Memphis Blues and BBQ

As we left Milwaukee on our way south we drove through the Marquette University campus and were quite stunned by all the beautiful buildings!  In fact, we were impressed with the entire city and would have liked to have had time to explore it a little more... a good incentive to come back again!

Our drive to Memphis took us around the outskirts of Chicago and then through flat farm lands of central Illinois.  The next day we crossed the borders of Missouri and Arkansas as we followed along the western side of the Mississippi River.  We passed cotton fields that looked ready for picking and noted the huge equipment that is used today to harvest the crop.  What a difference from the ‘old’ days when it must have taken hundreds of slaves long hours of back-breaking work each day to pick the cotton.  

As we drove south we also came across historical markers for Civil War battlefields and Cemeteries.  We added another item to our Bucket List ... a tour of the South focusing on the Civil War and the beautiful Anti-bellum Homes.  We plan to live a lot longer to get our Bucket List finished!

We decided to do the tourist thing in Memphis and went down town to Beale Street!  Since it was out of season and mid week the crowds were not too large.  An Australian couple were just finishing their dinner and offered us their seats on the patio of the restaurant and we enjoyed people watching while we ate our BBQ dinner.  The crowd seemed to be pretty international -- we had a couple of  Brits and a southeast Asian at the next table!  Various kinds of music blared out from the restaurants and clubs along the street --- blues, jazz, rock ‘n roll (particularly Elvis songs!).  Although we enjoyed it,we felt it was a poor version of New Orleans’ Bourbon Street.

We didn’t stay too long before heading back to the hotel to be ready for our Elvis sighting the next day!