Live from Memphis

Managed to get out of Nashville at a decent time, and avoid rush hour traffic (people are working??...), but not before this morning's Waffle House conversation included our waitress Tequila and the topics of pap smears and at what age 'we' (the waitresses) were when 'our' periods started. What the...?

I slept most of the way to Memphis, but that didn't stop me from texting back and forth with a former United Way colleague of mine who now lives there to see if we could meet up for lunch.

If you've never been to Memphis via I-40 from the east, it's an interesting drive, particularly if you have ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST in finding yourself in Arkansas. The highway keeps telling you that, to get to "Downtown Memphis", you should stay on I-40 W to Little Rock. For those of you keeping up, Little Rock is in that state. If you miss exit 1A, you end up on the bridge...and head into West Memphis...which also just happens to be in that state.

So, we did make it. Headed straight down to Beale Street and the Rock & Soul Museum (boo, for not being able to take pictures, but props for the exhibits and music experience!). You walk around with a headset, and play different parts of the exhibit at your leisure, including some of the best music ever made!

Afterwards, we met up with Roger (my former co-worker in Seattle) for lunch, walked around Beale Street for a while, and got my picture taken outside BB King's Club...priceless.

I think we're going to just do one night here instead of two. We have more to do in Mississippi than we thought, and want to be back in New Orleans on Thursday night. Tomorrow (Wednesday), it's the RL Burnside Blues Cafe in Holly Springs, MS, then the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, and finally the infamous crossroads between Beulah and Rosedale. Then down Hwy 1 along the Mississippi River into Vicksburg, where we'll probably stay overnight.