Day 7 - Pistol Packin' Mama

            We awoke bright and early in our luxurious St. Louis pad to snap some obligatory photos of the gateway arch before hitting the road towards Memphis. 

  The long straight stretches of southern highway have been exceedingly scenic; the land is so open and cars so scarce that it’s easy to lose track of time and speed.  We spent a good leg of the trip on the historic and illustrious Highway 61, making sure to listen to some Bob Dylan along the way.

            Before we hit Memphis we decided to make a detour to Elvis Presley’s mansion, Graceland.  Having failed to research the price of a mansion tour, we realized it was far outside of our budget.  Instead, we meandered through the mass of Elvis themed gift shops to marvel at the sorts of items and trinkets someone thought to adorn with Elvis’ face.  After Jackson picked up yet another collectible spoon, we left for Memphis. 

            Memphis is a large sprawling city, and on first sight it was pretty depressing.  Our motel was located a couple miles away from the downtown area, and although it was in a relatively safe area, the expanses of abandoned industrial buildings and broken windows created a pretty bleak atmosphere.  We checked in, and decided to go look at the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, which has since been turned into a Civil Rights Museum. 

            After the museum, we pigged out on some good Memphis ribs and headed down to Beale Street, the music hotspot.  As soon as we got close to the downtown area we could hear the blues and funk blaring, and we started to get the real feel of Memphis.  We hopped between nearly empty bars (it was a Monday night) and got to hear several different bands, all with a distinctly awesome flavor to them, and none were shy to ask for donations.  My personal favorite was “The Dr. Feelgood Potts Band.”  The doctor himself was an older man wearing a belt containing no fewer than 20 harmonicas.  Between songs, he described his inspiration for one of the tracks on his new CD – “I was downtown one night…  And I just thought to myself… Pistol packin’ mama!  And so… I named this song…  Pistol packin’ mama!”  To which a member of the audience replied “SOUNDS LIKE MY EX-WIFE!”

            Memphis was awesome, tomorrow we roll out for Pensacola. -L

On a side note, we need a good Internet connection to add photos, so there will probably usually be a delay between posts and the pictures that go with them.