Saturday, May 3rd, we awoke to an absolutely gorgeous day. Today we opted to sleep in just a bit. When we awoke, this was our view. A riverboat on the Mississippi. How iconic can you get?
On Mud Island, is a scale replica of the entire Mississippi River. I really wanted to see this. With the rain taking some of our touring time away, I had set my heart to understand this might not happen. But this morning I knew it could happen. There is only one road onto Mud Island Park. The other way to get there is the sky bridge from the corner of our hotel with a covered walkway across Wolf River to Mud Island Park. The was actually a monorail but that didn't work well. So, it was repurposed as a covered bridge to walk over.
In my research, I thought from maps that it was a small things. Not so. I have placed a red dot at the beginning on the right in the trees and another red dot at the end on the left side of the blue pond. This the 1000 miles of river runs through all that space. There are places where the walls display the rivers that watershed into the Mississippi. There are cities along the river that are labeled. It is simply amazing. We walked the entire distance. I totally enjoyed this experience.
The gray is Memphis. Claude's toe is on our hotel.
The gray here is New Orleans. Around this area they also had spaces with grasses and reeds to represent the swamps in Louisiana.
The water flows into the Delta and that blue pond representing the Gulf of Mexico.
It is absolutely amazing. The planning and way to lay all this out is staggering. So happy we got to see it. And...it is FREE!!
On the far side of the blue pond representing the Gulf of Mexico is a great sign that says Memphis. The sign is set so that, to read it correctly, you need to be on Mud Island facing Memphis. All of my other pictures are from our hotel room and Memphis is backwards. I walked out and got a picture of the words in its correct order with Memphis behind. Our hotel is on the far left side.
Time to find Beale Street. We determined on Saturday we would walk Beale Street before going to the Orpheum Theater to see Alton Brown. Then we could walk a bit more after the show to get the feel of Beale Street in the evening. Our walk before seeing Alton Brown was delightful and enough for us.
Papa would be rolling over in his grave at me trying to imitate Elvis Presley. Papa did not care for him. He was the demise of his beloved Louisiana Hayride. He appreciated Elvis vocal talents but did not care for the rock music at all. But, Elvis is Memphis.
We had our meal of the day at the Blue's City Cafe. Very good meal. Loved seeing all the cute signs.
They have musical notes with the recording stars names on them embedded in the sidewalk.
All along the street are bars so those who imbibe can get a beverage to sip as they walk Beale Street. We don't drink so this amuses me. Now...if they sold Mello Yello or Dr. Pepper, then we could be talking.
One never knows what one will find on Beale Street. This gentleman was giving a jumping demonstration. I wondered at the wisdom of his volunteers as they did not know him or his abilities when they volunteered.
We would pause in this store for ice cream from the soda fountain. There were seats along the window and we enjoyed our ice cream and did some people watching. The counter we sat at had little treasures made out of old spoons and things. The napkin holder and Spanky and Darla on it from the Our Gang television show!
This wall fascinated me. An owner of the business next door was standing on the sidewalk as we passed. I asked him if he knew the story of the wall. It was an old hotel that caught fire and burned leaving only that wall. The wall was braced to save it. The plan was to build another hotel with this as the front. However, all of this part of town was built on a swamp that was reclaimed. The new building codes would not let them build as they has before. The wall was braced and has been kept as part of the history.
When we ate lunch, ladies wearing these clothes sat at the table next to us. It was fun to see what their uniforms were about as we walked down the street. They are a jump rope club. They had several sets of double jump ropes. They would get them going and, when they were not jumping themselves, they would have the public give it a try. Great fun.
This guy had the right hat for a sunny day!
Time to find the Orpheum and see Alton Brown. While you wait for the show to begin, there are trivia questions and answers displayed on the screen. You could hear the entire audience if they got it right or sigh if they got it wrong.
I love these old theaters. The decor is gorgeous. Simply gorgeous.
The first half of the show, Alton was in his bathrobe and slippers. He did a long bit about his journey to become a food person. He explained thermal heat in his own inimitable fashion. He related that to the types of metal we cook in and on. Then he shared his favorite cooking surface and cooked an enormous omelet on it.
We saw Alton Brown in Eastern Kentucky University. At that show he cooked wings. Claude was fortunate enough to get one as we exited the building. We were sitting close to the front at that show. This show, we were about half-way back on the aisle. We were pretty sure Claude would not get whatever Alton cooked this time.
The second half of the show Alton share his uncles invention to cook wieners with steam. As they travel to each city, they have four audience members help with the preparation of wieners. They come out of the steamer on the right onto a spinning circle. Two of the audience participants are to take these steamed wieners and place them on the buns that are circling in that Ferris wheel looking contraption. The goal is to get them on the buns as neatly as possible. Then they are placed on a conveyor belt and two other audience participants put the condiments on the hot dogs. There are boxes (like big pizza boxes) at the left end and the completed wieners and buns properly condimented are placed in the box...carefully. Think Lucy and Ethel and their conveyor belt. Yep. It was that funny. They participants are timed to see how quickly and yet, carefully, they can get this all done. Every city is timed. The top ten were displayed with Memphis rankings. When Alton's Farewell Tour is complete, he will return to the city that won and acknowledge their winning somehow. The participants were given two of the boxes full of hot dogs to do with as they pleased. They all brought them back to the audience and shared them with those who wanted one. You guessed it!! Claude got a hot dog!!
It was another banner performance by Alton Brown. So happy we got to see him one last time AND that Claude got a wiener!!
Back to our car to go to the hotel for the remainder of the evening. What was this? A piece of paper stuck in the windshield wiper. It was a citation from the parking lot people saying we didn't pay for our parking spot and were now being charged the parking price plus a citation fee. What??? When we entered the lot, a man came with parking passes and took cash for our spot and gave us a card to put on our dash board. We did that and went to enjoy our afternoon and evening. Well, the man was a scam. We didn't notice this as a scam as we have lot in Lexington that we pay the attendant. I have called the parking company and explained we were scammed. I assured them I was happy to pay them their parking fee as we did use their lot. However, I wanted the citation fee waived as we did pay for the spot and had no intention of scamming anyone. This lady on the phone is submitting my request and they will get back with me in 2-3 days. Goodness. We had such a good trip with this one little exception. It is not fun to be scammed.
We settled into our lovely hotel room with the curtains fully open for the remainder of the evening. Imagine our delight when we got to watch another fireworks show. I didn't take any pictures of this one. I simply stood at that window with my hubby and we enjoyed the fireworks.
Good night, Memphis!
Sunday, May 4th, was the day to drive that 6 1/2 hours back to our Kentucky home. It was threatening rain but we missed rain until we got back to Kentucky. I knew we were close to Nashville when the traffic started to thicken!
So happy we made this little trip. We learned a lot, experienced a lot, and totally enjoyed being together. Life is Good!
