back to the RV to pick up the new one in. Like I said, the stop took a very long time, but we sure needed some food in here!

Lots of Orange at the Walmart (Go Vols!)

During the drive, we of course tried to decide what to do about a place to spend the night. I think maybe i need to get over my aversion to paying for “expensive” campsites, i.e. regular privately owned campgrounds, until the weather cools down. This is the 2nd night we opted for no electricity. I am amazed, however, we are doing as well as we are— our campsite is in the parking lot of the Bass Pro Shop, which is inside a vast pyramid which is a landmark in Memphis. We are, as I said, RIGHT next to the river, and we are under a maze of highways converging on the I-40 bridge which goes over the Mississippi. We found the opportunity for this location on an app called “free parking”, and everyone who recommended this location said it was exceptionally noisy because we are directly under the highways. They were right . But we won’t hear them that much, because we set up the RV with our generator running the air conditioning for the night. It is really quite cool in here! There are 2 other RVs near us, and security guards patrol the lot (they know we have permission from the Bass Pro store to be here, so they are just an added safety measure for us, not a problem.) The Pyramid is very cool— it even has an observatory at the top.


We unhooked the Jeep so we could park the RV in some regular painted parking spaces. After Joe set up the exhaust for the generator (it makes sure no CO2 gets in here), we cleaned up and decided to go get some of that famous Memphis Barbeque for dinner. We drove the Jeep to Beale Street, immediately getting into the tourist thing (hard not to, when we saw all the neon and crowds and music pouring out of all the restaurants!) Many places, however, stopped serving at 9, and it was already 9. So we went into BB King’s, and had dinner there. I have to say, i was not impressed with the atmosphere, but the food was delicious. I had a NOLA Po’Boy sandwich (beef with bbq sauce on a roll) and Joe had a pulled pork platter. We both brought half of our meals home—they were VERY generous!

After strolling down a couple of blocks of Beale Street (which is a closed-off pedestrian plaza), it was time to get back home. I had to finish yesterday’s blog (which I wrote in the car today) and quickly write this one! I’ll add some photos and then it is BEDTIME!