Don’t forget about the bar-b-que. That’s right, this week we’re in Memphis, Tennessee. We’re staying at the Memphis Jellystone Park Camp-Resort. The campground is five miles south of Memphis in Horn Lake, Mississippi. We have a spacious premium site overlooking the pond. The Adirondack chairs and fire pit are nice additions.
We start our exploration of Memphis with the Historic Memphis Walking Tour by Back Beat Tours. We meet our guide outside B.B. King’s and after a brief introduction head out. Our first stop is the Peabody Hotel to view the famous Duck March.
The ducks are housed in the Duck Palace on the roof of the hotel. At eleven a.m. they ride the elevator down to the lobby and march to the fountain where they spend the day until time to retire at five p.m. All of this happens under the watchful eye of the Duckmaster and hundreds of spectators.
After the Duck March, we take the elevator to the roof to see the Duck Palace and overlook the city. Our guide reminds us that the movie “The Firm” was filmed in Memphis and one scene was shot where we are standing.
Back down on street level, our walking route includes Main Street, Union Street, Memphis Park (formerly known as Confederate Park), Cotton Row, and Court Square. As we walk along the mighty Mississippi we see flooding on the Arkansas side but (we are told) Memphis doesn’t flood.
After lunch at B.B. King’s we board a music bus for the Extended Mojo Tour. The Mojo Tour portion is a 90 minute ride around Memphis with a professional musician who plays the guitar and sings selections that have made Memphis famous. Tour members join in with tambourines and shakers.
We pass Beale Street, Cotton Row, Sun Studio, Stax Studio, Overton Park, the Lorraine Hotel, and early homes of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. We make a brief stop at the Levitt Shell in Overton Park where Elvis gave his first paid concert.
The extended part of the tours takes us back to Sun Studio for a guided tour. Sam Phillips opened Sun Studio (then called Memphis Recording Service) in 1950. The first rock and roll single was recorded here in 1951. Many notable musicians including B. B. King, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis recorded here. The studio is still available for use in the evenings. Any takers?
After the tour, the bus takes us back to our starting point. At that point, Bill and I decide to return to the Peabody and relax with a drink in the lobby. As seating is scarce, we join two delightful ladies from Ireland and enjoy swapping travel tales. I just have to try the Peabody’s signature drink – the Rubber Ducky.
For dinner, we cross the street and duck (no pun intended) down the alley next to the Holiday Inn to find Charles Vergos’ Rendezvous. This is a basement restaurant known for their dry rub pork ribs. Nothing fancy, just good food.
After taking a day off, we head back into the city to tour the Civil Rights Museum. The museum is housed in the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and the Young and Morrow Building from which the fatal shot was fired. You can view the actual room in which Dr. King stayed and see the balcony on which he died. In the Young and Morrow Building you can view the room from which James Earl Jones took the shot.
Other displays within the museum include a replica of the Freedom Riders burned out bus and the “I Am A Man” exhibit depicting a scene from the sanitation strike – the event that brought Dr. King to Memphis.
The museum is very well done and definitely worth a visit while in Memphis.
After the museum we spot a bar-b-que place just across the street from the parking lot. My Central BBQ smoked turkey sandwich is some of the best smoked turkey I’ve tasted. Bill’s pulled chicken sandwich and sausage and cheese plate is also very good.
Our final stop today is the Memphis Pyramid which was originally built as an arena for the University of Memphis men’s basketball program and the Memphis Grizzlies. Now the pyramid houses a Bass Pro Shop and Big Cypress Lodge.
The remainder of our time in Memphis is spent at the campsite, relaxing, and catching up on chores like house cleaning and laundry. Some of you might ask why we didn’t go to Graceland. How much trouble am I in if I tell you that neither of us are really big Elvis fans? Sorry.
We make one final trip into town for a special dinner at Texas de Brazil. Having never eaten in a Brazilian Steakhouse we didn’t know what to expect. We start with selections from a 50 item salad bar (our server warns us not to fill up with salad).
As we finish our salads, our server brings clean plates, tongs, and red/green place cards. She explains that a green place card is a signal for the carvers (Gauchos) to stop and offer meat from their skewer. Red indicates that you’re not ready yet. It’s a constant parade of Gauchos with cuts of beef, chicken, lamb, pork, and sausage. That’s in addition to the cheese bread, cinnamon fried bananas, and garlic mashed potatoes offered by our server. Wow – food coma.
Our week in Memphis is concluding but before we can leave, Bill discovers one of our truck tires is leaking air. The morning of our departure he takes the truck to a nearby tire center. They find a nail and patch the tire. Now we’re good to go.
So long Memphis.
