Posted on by admin

Memphis….The Home of the Blues!

Memphis does an excellent job of showcasing one of the major things the city is know for….The Blues!

From Nashville and its country music themes we headed for a week in the Memphis, TN area to check out the birthplace of the blues. The city sits on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River so at least one kayak journey was in order. I have always wondered what it would be like to paddle a small craft on the current of “Old Man River”. We stayed at an appropriately named RV park called Tom Sawyer’s Mississippi River RV Park. Although it was hot as hell and there was no shade to be found in the park, our lawn chairs sitting right on the banks of the river in the evening made it worth the stifling heat. The owners had built a very rickety ladder to a tree house that gave us a nice view up and down the river. The sign at the bottom of the stairs said “Climb at your own risk”. Even us adventurous souls found the level of ricketiness to be a bit much for more than one climb.

Would you climb the 20 feet up this homemade treehouse? The middle pic shows our RV campground and on the right you can see Laurie deciding whether to trust the structure.

A view of the Mighty Mississippi from the tree house
There were many tugs pushing barges up and down the river. This one was one of the smaller rigs we witnessed.

We found yet another city on our journey with multiple interconnecting bike paths. So cool to simply go and not worry about where the path takes you as, no matter how we chose our route, we would always end up somewhere near our truck and the starting point of the ride. Our first ride was on the Wolf River Greenway. We chose this as it’s course was parallel to the Wolf River which was a potential destination for a kayak float or two. Turns out the river is a bit shallow with many downed trees so no kayaking there for us. That’s okay scouting and getting to know our way around the area is half the fun!

This building in our campground was almost completely submerged by the flooding Mississippi back in 2011. Not sure if it was the same storm that dumped 11 inches of water in Binghamton that same year? The actual river is probably a good 20 feet below the grassy surface in the background. They say it is at the lowest level in a long time.
The surface of the bike path along the top of the levee that protects the city from flooding was a bit bumpy for our liking but very interesting nonetheless. The trail is called the Big River Trail.
We found the Big Crossing bike path. It allows cyclists and walkers to cross the Mississippi River by paralleling an abandoned railway. It was over a mile long.
The trail is covered for the first quarter mile. Neat experience riding under a covered bridge of sorts.
A view of the trail from below on another different bike path. We lost ourselves for half a day just cycling around West Memphis on these paths

As usual we found a nice 2 hours walking tour to educate us about our home for the next week. Unfortunately, right after our tour started so did the rain. Buckets upon buckets poured down on our group of 8. The guide had a good personality and sense of humor but had no interest in holing up under an awning or crawlspace to let the rain pass. We all got drenched before she decided it was time to go inside of the fanciest hotel in town. Boy did we look like a bunch of drowned rats.

This old building facade on Beale Street was interesting to us. The guide said a fire destroyed most of the building but the steel beams were “temporarily” placed there until it could be rebuilt. That never happened and the beams remain some 50 years later with a restaurant/bar operating in the open air behind it.
Main Street is closed to auto traffic to make room for the trolley cars that come along in both directions about every 15 minutes. The moniker MAT for Memphis Area Trolleys is called by locals “Might Arrive Tomorrow” as they are evidently not too reliable.
This is the original Lansky Brothers clothes shop. The owner noticed a 17 year old boy named Elvis constantly looking in the window. He invited him in to have a look around and it is reported that Elvis told him that when he is famous someday he was going to buy him out. Lansky responded with “don’t buy me out, just buy your clothes from me.” Elvis did just that as the owner said “I put Elvis in his first suit for the Ed Sullivan Show and….I put him in his last”.
This is the building housing the radio station WDIA. This was the only station catering to the black community back then and the first station in the south to have a black DJ. Story has it that when BB King’s 15 minute radio show was over he was leaving the station when he saw a woman get hit by a car. He ran back in and called for an ambulance. When the ambulance arrived they were not allowed to help save the woman as she was white and it was a black ambulance. She died and it didn’t take the city too long to change that particular Jim Crow law.
This combination club, restaurant and bar opened up in 1991 as Memphis retooled Beale Street for tourism.
Jerry Lawler is the “king of wrestling” in the Memphis area. Lots of WWE memorabilia as well as live blues music
The famous Orpheum Theater is not on Beale Street but deserved a picture.
All over the city we spied these “Sky Cops” high up on light poles. The local newscasters ran a story on why you should never pay a fine when receiving a ticket in the mail for a red light violation or speeding. We have lots of thoughts about this use of technology but better to not rant here.
Laurie coming into the “Peabody Hotel” out of the rain. Our guide took us in not only to get out of the rain but to watch the “duck show” in the main lobby.
This is Edward Pembroke. When younger he worked for the Ringling Bros. Circus as an animal trainer. When he got a job at the hotel Peabody he offered to train the 5 ducks placed in the fountain in the lobby. These were live decoy ducks the general manager owned as it was still legal to use live decoys for hunting in Tennessee back then. Edward trained them to march into the elevator at 5pm everyday and ride up to the rooftop where they lived in a small pool. He trained them to come down the elevator at 11am everyday and march down the red carpet into the fountain. This tradition is still going strong almost 100 years later!
Tell me this is not the most exciting video you watched today?

We enjoyed a nice market around the Memphis area. The South Memphis Farmers Market was indeed very interesting. We purchased some nice looking home grown veggies and met the owner of the small grocery store that allows the market to run in his parking lot. He was very proud to talk to us about his mission to help feed the folks in this urban area that has no real supermarket. He runs free cooking classes where he tries to teach locals how to cook healthy meals. He then sends them home with all the ingredients necessary to cook the meals they learned to cook. He had a few recommendations for us regarding a good pizza joint and where to find live music.

A nice little farmers market in downtown Memphis.

Another day was spent downtown checking out the Memphis Museum of Rock and Soul. We figured that since it was a Smithsonian Museum it had a good chance of being well done. It was a very nice place to escape the heat of the sun while listening to a lot of good blues and soul. The tour was an audio tour that actually worked very well. Usually when we get handed a headset with directions on how to do a self guided tour that means nothing good to us but this time (maybe it was the third time) was the charm.

As Memphis is approximately 50% black and 50% white city much attention has been paid to the civil rights movement back in the 60s.
Ike Turner’s piano
BB King’s guitar Lucille
Before electricity, a hand crank was necessary to listen to vinyl.
Elvis’ high school yearbook
Way back when….Folks would sit around their radios on a Saturday night to listen to the Grand Ole Opry
This is the original transmitter that was powerful enough to broadcast the show to a wide audience.
This old radio was battery powered as much of the south had no electricity yet. Supposedly a battery was expensive enough that a family could only afford one per year so whatever was listened to must have been of great entertainment value.

After a wonderful tour of the city’s musical roots we walked the 3 or 4 blocks of Beale Street trying to find some live music. We ran into a track and field display where folks were trying to clear a 14.5 foot bar by pole vaulting. Really cool to watch up close. One of the many dive bars near the end of the street had a duo performing bluesy tunes so we stopped in for a flight of local IPA beers and some good music.

Fabulously folksy duo
Ghost River Brewery crafted some nice IPAs
Must be a fabulous feeling to sail through the air like this!

Today was the day. Up late but it was overcast so the sun would not be blaring down on us as we made our virgin paddle into the Mighty Mississippi. There were a few advertised public boat launches on Mud Island but we found only a private one at a marina for the Memphis Yacht Club. They were nice enough to waive the $15 launch fee for us as we were only using our kayaks. Immediately upon entering the bay in between Mud Island and Memphis proper we realized this would be a different kind of paddle. The local fish must have been intrigued by our boats that made no noise as they continually jumped out of the water as if trying to feed on the plastic in our boats. Huge fish too, maybe catfish? Occasionally they would misguide their jumps and run into the bottom of the boat. Very strange feeling indeed. Not sure what kind of fish they were but they were avoiding the spots that all the fisherman were casting lines so we will not call them stupid.

We pulled out of the bay and into the big river with a bit of trepidation as the current toward the middle where it had been dredged for the barges was moving rather quickly. We found that as long as we stayed near the shore we could easily paddle upstream toward the main bridge that held Interstate 40. Lots of older driftwood floating downstream along with a number of tug boats pushing really large barges. Not sure what was in them but boy were they big. After a few hours of paddling we opted to get out of the heat and find a nice ice cream shop. Dairy Queen is very popular here, but we did manage to find homemade ice cream Memphis is a large city but there is surprisingly very little traffic downtown. Not the standard urban driving setting.

The slack current near the shores made paddling upstream on the Mississippi easy.
If a collision with the tug and barge happened who would win?
Trying to catch Laurie but she was powering back downstream to the safety of the harbor.
These large fish kept jumping next to, and sometimes into the bottom of our kayaks. A bit weird but cool.
Some moored paddlewheel boats just waiting for folks to board and cruise up and down the big river.
Our kayaks waiting for us to join them. We found a marina that allowed us to put them in the river at no cost. The sign said $15 launch fee but we must have done a good job sweet talking them.
This large pyramid shaped building right next to the river has a long story behind it before it became a Bass Pro Shop. The local basketball team, The Memphis Grizzlies, played there for a bit after they moved to Memphis but the area and building conditions were too hot and humid for the game so Memphis built a new and more modern facility leaving this building empty for a decade. We went inside and marveled at how a sporting goods store could take it to the next level. We did not pay the $8 apiece to take an elevator to the viewing platform at the top as we have seen many views in our lifetime. The people of Memphis are very welcoming but NO, we did not see Elvis as he must have already left the building.

4 Replies to “Memphis….The Home of the Blues!”

  2. I’m amazed you guys can do all these things in just a few days!
    Chalk it up to good planning and being outfitted the way you are.

Comments are closed.