Day 59

Day 59: 7/15/15 (New Orleans to St. Louis via Memphis)

688 miles

This morning we woke up around 6:30am hoping to get to Memphis at a decent time, but we found out our laundry still wasn’t dry.  We had ran the dryer twice already and ended up having to run it twice more to get everything dry.  Because of our temperamental laundry, we got to hang around for some bacon and eggs.  We were finally packed up and ready to go around 8am.  We headed right for the Hard Rock when we arrived in Memphis so we wouldn’t forget.  While on the road, Rico’s cousin Caitlin had sent us a list of places we should visit during our stay.  We started by getting some pimento cheese fries at Young Avenue Deli which was a cool young bar.  We also got some local beers to enjoy with our fries.  From there we went straight to Mud Island which is a to-scale replica of the Mississippi River.  It’s a half-mile walk from Illinois to the Gulf fully equipped with bridges, cities, and state lines.  It was cool to take a 10-minute walk through many of the states we’d been driving through over our trip.  Once we were finished, we went over to Sun Studio to try and catch the 4:30pm tour.  We got there right at 4:30pm, but they were already sold out so we had to wait until the 5:30pm tour.  We tried to catch Caitlin after she got out of work and before she left for St. Louis for the wedding, but the timing didn’t work out.  It was surreal to stand in the exact studio where Elvis and Johnny Cash had recorded their albums.  One of the coolest parts about Sun Studio is that everything in the studio is original.  The walls, the ceilings, the microphones, and even the recording equipment has been maintained and is still used when artists come in to record.

After the tour, we drove over to the Civil Rights Museum which is built off of the façade of the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.  The museum was closed, but there were a few short videos you could watch about MLK and some of the marches in Memphis.  Just around the corner was Central BBQ, also suggested by Caitlin, so we headed in to get some ribs.  Memphis has its own style of BBQ so of course we couldn’t leave without trying some.  They were nice and tender and had a good kick to them as well.  Jillian really liked the mac and cheese that came on the side.  The last thing we were planning to do in Memphis was get some donuts.  Unfortunately, they were about 15 miles south and we were headed north to St Louis and didn’t want to add an hour to our trip.  We wish we had figured out where they were on our way in because it would have been right along our route. 

The drive to St Louis was about 4 hours so we arrived right around midnight.  Shannon and some of her bridesmaid had rented a loft space for the weekend so we crashed with them since we came in a night earlier than we originally planned.  Shannon was out picking up one of the girls and her boyfriend from the airport when we finally showed up, but someone was there to let us in fortunately.  We thought we would pass out once we got there because it had been such a long day traveling and driving, but once we saw Shannon we stayed up chatting with her for a bit.  All of the girls were happy to see each other too so they were all catching up with each other.  Soon enough, we all headed to bed – we all needed our beauty sleep for the wedding!

Fact:

You can tell who was born and raised in Tennessee because their accents are strong

Lesson:

If you want to enjoy the food, the history, and the music of Memphis, you have to stay for longer than 6 hours.

Eat Well; Travel Often

Rico & Jillian