Memphis
As it turns out, I have now been ‘allocated’ the Memphis post, so I get to say how incredible our friend Maddie, Francois’ sister, is for giving up her time to take us around for two days. Rob and I arrived in the city after a drive of more than ten hours (we sort of began to lose count…), our first without Paloma. It proved challenging both because of some quite questionable truck driving and some fairly recurrent bickering between us. Petty sibling arguments are easily exacerbated by seemingly endless hours of driving alone with each other on the other side of the road…
Thankfully, we made it to our AirBnb in one piece and were greeted by the delightful Jeremy and his partner. After a brief chat, we turned in ready to meet Maddie the next morning. She had very kindly offered to pick us up to shield us from exposure to the Memphis drivers, who, she informed us, are crazy. She drove us around the midtown area near where we were staying, showing us the university site, and then Harbor Town, an upmarket neighbourhood located on Mud Island by the Mississippi river, as well as downtown Memphis. We visited the Rock and Soul Museum near Beale Street before going to the airport to pick up Paloma, who had spent a fleeting two days partying it up in Miami for her mother’s birthday. She too was extremely grateful to Maddie, especially since she wasn’t up to much driving after one hour of sleep, that crazy raver.
On our way from the airport we stopped off at Graceland, Elvis Presley’s house. Maddie had the forethought to bring along some permanent pens so that we could write our names on the famous wall. We looked at the house, car and plane from the outside, but opted for the ‘budget’ version of the house tour: looking at pictures of the different rooms on postcards in the gift shop. Which we didn’t buy. Graceland’s location wasn’t as I had imagined; it’s in a fairly unspecial neighbourhood that just looks like so many other of those unattractive areas where there are only short-term loan shops and fast food restaurants. Sorry Elvis.
We then returned to the Beale Street area just in time for an age-old tradition, the Duck March, which takes place at the upmarket Peabody Hotel. Maddie told us the story of how this peculiar custom came to be. It involves a man with the esteemed title of ‘Duckmaster’ leading five ducks down the lift from their special penthouse home and along a red carpet into the fountain in the main lobby, every day at 11am. The ducks spend the day playing in the fountain, and march ceremoniously back down the carpet and into the lift at 5pm. Crowds gather to watch them walk to and from the fountain, and that day we were among the intrigued faces vying for a spot beside the red carpet. Even though we got there twenty minutes before five o’clock, hordes of people had already gathered in the lobby to watch and children lined the sides of the carpet. Like similar rituals of this kind, the Peabody Duck March was a little underwhelming, but also undeniably adorable. It was the kind of experience we’d likely not known about if it weren’t for our local guide!
Afterwards, we headed over to a barbecue restaurant called Corky’s where we had dinner with Maddie and her parents, Ian and Michelle. I had heard a lot about them so it was lovely to finally meet them. We also settled the TN/TX rib dispute, and I’m sorry to report that it was a unanimous verdict in favour of Tennessee.
While we were having dinner, freezing rain began to come down heavily, but we headed back downtown to Beale Street to hear some music. We spent a while at BB King’s club before ending up at Rum Boogie Café. Because Paloma was at this point still surviving on an hour’s sleep and a hangover, and because we knew every droplet of ice was a new obstacle to our drive home, we had decided to leave earlyish, but on our way out, a man somehow guessed that Robbie had a harmonica in his bag and invited him to jam with the band. He decided to borrow a guitar instead, and launched into an impromptu improv session with another singer and guitarist, a drummer and a bassist. I could tell his excitement at getting a chance to play on Beale Street, and it definitely was a highlight for us all to experience that. It was just one example among many of how the friendliness of the people we’ve encountered has made the experience so much better. Rob left an EP with one of the guys, who in turn gave him a pick with his band’s name on it. When we actually did head home, it wasn’t until a substantial amount of time had been spent getting off the thick layer of ice which had formed all over the car.
The next morning, Maddie came to collect us again and this time she brought some of the best doughnuts I’ve ever tried (I told you, the girl is a saint). My personal favourites were one with some kind of delicious crispy coffee-flavoured exterior and a maple bacon one. A MAPLE BACON DOUGHUT. We took a tour of Sun Studios, where Elvis first recorded, which was I think my favourite attraction in Memphis. The guide was very knowledgeable and told the story in a way that really made you feel the history of the place. After that we took a tour of the Gibson guitar factory, which has made us all start to scrutinise guitars a lot more now after seeing all the processes involved in making them.
Maddie then took us to where she lives in Germantown and on the way drove us round some extremely lavish mansions which were incredible. We had dinner and headed over to a venue called Lafayette’s Music Room in midtown, conveniently located quite close to our AirBnb. We watched a really lively band, a great way to end a wonderful visit. We really can’t thank Maddie and her family enough for taking such great care of us while we were there, it was one of the highlights of the trip and we have hopefully made it clear enough that we can’t wait to welcome them all to the UK/Spain so we can return the favour! As if her tour guide services weren’t enough, Maddie also gave us some amazing contacts for Nashville, our next stop.
