Month: December 2018

It was a fun time exploring Beale Street, the most famous street in Memphis and the place that has given the city notoriety as one of the best places to hear the blues in the U.S.   Here you can find lots of neon signs, history, shops, restaurants and music venues.    Beale Street became an active scene at the turn of the century with its heyday in the 1920’s.   But after the 1930’s with the Great Depression, the street fell into disrepair and continued to decline through the 60’s with some buildings torn down.   Luckily the street was revitalized in the 1980’s and once again became a popular attraction.   The name BB King is a popular one on Beale with not only this store pictured above but also the well known BB King Blues Club.   Mr. King got his start in Memphis and was nicknamed the “Beale Street Blues Boy.”   The name was subsequently shortened to “Blues Boy” and finally “BB.”

Over the years lots of famous musicians have hung out or played on Beale Street.    Elvis Presley bought his clothes on Beale from Lansky Bros., “Clothier to the King.”   He was just 17 years old when he wandered in the store and once he became a superstar Lansky made most of his outfits including a suit he wore on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956.    The store is still in business today with Elvis memorabilia and for sale some of the sparkly, striped and flowery suits that Elvis once wore.

I was really looking forward to hearing the blues and at Handy Park a band was playing.   The park is named after W.C. Handy, considered the father of the Blues with a statue commemorating him.   The band was great and it was fun to see some of the old timers dancing to the music.   The lead singer interacted regularly with the crowd asking people where they were from and everyone would clap and cheer.   When we said we were from California he said, “Okay, California here is a song for you!”   They then played, “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay.”  For the Alabamians in the crowd they played, “Sweet Home Alabama.”

We even found entertainment in the street including this young guy doing stunts to try and drum up money from the crowd.   In the photo above he did a hand spring and shot over the backs of brave members of the crowd to oohs and ahhs from onlookers.

On Beale you have to eat BBQ which is good because BBQ is one of my favorite foods.   In fact, looking back on our trip so far some of our most memorable meals have been at BBQ places.   We have had delicious BBQ in Topeka Kansas, Independence Missouri, Baton Rouge Louisiana, Waynesville North Carolina and Charleston South Carolina to name several.   It is funny, but our least favorite on the road has been Mexican.    When you are from California with really great Mexican food, it was hard for us to find the same quality in the Eastern U.S.

We dropped in to the Blues City Cafe, an atmospheric place.   I liked the neon sign on the outside window advertising “Put Some South in Your Mouth,” an apt phrase since this place is all about Southern food.   Perhaps you can see the sign in the photo above.    I tried the ribs which is my favorite kind of BBQ and they were delicious and too much to finish at one sitting.   But as I have been known to do in the past, I left my to-go box on the table, so no leftovers (sigh).    A blues band was playing in the bar connected to the cafe and we took our dessert to a table in there so we could hear the music.   While we listened I couldn’t help but think that only two days before we had been listening to a family bluegrass band at the Appalachian Museum and now we were hearing the gritty blues!    It was a nice way to end our time on Beale Street.

It was great to be camping again along the Mississippi at Tom Sawyer RV Park in Arkansas just across the river from Memphis.   For those that might remember, we camped along the Mississippi in Louisiana last December.    We loved the campground there and spent lots of time watching the barges go by day and night and walking the long paved trail along the river.   The Tom Sawyer Park was also great, although did not have the nice long paved walking path.   But at Tom Sawyer our campsite was closer to the river, so just a few steps and we were there.   Below, Mark checks out a passing barge.

There is nothing quite like being by the Mississippi with all the river traffic.   I even like how at night while in bed you can still hear the distinctive rumble of a barge as it chugs up or down the river.  Evening is a favorite time for me and below are some photos of the river and campground.

Having a campsite by the Mississippi can have its disadvantages though.    Some times the RV park becomes part of the river during the spring season when flooding can occur.   In May 2011, the river crested to 48 feet, a record since 1938 when it was about a foot over that.   The park usually gets advance notice that the river will be flooding and can prepare by removing some things and then putting the park back together when the waters recede.   They can also alert people who plan to stay there that the park will be closed.     Here is a photo showing the high water mark on one of the buildings.

I would like to have stayed longer at Tom Sawyer but we wanted to spend some time in Oklahoma City and then leisurely make our way back to California, so it was just a short three night stay.    The day we left Mark had to get the RV ready to go in the rain, so he finally got to use both his rain gear and rubber boots.

Goodbye for now.   In the next blog we head to Oklahoma City!

When planning a visit to Memphis, I knew I wanted to do some kind of city tour.   I found out about the Backbeat Mojo Tour which combines live music and narration to learn about the musical heritage of Memphis.   This had great reviews and sounded fun so I reserved a time for the three hour tour.   Mark planned to drop me off downtown and return later so we could explore Beale Street together, the famous street known for music venues and restaurants.  I should note that Mark does not prefer the big cities.   He was concerned after reading that Memphis was unsafe and didn’t want me wandering alone around Beale Street and the area while I waited for my tour to start.    I agreed rather reluctantly as I am a natural wanderer who really enjoys the big cities and is energized by them.   I have wandered by myself in such places as Old San Juan in Puerto Rico, the capital city of San Jose in Costa Rica, San Francisco, New Orleans and Minneapolis to name a few.

My first contact with a Memphis citizen was shortly after drop off when an officer on a bike stopped and asked me what and how I was doing in the city.   Now I am the kind of person that gets nervous when I see a police car driving behind me as I immediately wonder if I have broken some kind of traffic law.   So, this contact at first had me wondering if perhaps I was at the wrong place at the wrong time.   But this turned out to be a very welcoming figure who just wanted to know if I had any questions about Memphis and if he could give me some tips.   After this friendly encounter and my tour check-in I decided I had time to visit the Peabody Hotel ducks just a half block away.   Could these be the most famous ducks in America?  Or if not the most famous, the most pampered?   The elegant Peabody Hotel presents them this way and my guess is there are no other ducks in the country who live in a penthouse and each day at 11:00 are brought down in the elevator to the lobby fountain with great ceremony.

Prior to their appearance, the Duck Master decked out in uniform and holding a special cane with a duck shaped handle, gives a speech in a commanding voice on how the ducks came to be at the hotel.   It all began in the 1930’s when the hotel’s general manager and his friend returned from a weekend hunting trip in Arkansas.   They had drank too much whiskey and thought it would be funny to place some of their live duck decoys in the beautiful Peabody fountain.   Guests loved seeing the ducks and the tradition was begun.   Today, people line up along the red carpet and around the fountain area to watch the duck march.   I was able to see them when they first came out of the elevator and snapped the blurry photo above.   Five drab and skinny mallards quickly made their way to the fountain and it was all over in less than a minute.   This is such a sappy and overrated attraction that it is worth the visit to witness all the “oopla.”   People love the spectacle and stand waiting for an hour or more to get the best viewing spot.   Small children are allowed to sit along the side of the red carpet so they can see the ducks walk past.

At 5:00 each day the duck march begins again when the ducks leave the fountain and walk back to the elevator for the return to their rooftop home.   Ducks serve at the hotel for three months before returning to the farm where they came from.   During their stay they are considered “wild” and are not treated as pets or even named.   Above is another blurry photo of these ducks as they swam quickly around the fountain as if chasing each other.

The Mojo tour turned out to be a fun trip around the city with our musician guide playing the guitar and educating us on all the big named stars that had their start or at least contributed to the important music history of Memphis.   He played blues, gospel, country and rock and roll and we were encouraged to use the provided egg shakers and sing along as we toured the city.   We drove through neighborhoods including one where soul music developed and was produced at Stax Records.   We stopped at places of historical significance like the brick apartment building where Elvis lived with his family, practiced his music in the basement and played for neighbors on the front steps.   We got off the bus at the Overton Park Shell where Elvis got his first big break.   On July 30, 1954, Hillbilly Hoedown was the entertainment for the evening and the concert opened with an unknown local guitar player who was making his first live professional appearance.   Our guide told the story that when Elvis sang and shook his leg in time with the music the crowd went crazy yelling and applauding.   Elvis was confused why people were yelling at him.   The stage manager told him that the crowd was cheering him and to go out and do the songs again which he did.   One of the songs was called, “Blue Moon of Kentucky.”    People in the tour group liked posing on the stage for pictures using our guide’s guitar.

Moving on we saw the apartment building where Johnny Cash lived after moving to Memphis in 1954.   The building pictured below is still in use as apartments.

Perhaps the biggest attraction in Memphis is the National Civil Rights Museum where we stopped for a quick look.   Part of the museum uses the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968.   A wreath marks the spot on the second floor balcony where he was shot.   I would have really liked to tour that museum but Mark and I didn’t stay long enough in the area to make it back.   Hopefully another time.

Our last stop was the famous Sun Studio, the birth place of rock ‘n’ roll.   It was here that Elvis Presley walked in, asked if he could record a song and a new legend was born.   Other stars also had their beginnings here such as BB King, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis.

There is lots of memorabilia to see including original recording equipment, guitars, photos, posters and records.   The studio guide took us around the building telling stories about the musicians and playing excerpts from recorded songs.  We were able to see the room where recordings took place and could pose for pictures with a similar microphone.

It was here in 1956 that Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins (pictured below) did an impromptu jam session and recording that became known as the “Million Dollar Quartet,” an important moment for rock and roll.

Thanks for reading!   In the next blog more on Beale Street and camping by the Mississippi River.

Mark and I often talk about the common threads that seem to weave through our travels.   We come across the same people or events as we move through the different states and regions.   This was true while staying in Clinton, Tennessee, a small town that has the Green McAdoo Cultural Center with important events related to Civil Rights.    The town of Clinton shares similarities to the city of Little Rock as they both had high schools dealing with issues of desegregation that made headline news.   Somehow I thought that Little Rock Central High School was the first to become desegregated since so much news focus was on the events here in 1957.   Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site is one of my favorite attractions since we have been traveling.   I was very moved by this site and all that the “Little Rock Nine”  suffered during the desegregation process.    But in the town of Clinton, twelve black students suffered similar trials in 1956, a year before the Little Rock Nine.   They were the first students to desegregate a state supported high school in the south.

The events in Clinton are portrayed in this museum, the former Green McAdoo Elementary School for black students.   The building that houses the museum shares a common thread not only with Little Rock but also the Brown vs. Board of Education National Historic Site we visited in Topeka, Kansas.   At this site we viewed exhibits in a former segregated elementary school for black students about the landmark Supreme Court case of 1954 which led to the order that schools be desegregated in the South.   Below is a photo of the museum building.

This is a small museum but a powerful one.   To commemorate the 50-year anniversary of the first desegregation, twelve life size bronze statues of the first students were created.   The statues are in front of the museum looking down on the town, a significant location because the students would have walked down this hill from their homes to reach their new high school.    Life size bronze statues of the Little Rock Nine were also created, another common thread.   They are located next to the Arkansas Capital building and I have a photo of them in a previous blog.

Although the Little Rock Nine experienced protests from their city and state from the beginning, the “Clinton 12” were able to begin desegregation peacefully.   For the most part, the community as well as the state of Tennessee were cooperative with the process as they wanted to follow the “law of the land.”   This changed when a group came to town stirring up the citizens with anti-integration information.   This was mostly fueled by one man, John Kasper, a white supremacist from New Jersey.   During that first week of desegregation, violence erupted with threats to the students and some of the townspeople that supported the students.  National Guard troops were called into the city to keep order.   In the photo above take note of the clock on the wall in the top righthand corner with the time of 4:22.   I will talk more about that later in this post.

One of the most ardent supporters was a man named Paul Turner, the white minister of the local Baptist Church.   He was severely beaten after escorting the twelve students to school.   Later in his church with his bruised face he preached a sermon called, “There is no color line at the cross.”

The high school principal, Mr Brittain was also threatened including demands that he resign from his job.   He reported that he would do so if he received less than 51% of the student vote.   The high school voted unanimously that he remain.   Many felt it was the positive leadership of Jerry Shattuck, president of the student council and captain of the football team that set the tone for the students.  He is pictured below second from the left.

In retaliation, white supremacists bombed the high school in 1958, with three bombs  destroying the building.   Luckily the bombings occurred during the early morning hours when no one was present.   The clock that I first mentioned in the photo above is from the high school and it stopped at the time of the first bombing, 4:22 a.m.   The identity of the bomber was never discovered.   An empty elementary school in the nearby town of Oak Ridge was refurbished so the Clinton High School students could still attend school until the high school was rebuilt.

The museum features a wall of original letters, cards and telegrams received in Clinton from all over the world.   It was very disheartening to read many of the letters against the desegregation.   The mindset of people from that time period and the language used about the black community was shocking to say the least.   But there were also letters of support and encouragement.

On May 17, 1957, Bobby Cain was the first black male student to graduate from a desegregated public high school.   Bobby was reported to say:   “It’s been a rough year and I wouldn’t want to go through it again.  But I’m not sorry that I went to Clinton High School.”   The following year, Gail Epps became the first female graduate.   She is pictured with Bobby above.

After seeing the museum, I wanted to visit a few of the places around town that also had some significance.   Mt. Sinai Baptist Church located up the hill from the museum became a place of refuge for the African American community during the hostilities.  Families living in fear for their lives camped out in this building.   Worship services are still held here.

Hoskins Rexall Drug Store has been a popular fixture in town for 88 years.   People love to come eat lunch here or have an ice cream treat at the old fashioned counter lined with many stools or in one of the booths.   Medical supplies and gift items can be purchased as well as prescriptions filled.   The store still has the same glass cases where merchandise is displayed.   It is one of those old fashioned places that is seldom seen in today’s modern world.   But a newspaper photo on display at the museum from 1956 showed a more troubling time for Hoskins.    The National Guard can be seen wearing gas masks and holding drawn bayonets in front of the store where a mob had gathered.

I walked over to see the rebuilt high school where the students attended during desegregation. It is now Clinton Middle School with a sign noting the struggle that students faced during that monumental time.

Thanks for reading!   Stay tuned for my next post on a fun day in the city of Memphis.

It was a piece of good luck that we stopped at the National Park Service (NPS) Visitor Center in Oak Ridge (nickname “Atomic City”) Tennessee to find out about tours of the Manhattan Project where the atomic bomb was developed during World War II.   We found out the NPS didn’t arrange those tours but the ranger did tell us we shouldn’t miss the Obed Wild and Scenic River and Lilly Bluff Scenic Overlook.   After our stop at Oak Ridge we had planned to drive to Frozen Head State Park to enjoy some nature and walking in the forest.    But the Obed River area sounded like something we needed to see, so we decided to drive there first.   Above is a photo of me near the Obed.

The Obed River is a popular place for white water kayaking, fishing and rock climbing.   There are only a few accessible overlooks into the rugged canyon with Lilly Bluff the most popular.  A short trail leads to an impressive series of overlook platforms.   I was impressed with how the platforms were situated on large sandstone outcroppings with different viewpoints and benches.   The scenery was spectacular, better than I think the photos convey, but that’s the way it goes with photography.  The fall colors were starting to show which was nice as colors have been late this year and we were going to miss seeing peak color in Tennessee as we were heading west in a few days.

Spending time at Lilly Bluff Overlook was a really nice way to end our time in the Appalachian Mountains.   I was so glad we received that tip from the park ranger.   The photo below shows one of the overlooks in the top left hand corner.

From the parking lot are several trails including one to the Lilly Boulder Field Stone Preserve with its many rock formations.

These house sized boulders were pretty interesting and rather mysterious looking with some of them standing alone and others creating passageways of rock through the forest.   Supposedly they came from an ancient sea that once covered much of Tennessee.   This boulder field is now protected by the Nature Conservancy.

Kids would love this place as of course there are lots of rocks to climb as well as hidden areas to explore.   My favorite feature was how the trees grew on the boulders with their roots hanging over reaching for the ground.   It is always interesting to see how nature adapts in the most difficult situations.

When we finished up with the Obed River area we drove to Frozen Head State Park.   This unusual name comes from the Park’s highest peak with its cap of snow and ice during the winter.    I did a little hike to DeBord Falls one of two falls located here.   Since we spent time at the Lilly Bluff Overlook and the Obed NPS Visitor Center, I didn’t have time to hike to the second one.    As you might know from previous posts, it is hard for me to pass up seeing a waterfall!

This waterfall was small, but the best part was that I had it to myself, a first in my waterfall jaunts.   There were no people clamoring around the pool in front of the falls, it was all very peaceful.

I hope you enjoyed this post about our time in the Tennessee outdoors!