We arrived in Memphis on the 4th of July excited about “Memphis” Ribs and some Blues/Jazz. Our hotel room was on Main Street, about 10 blocks north of Beale Street, looking out over the Mississippi River. Our take on Memphis ribs is that they are not smoked but cooked in some manner and “finished off” on a grill with lots of sauce on them. There were two places the ribs were less meaty than at the third place. However, we will be back for Memphis ribs
Now the music is another thing. I did not hear any traditional jazz nor anything that resembled blues, but rather electric and at least 100 decibels. It caused the beer in the mug to shimmer. We are not night people so cannot judge whether Beale Street came “alive” in the evening hours, but it was very quiet around 5pm. In addition, we were quite surprised that for the fourth of July weekend, Beale, Main and 2nd Streets were almost vacant.
We both had a new experience on the Fourth, we watched the fireworks out on the river, from our bedroom window, in bed.
When we travel, I always leave room for my companion, serendipity. In Memphis it was the discovery of the Rock and Soul Museum. What a wonderful place to learn the history of blues and Rock & Roll music, and listen to the old style of jazz and blues. The museum provide headphones and you could move from station to station, dial in a code and listen to a song from that era. In particular we spent more than two hours listening to the Rock and Roll of the 1950’s and 1960’s
From here we head west, across Arkansas, Oklahoma, West Texas, New Mexico and finally, Arizona. It has been a wonderful trip, and we have enjoyed every mile of it.
Dick and Joyce Wood