Day 23: The true definition of amalgamation.

The while time we were in OKC and in Dallas I saw advertisements for fried pies. Best fried pies. Original fried pies. I hadn’t tried one yet. On the way to Memphis today, I tried one. They are something that should be available everywhere. At 7:45am I walked into a BBQ place on the side of the highway and walked out with a blackberry fried pie and a pecan fried pie. Picture a piece of fried dough that is a bit thinner but still has the same crust type part around the edge. Then spread whatever filling you like over the fried dough. Then fold it in half. That is essentially a fried pie. I ate my pies and we were on our way to Memphis.

It was about a 7 hour drive. Most of the drive sliced  directly through Arkansas. Being the only exposure to Arkansas I’ll have on this trip I determined that they are extremely lazy with the naming of their cities and/or towns. We passed through Texarkana (a city bordering Texas and Arkansas if you couldn’t figure that out), Arkadelphia (because I have no reason why), Pittsburg (because it’s definitely very different than that place in Pennsylvania that has an H on the end), Hope (because stupid cliche names are a thing based on the fact that we also saw) Friendship (see previous), and Social Hill (I don’t even know what the christ a social hill is). That’s just a sample and you can see how stupid they are. Sufficed to say I’m happy I had no plans to stop in Arkansas.

After losing some brain cells we finally arrived in Memphis. We checked into the EconoLodge and I’ll say it. I had some reservations. The place looked rough from the outside. There was only one working elevator and the stairwell we took looked like something out of the Saw franchise. I might have gotten tetanus just from touching the door nob. So, when we opened the door to the room I was pleasantly surprised to see a clean, relatively up to date room. We drop our bags and went to grab something to eat on Beale street. With so many places to choose from we decided to go with the Jerry Lawler Hall of Fame Bar and Grille. With dad and I both being wrestling fans it was great looking at all the old memorabilia. We ordered and appetizer of fried pickles. Dad got a double cheeseburger with fries and I ordered a peanut butter and banana sandwich on Texas toast that came with sweet potato waffle fries that were covered in powdered sugar and came with syrup to dip in. The food was absolutely outstanding. The fried pickles were better than any either of us had ever had. Dad said his burger was flavorful and delicious. And my food….oh my food. The sandwich itself was great. I would have preferred more banana but that was not the standout here. The sweet potato waffle fries with powdered sugar and syrup were unreal. Granted I could feel myself getting diabetes as I ate them, but hey sometimes sacrifices must be made.

After we ate we strolled around Beale street for a bit. We walked into a store called A. Schwab. It was a unique store that had anything you could imagine. It was an old school candy store. It had touristy gifts like t shirts and shot glasses. All sorts of different Elvis paraphernalia. Dad and I goofed around and tried on all sorts of different types of hats. From trilbies to fedoras. We probably looked like hardcore tourists but we didn’t care. It was a blast. We explored the store a bit more and found old school toys like whoopee cushions, slinkies, and even model airplanes that are made in Wakefield, MA. After we were through poking around the store we went back out to Beale street.

We went down twice. The first time we went down we were just kind of browsing. It was still early in the afternoon so it wasn’t too lively. There was music playing and there were other people walking around. We were able to check out where BB King’s Blues Club was. I got some pictures of the Beale street signs as well as the BB King street sign. When we went back later in the day is when we really had some fun though. All the restaurant and club signs were lit up covering the street in neon light to match the music that poured out onto the street. There were significantly more people even though it was only Tuesday. Dad and I stopped into King’s Palace Patio and got a drink. We listened to the music for a bit then continued on down the street. We watched some street performers and listened to some other musicians play. We heard early rock we heard jazz we heard blues. It was an amalgamation of people and music. At some points the music blended together until you got further away from one area then close enough to another. The street wasn’t crazy but dad and I enjoyed it. We agreed that had we been there on a Friday night or a Saturday night it might have been way too crazy. We enjoyed being able to walk around and enjoy ourselves without being over run be hammered people bumping into us constantly. We took one more stroll up the street then headed back to the room.

Overall Memphis was a good time. Food was great, the music and culture were as expected. It was just a great experience. Now we are headed to Nashville for 2 days in the morning. We are both anticipating a completely different atmosphere. One because the culture is different and 2 because on Thursday the Nashville predators are playing in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup against Pittsburgh. Luckily for us the game is in Nashville, but you better believe we’ll be at a bar cheering on the Predators. We loved Memphis but we are ready for Nashville.