Day 52: Smoky Mountain National Park

Trying to catch up ----

Wednesday, November 10th - Clingmans Dome

Have you ever seen the Great Smokies? If so, you will easily understand the "WOW" factor of these magnificent mountains. If not, maybe you can relate to our naivete about not having them listed as a must-see trip "destination." Had two different people at campgrounds not suggested we go to Gatlinburg, we might have missed one of top three highlights of our trip.

Pictures can't even begin to capture the majesty of these old hills. I sat and looked and tried really hard to imprint the spectacular views in my memory bank. But alas, you need to just savor the moment and enjoy this natural eye candy.

We arrived at one of the many Information Centers in the Smokies shortly after lunchtime. I asked one of the info volunteers what would be best to see this afternoon and also give us a little hike. After looking us over, she told us to bypass Laurel Falls and go directly to Clingmans Dome. She said, "You look fit enough to make this hike." She also suggested we return to the park really early in the morning and do the Cades Cove loop, as that is the best time to see the animals.

It was a perfect weather day and about 70 degrees, so we headed toward Clingmans Dome. We are used to Acadia National Park in Maine, which is beautiful, but a million times smaller than the Great Smoky National Park. So we drove and drove up and around the mountains. We saw a sign that said, "Beware of snow and ice." I thought they were just getting ready for winter as it was pretty wrm out, until we started passing snow that had recently been plowed off the road.

Another quick stop reminded us how far we were from home -

Partway there, but still need to go higher and higher  -

Clingmans Dome straddles the ridge line between NC and TN. The Dome is a 54-foot cement observation tower that winds around like the inside of a conch seashell, with a ramp that allows you to walk to the top and highest point in the Smoky Mountains - 6, 643 feet. This is the second highest mountaintop east of the Mississippi and the highest point on the Appalachian Trail.

We parked the car, grabbed jackets, gloves, etc., and started up the half mile path to the Dome. From the bottom it didn't look that steep. Signs warned people of the thin air and to go slowly. They weren't kidding. Off came the gloves and jackets, as we were working going up this path....

Look behind us for the path.

A half hour later we made it to the base of the tower and up we went. Ice at the bottom of the tower made it a little tricky walking. The payoff was so worth the struggle up that nasty path! We were blessed to have such a crystal clear day to be on top of the world with a 360 degree view of the mountains and valleys. Having a clear viewing day is seldom the case, as we found out later. How lucky we were to have that info guide send us off on this trail. She knew exactly what was the right thing to do today in the GSM Park.

All is not necessarily beautiful, as from this high point on Clingmans Dome, the devastation of the evergreen trees by an infestation of Wooly Adelgid bugs is sadly evident, as only the skeletons of the trees remain. Nature at work clearing the forest. Sigh.

Happy Thanksgiving! Blog Delay

Black Friday, Nov. 26th -

Sorry for the drop off from our blog postings, but due to lack of Internet access, we are behind. We will catch up eventually. Four-Bit is bedded down for the winter and we have begun our slow trek home.

Hope you and your loved ones had a very blessed and family/friend-filled Thanksgiving. We are in the Northern Neck of Virginia with Don's brother, Dave, and wife, Mag. It was a great and fun food day!

Days 49 - 51: Laundry, Pigeon Forge and Xmas Lights

Sunday, November 7th: Laundry, Planning and Banana Pudding

We had our two play days in Chattanooga and it was time to regroup before moving on. Since we were not prepared for our Gatlinburg area stay, we took today to pull some loose ends together.

The laundry basket was overflowing, so we went to the campground laundry and took along our computers. This is a bustling campground, probably the fullest one we have been in during our whole trip. Maybe people winter here, or as we found out, live in their campers while working in the area (met two of these folks). The laundry was big, so we loaded six washers and logged on to our computers to work on the blog and catch up on bills from home. We also researched and selected our next campground, then Don wrote up directions to get us there.

One man was doing his laundry and told us about a great place to get BBQ pork, "Sugar's Ribs." After our chores, we went to Sugar's for a combo late lunch/early dinner.  The restaurant was perched on a hillside and looked down over Chattanooga, a true million dollar view. Don had a pulled pork sandwich, his favorite, and I had BBQ chicken. The owners told us not to leave without seeing their hillside lawnmowers, the goats. This is the second time we have seen goats or a reference to goats on this trip. The first was in the courtyard of a restaurant on Beale Street in Memphis. What's with goats in Tennessee? We got our banana pudding to go for a bedtime snack.

View from Sugar's Ribs

One of the cute lawn mowers.

Beale Street sign in courtyard, "Irish Diving Goats." We did not see them dive.

Returning to the campground, Don emptied the tanks for an early exit in the morning. Pleasant day, but nothing too exciting, except for maybe the BBQ and banana pudding.


Monday, November 8th: Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

It was an easy, short ride to Pigeon Forge until the last ten or fifteen minutes, due to some major road construction. It is so nice to get to the campground early, a little after 1:00. We took a few minutes to pick out our site on the Little Pigeon River. The river is little, not wide, and there was the back of a big motel on the far bank. We chose our site at the end of the motel with the sound of the rippling brook cascading over the rocks. After setting up the camper, we sat outside for a bit to enjoy the river and peruse the area attraction brochures we got at the Information Center.

Tuesday, November 9th: Winterfest in Pigeon Forge

A touch of background information about the area: Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains. For those of you who have never been here, these mountains are incredible! Pigeon Forge's main drag looks like one long strip mall, with every tourist attraction you possibly could think of - the Titanic Museum, Comedy Barn, Dixie Stampede, Magic Mansion, NASCAR go-carts, mini-golf, ziplines, bungee jumping, etc. Gatlinburg seemed a little more upscale with Ober Gatlinburg (an amusement park), Ripley's #1 rated Aquarium (haven't we heard the #1 aquarium claim before?), Cooter's Museum (Dukes of Hazard Museum, including the orange car, the General Lee, a Dodge Charger) and so much more. Doesn't sound more upscale, does it?

The three local towns are somewhat connected when it come to the Christmas season. Sevierville (pronounced "severe-ville"), Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge all celebrate Winterfest with an unacknowledged competition for the biggest and best display of Christmas lights. A few years ago all three towns turned on their holiday lights simultaneously and blew electrical power for the whole area. On Monday, Sevierville had their big to-do to light the lights. Tuesday was Pigeon Forge's turn and Wednesday was Gatlinburg's. We decided to attend Pigeon Forge's kick-off, even though Christmas seemed months away to us.

We took a trolley from the campground to Patriot Park, as they had a trolley stop a few trailers down from us. Yes, another trolley town, but these trolleys had regular fueled bus motors, unlike the quiet electric buses in Chattanooga and electric overhead powered ones in Memphis. For fifty cents each to ride, it seemed easier than driving and finding a parking place near the park. One of the park attendants told us they flip on the lights around 6:30, more or less. On stage, a bluegrass trio from Dollywood, entertained the crowd with some cool, unusual Christmas music. We had a piece of pizza and some warmed cider and listened to the tunes. Then we got in a looooong line for the free trolley tour of Pigeon Forge's Christmas lights. After tonight we were told it is $5.00 to do this and it was pretty well sold out for the next few nights. Tonight was our golden opportunity, as long as we didn't mind the wait and the cold. In the foothills of the Smokies, the days are beautifully warm as long as the sun is out. Put the sun away and the temps drop like a snowball.

We chatted with folks around us while we waited in line. Around 7:15 the promised lights finally came on at Patriot Park and the Christmas Trollies started rolling. We had a comedian bus driver and the atmosphere on the bus was lively and festive. The Christmas lights around town were truly great and we felt the line wait paid off in fun. Okay, we definitely now have the Christmas spirit!

Day 48: Rolling and Rowing on the Tennessee River

Saturday, November 5th - Head of the Hooch and More

It did not warm up here in Chattanooga, but fortunately the rain stopped and it was a crystal clear day. Yesterday when we were down at the riverfront visiting the aquarium, there was a lot of activity going on along the water's edge. Tents were being set up and people were milling around, so we knew this was preparation for a "happening." When we inquired, we were told that the big high school, college and masters sculling races were taking place today, Saturday. We needed a good walk/exercise and what better place than seeing the sculls with freezing kids/olders going down stream?

Mentioned earlier, Chattanooga was a true surprise. We selected visiting Chatt, as we needed to get from Memphis to the Great Smoky Mountains and did not want to revisit Nashville. Chattanooga was a good midway stopping point. When Don worked for Gibson Guitar, he spent a lot of time in Nashville. I visited once with Don, again for a library convention and another time for a wedding, so we saw so reason to repeat Nashville.

Chattanooga is an exciting, beautiful city! We were told later that Chatt at one point in the 1970's was rated #1 for pollution, as it sits in a bowl and had a lot of manufacturing poisoning the air. The plants cleaned up their act and the city has made a concerted effort to get environmentally clean. They run electric trolleys to transport the masses throughout the city. They also restored/redesigned the waterfront, added many artistic touches - statues, architectural walkways, a waterfall staircase, cool seating along the river, etc. This is the first city we have visited that showed no sign of the current recession. The shops are busy. People walking around were having fun, plus the city is clean and sparkling. Absolutely a great place to visit!

Since it was going to be busy down by the waterfront because of the boat races, we selected a parking garage over by the Chattanooga Choo Choo and thought we'd take the electric trolley into town. Can't go to Chattanooga without seeing the famous train! We found out that the Choo Choo is now used as a hotel and has a couple of restaurants. A man we spoke with said he and his wife were staying in a room on the train. Since it was chilly, I asked how the heat was in on the train. He said they froze last night. Doesn't sound like much fun.

Can you see Don playing conductor?

Bundled up in winter jackets, gloves, hiking boots, and hats and we boarded the trolley into town.  We walked down to the Tennessee River and watched the boat races for awhile. The crowds were gleeful and in a party mood, cheering on their schools' rowing teams. Knowing nothing about this race, a knowledgeable spectator told us the race is called "The Head of the Hooch." Chatt's riverfront has become the relatively new home for this traditional, yearly event. Historically the Head of the Hooch is in its thirtieth year, with the past six years staged in Chattanooga. 1,500 crews compete over the weekend in this second largest regatta in the country. Chattanooga truly is the prefect locale for this race. Spectators can be at seated by the riverside or stand on bridges and look down on the racers as the sculls pass underneath.

We, too, wanted to see the race from up on a bridge, so we walked across the longest pedestrian bridge in the world, the Walnut Street Bridge, over to the North Shore.  The bridge was closed to auto traffic in 1978, repairs were made and the bridge was reopened as a footbridge. Cool concept and a fabulous place to stroll and see the river and city from a new angle.

The North Shore had its own set of attractions. Within a beautiful park was a carousel. We were told that the bones of this rescued merry-go-round were moved to Chattanooga and it was reconstructed. The locals had to carve all the horses and other animals.  We learned that of the 4,000 carousels that once existed in the US, only 150 are still in currently up and running. Rather sad. Amazingly we have seen quite a few carousels on this trip.

Another Gigi relative? [Our friend, Muffy, has a rescued merry-go-round horse named Gigi.]

Before leaving the North Shore, Don wanted to check out the riverboat docked near the park. One of the cooks that was just reporting to work invited us to come on board and look around. He said the boat is permanently docked here and opened as a hotel and restaurant this past June. He said it is far too expensive fuel-wise to take the old riverboat out for nightly tours. Staying a night or two on-board, especially if the weather is nice, could be fun.

 

The day was waning and it was time to return to the campground. Climbing back up to the bridge entrance, it looked like a long, long walk back to the trolley. Don reminded me that it was my idea to do the whole bridge, so I bucked up, bundled up and hoofed it back across the Tennessee River. Hope we get to come back to Chattanooga again some day.

Day 47: Wet & Wild in Chattanooga

Friday, November 5th - Tennessee Aquarium

It was a rainy, overcast, unseasonably cold day, so we needed to do something inside. When I asked the woman at the campground desk what we absolutely needed to see/do in Chattanooga, she did not say, "Go see the train." I was surprised when she said, "Don't miss our aquarium, as it is rated the best in the United States!"  After all, isn't the only thing we know about Chattanooga the song, "Pardon me boys, is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?" The brochure claimed it to be "One of the Top Attractions in the U.S.," according to TripAdvisor. This definitely was #1 on her list. Don and I were leery of this recommendation, as we are somewhat museum-ed out. It was a drab day and the aquarium was down by the riverfront, so we went.

Amazing how local people, of course, know what is best. We have been to quite a few aquariums and many within the past year, including Sea Ocean World in China, and the Tennessee Aquarium here in Chattanooga was truly phenomenal. They have two buildings - River Journey and Ocean Journey. We decided to go to the Ocean first, which turned out to have been the way to go. 

River Journey has the spiky glass roof and Ocean Journey building is to the right.

Ocean Journey was opened in 2005, so it is really new by aquarium standards. The two aquariums are all privately funded with gifts and donations, many from corporations. You walked in and took escalators up 4 huge floors and followed the signs for the exhibit trail. A good part of the museum is interactive and learning-based, without being preachy or boring. Don petted a sting ray. Many of the rays in the non-touch exhibits were incredibly unique in color and patterning, thus very new to us. The butterfly exhibit blew us away and Don had trouble getting me to leave.

We spent a major part of our visit in Ocean Journey sitting and watching the saltwater fish putting on their show in the massive tank that covered three floors. They had comfortable benches in the nooks and crannies, so we found a secluded spot and watched the schools of fish swim by. It was so peaceful. How come all the fish that are the same species/type stay (and swim) together? Isn't that what people generally do, too? We saw two divers enter the tank, one with a microphone, and she spoke to the crowd via a staff member sitting at our feet and using audio speakers outside of the tank. Later they fed the sharks (and other fish), but these fat, well-fed sharks were rather lazy eaters.

One of six sharks in the tank.

After three hours in Ocean Journey, we went to the IMAX movie that was included in our admission ticket. We saw a super 45-minute show on the repair of the Hubble Space Telescope. It felt good to sit, eat a little popcorn and watch the amazing images from space. We felt mighty small in our gigantic universe, which is only one universe of the billions out there, as we left the theater. Actually, rather mind blowing.

Brrrrr. It's now almost five o'clock and we still had the River Journey building to go through. The aquarium is open until 8:00 PM, but after 6:00 no one else can come in. The neat part about it being later in the day is that we felt like we had the aquarium all to ourselves, like the movie, Night in the Museum. Not quite.

River Journey was the older aquarium and river animals just aren't as colorful as sea creatures. Our favorites turned out to be the "Jellies," (some saltwater animals were stuck in River Journey?), a seadragon and a couple of crazy turtles. Okay, we are getting a little tired and silly. See for yourself in the pictures below:

Can you see his sea horse head?

These turtles were a riot. They have long, filament thin fingernails/claws on the ends of their front flippers. The one on top kept rapidly waving these thin nails over the eyes of the turtle on the bottom. Is this some kind of crazed sex-dance of the turtle variety? The poor guy on the bottom kept moving away. You can swim, but you cannot hide!


We are finding Chattanooga to be a pleasant "surprise" city and we are definitely coming back tomorrow to walk along the riverfront. Hope it's a much warmer day.

Days 44 - 46: The Best of the Base & Long Drive to Chat Choo Choo

Blog Readers - Please note, due to poor Wifi access, two blog entries are posted today. If you missed Elvis and Graceland visit, please go back to previous entry.

Tuesday, November 2nd: Navy Base Benefits

As predicted, it started raining. Glad we did Memphis yesterday in the sun. Today was a good workday, time to realign our ducks. First stop was the base pharmacy to get all prescriptions filled. With Don being retired Navy, if you can get your prescriptions filled on base (they don't have all drugs), there is no co-pay.  We did get paper scripts from our doctors before leaving home, as we knew the pills would run out while on the road, but we did not expect/thought we'd have the luxury of being on a base. Bonus!

While the prescriptions were being filled, we went to the base barbershop. One challenge of being on the road is that you can't bop home to your favorite hairdresser (or barber) to get your six-week trim. Six weeks had long come and gone, and we were shaggy. My choice seemed Walmart or the base. Naturally, Don isn't that fussy. The barbers were doing lots of regulation haircuts, essentially buzz cuts. I was a little nervous. I got one of the women barbers and she seems thrilled to cut a woman's hair. She was a Southern sweetie and gave me a decent haircut for $10. Don's cut was $8.50. Now we are a fine looking couple again.

We picked up our drugs and decided to go off base and find a bookstore. I was hoping to get the next book that my book club at home is reading. Maybe the switch to downloading books onto Kindles and Nooks has really taken off or people are not reading down here, but finding a bookstore has been challenging. We found a charming used bookstore, but they didn't have the book I needed. WalMart did not have the book either, so we came back home, settled in on this rainy evening and watched another episode or two of Lost.

Wednesday, November 3rd - More Rain

The morning was spent planning the next leg of our journey to Chattanooga, as we are leaving tomorrow. Part of the planning process, besides selecting and reserving the next campsite, is finding out how long the drive is according to Google Maps and adding more time. You go slower pulling the trailer. Tomorrow will be one of our longest drives of the trip.

It has turned unseasonably cold again, even hitting 28 degrees last night. We considered going further south and abandoning Chattanooga, but weather reports further south gained us nothing and even looked colder. So in planning what to do today, we knew come early evening that we needed to do some camp breakdown prep work, as we needed to get on the road earlier than our usual 10/11 o'clock.

Don declared it was "Flu Shot Day." Ugh. The base only had shots for active duty personnel, so they sent us to Walgreen's pharmacy. It was nice, after it was over, to get these shots out of the way.

From here we went to a fabric store and bought some clear, heavy vinyl to make storm windows for our camper's screen door. It is so nice to have the screen door open to let in the light, but the cold breezes force you to close the door. A lady at another campground gave us this idea, and when asked where she bought the clear windbreaks, she told us she made them. We now have storm windows that stick with velcro on the screen door! Works like a charm. Wonder if Camper's World has caught on to this idea yet?

Returning home, the rain let up and Don went outside to empty the tanks, etc. Off to bed early to get on the road at the crack of dawn!

Thursday, November 4th: Pardon Me Boys, It's Off to Chattanooga

Okay, "crack of dawn" was a slight exaggeration, but we were rolling out of the campground by 8:30. This was one of our quickest and easiest exits. Also, the sun was shining and it looked like a calm and clear travel day. We've learned that with Don doing all the driving and the extra care/attention with pulling the camper, a four hour drive seems like enough. Today was going to be seven or eight hours on the road.

We made sure we had a good book-on-tape, John Grisham's Ford County (Mississippi) Short Stories, to keep us entertained. The two-lane road was good, traffic was light and the scenery beautiful. I had made our gourmet PB&J sandwiches and thought a state park might be a good place for a picnic lunch. Lo and behold, as we looked for a gas station, we passed David Crockett State Park. After gassing up, we returned to the park for lunch. Had we known this beautiful park was about at a mid-way point and had a campground, we would have stayed for the night. We saw 3 really nice houses for the park rangers and their families on site. We drove up a winding hill and parked near a stream. Don found a bench in the sun looking down on the little waterfall and we had a nice respite.

We hated leaving the park on this beautiful day, as a hike to explore the park was calling. But there were places to go and we were falling back a time zone again, so back on the road.

We pulled into Best Holiday Trav-L Park at 4:30 (3:30 Memphis time) and were happy that the long trip to Chattanooga had been so pleasant and stress-free. This campground was quite full, which was surprising, as most have been somewhat empty. People are heading to Florida and warmer places, or maybe here for the winter?

We settled in quickly and went out to a recommended restaurant for dinner, Portafino's. It was Thursday and the restaurant was packed! We found out this was Greek Night and the locals love it. Had we not been so tired and felt more adventuresome, we would have gone the Greek route. Instead we had comfort Italian food with a carafe of Chianti. Another good day on the road and glad to be settled for a few days.

Days 42 & 43: Navy Base, Elvis and BBQ in Beale

Sunday, October 31st: A Day on Navy Base Outside of Memphis

Sunny, beautiful day to just hang out and enjoy the warm weather - 70s and 80s today. This has been one of the nicest days in a long stretch of cold & chilly, so we decided to have a low key Sunday and explore the Navy Base. Our first stop was over at the Navy Exchange and it was huge (to me). We picked up a few needed items. They even had a Clinque make-up counter! Don bought the second season of Lost, as we are now hooked. [Lost is an HBO series about a plane crash on an island, which is not deserted (???) and the 40 some survivors are not being rescued.] Donny and Nikki gave Don the first season as a gift and we saved it for our travels. Sometimes we are in a campground with no TV reception and one or two episodes an evening can be pretty relaxing, if Lost can be considered relaxing(?). After the Exchange we wandered over to the Commissary and resupplied the food lockers - pantry and under bed containers. It felt good to get these chores over and reorganize a bit.

We returned to the camper, opened our red chairs and settled in for cocktail hour outside. Our nearest neighbor, Neal, came and joined us. He's from Cleveland and came down after the spring flood here as a contractor to help clean-up and rebuild the ruined buildings on base. He thinks he'll be here until next March. He rents the trailer next to us. Neal said he's 58 and his wife and beloved dog are back home. Must be a tough, lonely way to live, but he was laid off 20 months ago back home due to lack of construction work. When this opportunity came up to earn some good money, he couldn't say "no." We had a friendly visit and hoped we helped him pass a few hours on a late Sunday afternoon.

Navy campsite. Note: Pix is a few days later after the rain.

Monday, November 1st: Graceland, the Trolley and Beale Street

Today was definitely a tour day for us in Memphis, as it was a beauty outside. Weather reports show that it is going downhill after today, so off we went to the big city. We felt we couldn't come to Memphis and NOT go to Graceland. Don and I liked Elvis and his music, but he was a little before our time. When Elvis hit it big, I was 8 and Don was 9. Our visit to Graceland definitely gave us more respect for Elvis, his music, his movies and the impact he had on his fans.

Many of you may know all this stuff, but for you youngsters or non-fans, Elvis was a really nice guy who hit it big in 1956 with a single "Heartbreak Hotel." The first of his 31 formulaic movies was "Love Me Tender." He had gold records up and down the hallways in his office area, too many to count, but his favorite award was given to him by the Jaycee's for "Best Young Man of the Year." He was a kid at heart and loved to play, which was apparent by all his motorized toys - go-carts, golf-carts, skidoos, etc. - that he raced with his friends around his property. He even made snow for the skidoo. They said he raced his go-carts up and down Elvis Presley Blvd and never was stopped by the police. Memphis loved their boy.

Elvis paid $100,000 for Graceland in 1957, and years later built a racquetball court on the property for $200,000, after discovering his love of the sport. The actual court now houses many of his jeweled costumes, plus more awards/gold records. Elvis was known for his generosity and philanthropy, so he truly believed in giving back. Remember that he gave his mom the famous pink Cadillac? He also never liked liquor, even though there were bars throughout the estate. His favorite drinks were Gatorade, Dr. Pepper and other sodas. I was surprised that he never experienced "stage fright," as I thought that might have been why he abused prescription drugs. His musical talent is unquestionable, but he also was smart. He was not sure what to expect the weekend before making his first movie, so he memorized everyone's lines before the first day of shooting! When singing to crowds of thousands, people felt he was singing just to them. It takes a special musician/actor to connect to your audience in that special way. Too bad he hadn't had better management and TLC, as his life spiraled out of control and he died at 42, alone in his bathroom at Graceland on August 16, 1977. Tours did not include the upstairs rooms of the house.

Entrance to Graceland

Living-room: Check out the length of the sofa.

 

Racquetball Court

Burial site at Graceland - Elvis, mother, father and grandmother's graves.

 

After leaving the mansion, we grabbed a quick banana split to share in an old time soda shoppe for nourishment to keep going. When was the last time you had one of those? We never do this, especially in place of lunch!

The next part of the Graceland Tour was to Elvis' Automobile Museum. He loved his cars and motorcycles, plus his favorite restored John Deere tractor was there. On the other side of the museum were his two jets, which we were able to go inside to check them out. I'm sure at the time the inside of the big jet was magnificent, but now it looked retro, dated and worn.

Famous Pink Cadillac that he gave to his mother.

 

It was now mid-afternoon and we drove to the new Visitor Center in downtown Memphis, which is on the waterfront. I was so excited to finally see the Mississippi River!!! 

Don with BB King

Lin with Elvis

At the Visitor Center we were instructed to leave our car and take the free trolley to tour the city and eventually get off at Beale Street for dinner. We were thrilled to see the old trolleys still running using the electrical wires overhead for power, just like in the old days. We were told they stopped running the trolleys sometime in the 50s, but brought them back sixteen years ago. Riding the trolleys turned out to be one of our favorite, unexpected highs of the day - very nostalgic.

Neal, our trailer friend, told us that Memphis is #1 for crime in the nation. He has yet to go into Memphis because of this problem. With that little bit of knowledge, we knew we needed to be careful and not stray too far from the tourist areas. The actual city looks run down, with many empty stores. We have seen this same thing as we have driven around the country through the various downtown areas. Very sad. Some buildings had signs of restoration, maybe with stimulus money, turning them into upscale apartments or office space. For such a famous city, Memphis really could use a total overhaul. There were tons of police cars patrolling the area, especially on Beale Street.

On the trolley ride, we were stopped at a traffic light. The trolley conductor told us to look to the right at the motel. Just looking at it, you knew what it was immediately - the motel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. It is now part of the Civil Rights Museum, which is next door to the motel. Note the old cars parked next to the rooms. Wished we could have had time to go through the museum. Next trip.

 

We did the entire trolley loop, then went around again and got off at Beale Street. We walked up and down Beale, checking everything out. The two long blocks of Beale Street are historically known for where the blacks congregated, with their variety of shops and restaurants. Toward evening their Memphis Blues music made for a party atmosphere, a place just to hang out with friends after long workdays. Gold notes with famous Memphis musicians' names are embedded in the sidewalks.  Additionally, signs with history tidbits of the area are posted up and down the street.

We had asked a number of folks in passing which was the best place to get BBQ on Beale. When we kept hearing Blues City Cafe, we knew that was the place.With only ice cream for lunch, we were starving and Blues City was perfect. Don had ribs and fried catfish, while I just had ribs. Both were absolutely excellent choices. The catfish was light, flaky and fried to perfection. It was now 6 PM and we were unfortunately way too tired to stay for the music, which didn't start until 7:00. Sad to miss the nightlife on Beale, but as we found on this trip, we can't quite do it all. We caught the trolley back to the car and wearily drove back to Four-Bit. It was a really super tourist day, with perfect weather for wandering around Graceland and Memphis. We were happy campers as we fell into bed that night.