As I mentioned in the previous post, we woke up in Paris, Tennessee, a rural town, ready to take the relatively long drive to Memphis. It was maybe a 2 ½ hour drive, mostly through other rural parts of Tennessee. One thing that seemed surprising to me was that the weather was as accommodating as it proved to be.
We arrived in Memphis, and the very first thing that we did was go to Memphis Central Barbecue, which like the restaurant at Nashville that we had eaten at the first day, came at the recommendation of the rental car teller. I mean, when you are in the South, you have to get some good barbecue at some point, right? That is their specialty, and Memphis in particular seems to have a strong tradition in this regard. The place advertised “Slow Memphis Style,” which sounded really good. And it was! If you ever find yourself in Memphis, this is a place that you really might want to check out. There are three of them, it seems, and they are affordable and quick (it is fast food). But it is a good quality, tasty meal. Both of us were very happy.
We then went to the Pyramid of Memphis, which was the one major landmark that stood out whenever I saw the skyline of Memphis. What surprised me was that it was actually a Bass Pro Shops store, which just seemed unusual for such an enormously tall landmark. But there is an observatory. Tickets were $8, and they give out on a view of the rest of the city, the Mississippi, and Arkansas on the other side. Recommended!
That was a positive experience. There was a negative one, though. One thing that most people associate with Memphis is music, and nobody was bigger or more famous, or arguably more closely associated with this particular city, then Elvis Presley, of course. So we wanted to go to the Elvis Museum, to Graceland. And we did, at least to the gate. I had heard that the museum was overpriced, but wanted to give it a shot, and see how much they would charge. So we pulled up, and after the guard told me that it is $10 to park, I asked how much entrance into the museum was. He said a ridiculous price (I believe it was $110 per person, but it was well over $100 in any case). That was a stunning amount, and frankly, ridiculous. So I told him that I was going to turn around, and he pointed to the U-turn just behind his gate, and with a complete lack of surprise. It felt like this was a scene that he was familiar with. That is just a ridiculous amount to charge people for such a museum. Look, I like some stuff by Elvis, but am not exactly a die-hard fan. It would have been interesting to see, but certainly not for the absurd amount that they were asking for. So, we left.
Now, there was one interesting thing that we saw and stopped for very briefly, although for some reason - perhaps it was just how stunned I was at the price - and that was the jet that Elvis presumably owned. It was right in front, plainly visible next to the gate. We tried to drive around, to see if we could at least see the grounds, but we really could not. So, we simply drove away, disappointed. From Paul Simon's song to Mark Cohn's song, I had heard about "Graceland" throughout my life, and wanted to see it in person during what has been so far my one and only trip to Memphis. I guess technically, we saw it from the outside, but I did want to (and intended to) see it on the inside, as well. There was just an unwillingness to pay such hefty prices for the privilege, admittedly. Absurd. That left a bad taste for the rest of the day, at least in regards to Memphis.
After that, we crossed into Arkansas to check into our hotel and rest up, although we stopped at the Arkansas Welcome Center first. After all of that, we decided to go ahead and check out Little Rock, Arkansas. Maybe it’s the name of the town, but it was always a place that intrigued me, and which I wanted to visit. Of course, like most people my age and older, I associated it with Bill Clinton, who would go on to become the President of the United States.
As it turns out, there were plenty of reminders of Clinton here, not surprisingly. We saw the State Capitol building, which was actually quite nice. The Governor’s Mansion I remembered from the night when Bill Clinton won the 1992 election. Finally, there was the Clinton Presidential Library, which is actually a cool, modern looking structure, right on the banks of the Arkansas River nearby.
There was a cool part of town with some nice restaurants and some nightlife. However, I thought about how New Orleans was still on the itinerary, and that we were going to get some good eats there, surely. So we saved some money for that, and decided to forsake a fancier, and more time consuming, dining experience in Little Rock.
We returned back to Memphis (approximately a two hour drive), and decided to take in some night views of the city. The pyramid, surprisingly, was mostly dark and not particularly well lit. On the other hand, the bridge across the Mississippi looked truly spectacular, even if my pictures appeared a bit blurry. There was a short video clip that I took, which shows a little bit of what I mean.
That was day two.
Pyramid, Memphis
Memphis at Night
Little Rock, Arkansas
Welcome To Tennesse & Arkansas Signs:
No comments:
Post a Comment