July 4, 2018 and July 5, 2018
Wednesday, July 4, 2018
We have the entire upstairs to ourselves and are very comfortable. Susan and Skip (now to be referred to as S&S) have some excellent habits that Dan and I should adopt. One is to take a walk first thing in the morning on days they don’t work. So, we got up early and took a 3 mile walk in a lovely park located a short drive from their home. All I can say is that we all needed showers after that. The humidity is something we aren’t accustomed to, not to mention that it is already hot outside first thing in the morning. Good thing we exercised, because the day was filled with good eating.
Lunch came next at Elwood’s Shack, a restaurant that has been at the same location for many years. It was shack like in appearance but oddly enough was located next to a shopping mall. I would say it was a barbecue place, but the menu was more sophisticated and varied than that. We were fortunate that Susan’s Mom and sister were able to join us for lunch. Everyone said that their food was delicious, but Dan and I both had the trout tacos which were fantastic. Skip also ordered some sides of jalapeño coleslaw, and a margherita pizza, both of which were great.
Surprisingly, one of the museums we wanted to visit in Memphis was open on the 4th of July. If you ever get the opportunity to visit the National Civil Rights Museum you should go. It is located at the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. The exhibits were very comprehensive and well done. It covered slavery, Jim Crow, sit-ins, Selma Voting Rights Campaign, Rosa Parks, Black Power, Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike, King’s last hours, lingering questions regarding his assassination, etc. We were more exhausted after the museum visit than we had been after our walk. The four of us had been juniors or seniors in high school at the time and it made us think back and examine how sensitive had we been to the Black community’s fight for civil rights? What would we have done differently? How did the civil rights movement impact our own lives? What does the future hold for this country in terms of civil rights given current events such as police shootings of unarmed black men (and boys)? The number of thought provoking questions the Museum generated was unending.
At the time of the King assassination, Dan remembers the riots in Hartford, Connecticut. His high school, Weaver High, was set on fire. It was so damaged that it was torn down and a new high school was built at a different location. Wendy remembers the Hough riots in Cleveland, Ohio, and that the National Guard was positioned at I-271 and Cedar Road which is about 13 miles from downtown.
Then, it was time to head to the Gold Strike Casino located in Tunica, Mississippi. S&S enjoy going there twice a month or so and were taking us out to dinner at a restaurant they enjoy there called The Chicago Steakhouse. It was a little too soon for dinner so Dan and I signed up for some free play at the Gold Strike and then headed over to Horseshoe Casino (I think) where Dan, Susan and I spent some time in the private club area relaxing and enjoying drinks while Skip played some craps. When our reservation time arrived, we headed back to the Gold Strike and enjoyed a fabulous meal. Susan ate a vegetarian meal, while the rest of us enjoyed our red snapper and grouper dinners. All of us partook in the crème brulee cheesecake and bread pudding for dessert. The food was delectable, but the conversation was even better.
After dinner Skip showed Dan and I how to use our free play video poker and we WON a grand total of $25.00. This was done very quickly as S&S had to get up early for work the next day. Once back at their home we all headed right to bed.
Thursday, July 5, 2018
Today we were on our own and drove to Beale Street in downtown Memphis. I’m sure Beale Street comes alive at night with places named Blues Café, Blues City, Jerry Lawler Bar and Restaurant, and B B Kings Blues Club, but during the day it is dead. We ducked into a Starbucks around the corner to get out of the heat and then decided to visit Graceland even though neither one of us is a super Elvis fan. We were in Memphis after all. But that didn’t go as planned either.
When you arrive at Graceland the first thing you do is pay $10.00 for parking. The next thing you do, or at least we did, is freak out at how expensive it is to visit the place. The most basic tour that allowed you to tour the home, see his airplane and some exhibits (excluding his costumes) was $59.00 each. We just couldn’t bring ourselves to part with that much money (and not even see his outfits). The VIP tour cost $169.00 per person. To us the cost was crazy, but there were lots of people paying those prices. We had ice cream at one of the shops selling all kinds of Elvis stuff and left. No where in our travels had we seen prices even closely resembling those at Graceland. We were not Elvis from way-back-when, so we decided to leave.
That left us once again with the question what do we do now? We ended up going back to Beale street and visited the Memphis Rock ‘n Soul Museum. The best part of the place was all of the music you got to hear from the original blues musicians in the 1920’s through todays artists. The Museum also traced the history of some of the local recording studios such as High Records and Staxx. There was a considerable amount of Elvis exhibits including his music, clothing, posters and much more at this museum. It was interesting, but I think both Dan and I were getting burnt out on museums. I’d like to count the number we’ve been to since we started our trip.
The best activity for the day turned out to be a visit to the Bass Pro Shop. A pyramid had been built in 1991 to house sporting events and went bust in 2007. In 2013 it was turned into a huge Bass Pro Shop, along with a hotel called Big Cypress Lodge. It was amazing. Inside it looked like a swamp including water, trees, and buildings. It was very Disneylike including elevator rides to the top of the pyramid, streams, restaurants, a live alligator display, large fish tank with game fish, along with the usual merchandise. It was packed with people. After purchasing some local BBQ sauce, fudge and socks, we started back to S&S’s.
It was time to eat again. This time the four of us went to their favorite Indian restaurant, Bombay House. As expected, it was very good, and we didn’t leave hungry. Back at their home we talked more and went to bed. It has been a perfect visit in so many ways. Hopefully we won’t wait too long before we get together the next time.
BY THE WAY WITH WENDY & DAN 