To the Big Muddy

Wednesday, October 6th. We had been looking at maps and realized that we were pretty far behind schedule. We had spoken to a lady in the RV park last night who turned us on to the Tom Sawyer RV Park in West Memphis, right on the river, so we made that our goal for the day. That meant passing up Hot Springs National Park, Little Rock and the Bill Clinton presidential library. Another long day of driving but we made it to the river. When we pulled into the access road we were greeted by a sign that said the park was full! We drove up anyway and by virtue of the fact that we need no amenities, we were able to secure a tent site. On our way back out for supplies, we passed a sister of Rose's, a 76 bus, painted caterpillar gut green! On returning to the park we found that they had taken the tent site next to us. They were very nice people from Austin, TX on their way to the Arkansas Heritage and Blues Festival. Rob was tired (from the stress of Debbie's driving) and turned in, but Debbie shared our campfire and we stayed up talking till after our usual bedtime. Very nice people who had owned their bus, Green Dragon for eight years. Rose enjoyed the company.

Rose and friend along the Mississippi.

We ate our dinner along the river even though it was pretty dark. Tugs pushing barges ply the river all through the night and sometimes sound alarms like trash trucks at the landfill, but we slept well.

We had decided, even though behind schedule, to spend the day in Memphis. We drove into the city and found an all day parking lot for $5, one block from Beale Street. We went to the Museum of Rock and Soul that was really very well done, tracing the history of different musical genres, blues, rock and soul with lots of exhibits and music of the respective eras. There were also quite good historical profiles of the major recording labels, Sun, Stax and Hi. After the museum we walked to the old Sun recording studio.

Sun studio on Union St.

This is a pretty unimposing building for the number and quality of artists who recorded here, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis to name but a few. We walked back to Beale Street where it was now happy hour. The street starts to come to life around 1700 and there were musicians playing in the Handy park as well as clubs along the street, which is closed to vehicles. It's pretty much fun. We listened to several groups then had some dinner in a club with a duo of acoustic and electric guitar. As we went into the street there were acrobats doing tumbling routines. These guys were great athletes!

Tumblers on Beale.

Even the young kids feel the rhythm.

After dinner we headed for a cheap motel near the airport. Gotta love the coupons! Back on the road again tomorrow. Memphis gets the big thumbs up approval from these travelers.