Skip to main content

Walkin' in Memphis, and boy are my feet tired!



The trip through Tennessee, incidentally, was beautiful. Hilly, with roundabouts and full forests. Fun to drive. I tried to take some pictures with my phone, but they all came out pretty assy.

I arrived at Memphis at around 4:20 which I later discovered was 3:20. Ah time zones.

Looking for a place to eat I headed south down the road to what I hoped would be a nicer area since my hotel room gives me a beautiful view of the freeway. Walking through Memphis I got the impression that this is a city that's either on the verge of a fall or the verge of a comeback. At first I thought it was the former, though now I'm leaning towards the latter. There's a lot of nice things around, decent restaurants, nice views, ok shopping... but for every location with activity there seems at least one other that's boarded up with big For Lease notices stickered to the window.

The other thing I noticed as I was walking was that nobody else was. Nobody. The city was dead to walking traffic. Period. When you've been to places where there's tons of people around the feeling of aloneness can be jarring. I slipped into a Steakhouse where they grilled the steak in the middle of the restaurant. It was cooked perfectly, and had a nice taste thanks to the hickory charcoal they used. Walking back I noticed more people around as I took a street a couple over from the one I walked up, and there was trolley-type system that seemed to be getting some use as well. I'll reserve judgement for later.

I also came across a park that had the beautiful view of the Mississippi above. It also had this statue in it.



Hard to see cause of the glare on my iphone but that's Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy. The park was Confederate Park, and there were cannons facing out towards the Mississippi. No comment.
Oh, and in relation to the title. Beale is a street in Memphis. For some reason I always thought the lyric was 'off a beale.' Which makes absolutely no sense in retrospect since wtf is a beale? But there you go.

Comments

  1. Stryder WolfeMay 11, 2009 at 10:09 PM

    so it all makes sense now. Interesting...Memphis is one of those cities I was always interested to go to (and yes, mainly due to the song/hype).

    ReplyDelete
  2. BrainMay 12, 2009 at 2:13 AM

    How close is Knoxville Tennessee? You gotta see the Sunsphere as made famous from The Simpsons.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In the Shadow of Honest Abe

The first thing you notice about Washington is that it's short.   None of the buildings are over 12 stories max -- something to do with making sure the Capitol Building isn't overshadowed.   Coming out of New York it certainly has a different vibe, giving a small city feel to what's a pretty big city. It rained all day today, but I was determined to get some shots of the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument.   Mission accomplished.  Still, the way the rain was falling the front of my shirt was soaked through by the time I got to ol' Abe.  The Lincoln Memorial was,  for me, the real object of the trip.   Even in a cold wet spring day, the sight of the greatest American President carved out of several tons of white marble perched on his chair and literally larger than life still gives one the feeling of being in the presence of greatness.  His words etched on each side of the memorial are still as eloquent as the day he spoke them.   After I got
2 comments
Read more

Florida in the Key of West

Yesterday was not a pleasant day.   10 hours of driving only to end up at the Best Western in Jacksonville, just so I could stand around waiting for my laundry to finish because the hotel in Key West that I'm staying in for 4 nights had no laundry mentioned on their website.   So it's 10:30 at night and I'm sweating on the second floor between the world's loudest dryer and the local ice machine for an hour.  And that's following 30 minutes of washing.   I even had to hang dry some stuff because even after an hour it still wasn't dry yet. It's times like that that make me question whether or not this trip was even a good idea.  It usually happens in the waking moments before sleep when I'm lying in my rented bed in the middle of a town where I know no one.  Why am I here?  Am I learning anything?  Is this just a giant waste of time and money? And then there's times like the Wendy's.   I got in too late in Jacksonville and the hotel was far enough
3 comments
Read more

A long time coming but I'm finally here

So I made it to New York. That's the long story made short. Here's the story at longer length: I got out of the house and on the road about an hour later than I expected to, but judging by all the maps I was looking at I would still be able to make it within a reasonable amount of time. The thing about trips though is you always forget something. I knew that once it was too late I would realize I forgot something that I absolutely needed. That's just the way it goes. I was dreading the border most of all, it would have really sucked to have to go through a hassle just cause some border guard is having a bad day. As I was approaching the Queenston/Lewiston crossing I picked a spot with two cars in front of me. The first car got the point. As in please park over there sir so we can ransack your car . The second car also got the point, and now I'm thinking is this the designated point guy for the day?! Am I gonna cavity-searched cause it was his turn to search everybody?
2 comments
Read more