Memphis

With some time to kill and a desire to see a part of the Southeast, I left St. Louis Friday morning bound for Memphis, TN. One of the more disturbing parts of the drive was going through part of the area where the recent ice storm hit - some of the damage done (and still evident) by the ice was pretty amazing:



This is pic from I-55, where traffic was stopped for about a half hour while a power line that stretched over the freeway was repaired:


If I had known AC/DC was in town that night, I would have gotten some tickets. But given the game-time decision on the Tennessee trip, I had to make do with a cool pic of the venue (FedEx Forum) from the top of a parking deck:





Seeing as how I was only in town for a night, and doing some simple research (ie phone calls to people who may have gone there)... I pretty much found out you only need to go for A.) BBQ and B.) Beale Street and live blues music. Thankfully, you can do both of those right downtown. Upon a recommendation by my resident travel adviser, my Uncle James, I ate downtown at a place called the Rendezvous, famous for its pork ribs. It's a few blocks from Beale Street, off the main road on an alley, but was pretty easy to find. Obviously geared for tourists, but still pretty decent:






After dinner I pretty much just walked up and down Beale Street, popped into a few bars for some live blues playing. Not too exciting, but some pretty good music and a worthwhile trip overall.



Not sure what to say:



In the morning, on another recommendation, I stopped in at a place called Central BBQ on Central Avenue. I stayed about 20 miles west of downtown, so I hit this place up in the morning when I headed back west towards Ar-Kansas and Okielahoma. Much, much better BBQ here:





Yes, I realize there's too much info on food - if this surprises you, you clearly don't know me that well. Also, if you think that eating that much BBQ can't be good for you... then you are 100% correct.


On to Norman, OK - home of the Sooners!