Note: For this post I’ll be exercising prodigious utilization of my thesaurus so I don’t wear out my big superlative words.
Our Wednesday in Memphis was extraordinary and our Thursday was sensational, both far exceeding expectations. Our preplanned events worked without a hitch and our unplanned time was serendipity to the max. In summary: we enjoyed every minute.
Wednesday started with an absorbing tour of the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel. With COVID precautions, advance tickets, a strictly reduced number of viewers and mandatory masks, we felt very safe walking through this incredible history exhibit in sobering silence. The scope of the museum cannot be fully appreciated in one visit. If you have time for only one activity as you pass through Memphis, this is it.
After lunch at The Arcade Restaurant, we scouted around for an access to the edge of the Mississippi River. We parked at Martyrs Park on the Riverwalk and walked over to the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge, which includes a pedestrian walkway called the Big River Crossing. We’re going to Arkansas!
The state line with the Memphis skyline in the background
and picked up wheels to continue down the paved path to the riverside
Toes in the sand of the Mighty Mississippi – life list check #1!
Life list check #2 – We stopped in at the Peabody Hotel for a cool drink after the bike ride and just happened to catch the Peabody Duck March! For all our precautions on the Tour de Tennessee, this was the only event that was a little bit mask loosey-goosey (see what I did there?)
Thursday’s thrill was visiting Graceland – life list check #3! For years I’ve imagined what it’s like, but the idea of crowds and kitsch seemed like too much. Well, turns out that the crowds were away so we could play! Entry was contactless, pre-purchased tickets only. Forehead temperatures scans and masks were required. The shuttle bus from the visitor center to the home was limited to 8 people out of 20 seats. No tour guides, just self-guided audio in groups of 8, allowing for easy social distancing. Jim and I intentionally lagged behind and were the only people in each room that we walked through.
There’s more to the Graceland phenomenon than the big house, and we took a quick run through most of the exhibit buildings of cars, hit records, and movie memorabilia. Very few people anywhere.
How could we rinse off all that glitz and excess? We needed a natural adventure at Shelby Farms Park. This place is amazeballs [yes, that is in the thesaurus], five times the size of Central Park in NYC, includes 20 bodies of water (!), just a 20-minute drive from downtown Memphis (also connected via an impressive greenway system).
Our impromptu visit was limited, the bike rental place was closed (COVID), so we got info at the visitor center and took a short hike on the Tour de Wolf Trail to stretch our legs.
The Tour de Wolf is an easy hiking and mountain biking trail that we accessed by parking at Beaver Lake. The terrain is a mix of woods and open meadows and very few people on a hot afternoon. Trail markers were scarce, and we took a shortcut to cut the hike to about 3 miles.
A hawk sitting on top of a bat box by the edge of the meadow
Nighttime strolling around the Cooper-Young neighborhood, we found dinner at Soul Fish Café and discussed a someday return visit to Memphis. While it was nice to avoid crowds, the cost of that was closed businesses, restaurants and breweries, and Beale Street was as quiet as Broadway was in Nashville. There's so much more to experience here.
~Marc Cohn
No comments:
Post a Comment