Memphis Archives - Iron Roamer

To Greenville – the Heart of the Mississippi Delta

It was finally time to leave Memphis for Greenville, Mississippi, the heart of the Mississippi Delta.

Graceland

Before I left though I visited Graceland. I had been there once before, but it is a place you just have to go to. Last time the guard allowed me to go visit Elvis Presley’s grave. This time no such luck without paying for a tour. So just a few pictures before heading on.

There was one noticeable difference from the last time I was there. Next to Graceland was not a massive building still under construction. I asked around and a person told me it was the new Heartbreak Hotel.

Weather

It didn’t take long for the weather to heat up. For most of my ride today it hovered around 36 degrees C. My Klim riding suit is cooler than I expected. It has lots of vents. But at 36 it is still very hot. It doesn’t take long before you feel weak from the heat.

Great River Road

Of course I was following the Great River Road into Mississippi. I wasn’t seeing the river though. I even went up onto the levee to see if I could see a glimpse.

Finally I got to see her 🙂

Greenville

I made it to Greenville and I was exhausted. In fact I felt a bit disorientated. I am sure the heat had something to do with it. However, I also felt like I was in a different land. There was the obvious that basically everyone in Greenville is black. But there was also a distinct language barrier too!

When I was checking into the Warfield Campground, a prison inmate worker was trying to ask me something and I had no idea what he was saying. We finally got together and he was asking me if I had a tent. Then the Ranger came and I was sure he was asking me for my “land line.” Nope, he was asking me for my last name! A really nice guy. I just couldn’t understand him. Then people are saying my bike is a lot of “grip.” I am guessing that means money. I haven’t seen a Rosetta Stone course for southern English!

Doe’s Eat Place

One of the main reasons I chose to do the Great River Road and to go to Greenville was because of Anthony Bourdain’s show on eating in the Mississippi Delta. When I watched it I thought there is something so different and unique about the Delta. One of the places featured on the show was Doe’s Eat Place in Greenville.

To be truthful I almost didn’t go. I was hot and disorientated. I just wanted to go to a place I knew. I am glad I didn’t.

Doe’s Eat Place is very unique. To start with, the entrance is through the kitchen! The building itself is very old and held together by knives – literally. Where I sat there was a knife holding the door closed.

The other unique thing? After I sat down the server came up to me and asked what I’ll have. I said, “what about a menu.” “We don’t have menus here,” was the response. No menus!?!

Luckily, from the Anthony Bourdain show I knew tamales, salad and steak were the specialties. So that is what I had. Meanwhile, I’m thinking, this is going to cost me ha ha. But with no menu I had no idea.

The steak was awesome. Yes, I know it is well done. I like it that way.

Warfield Park Campground

The Warfiled Park Campground is really nice. Very spacious. Green grass. And a great view of the Mississippi River.

At night as the sun set it was magical. They had a tower there you could climb up on. At the top I felt the cool breeze from the river, and watched the sun as it set. SOOOOOO nice.

Humidity

After the sun set I had a shower to wash off the day’s grime so I could get to sleep. Minutes after crawling into my tent I was sweating again.

I pulled back my rain cover hoping that would help. It did a bit. I couldn’t open the entrance to let more air in due to the bugs. As it was these little creatures were making it into the tent and biting me or something.

I finally just took a sleeping pill and called it a night.

My Route for August 31, 2016

If you are liking what you are reading, please share it 🙂

My Vacation in Memphis

I decided to take a vacation in Memphis for the next week. There were a few things that went into my decision. I had been to Memphis before and it seemed like a cool city. Second, the weather forecast was calling for hot and stormy weather. And lastly, it was time for a bit of a break from riding and to let my budget catch up to me expenditures.

Motel 6 Memphis

I rode from my KOA in East Memphis to look for a hotel convenient to downtown and to my favorite cost saving restaurants. The second Motel 6 I checked gave me a weekly rate of $300 USD. A Starbucks was next door! And McDonald’s was across the street. No grocery store in sight though. Nonetheless, I took it.

The Sights of Memphis

The next day I decided to venture out into the city to see the sights.

I had been to the Lorraine Motel before but wanted to go there again. According to the New Yorker, “Martin Luther King, Jr., was the Lorraine Motel’s most famous guest. He stayed at the motel numerous times while visiting the city, and again in the spring of 1968, when he came to Memphis to support a strike by sanitation workers. On April 4, 1968, he stepped out of Room 306 and talked to friends in the parking lot below. He asked the saxophonist Ben Branch to play “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” at the rally that evening. As King turned to walk back into his room, a bullet struck him in the neck, taking his life instantly. Walter Bailey continued to run the motel, but he never rented Room 306 again. He turned it into a memorial. The room has been preserved to capture exactly what it looked like on that tragic night. There are two beds. (King was sharing the room with Dr. Ralph Abernathy, a friend.) King’s bed was not fully made because he was not feeling well and had been lying down. Dishes left in the room were from the kitchen where Loree Bailey prepared food for the motel’s guests. . . . In 1982, Walter Bailey declared bankruptcy and stood by helplessly as his high-end establishment became a brothel. The Lorraine would have been sold at auction, but the Save the Lorraine organization bought it and decided to transform it into a museum.”

This is the iconic picture.

These are the pictures from my visit.

The location is sobering as you think what transpired there.

Next I went to visit the ducks at the Peabody Hotel. David Cohen said in 1935 that the Mississippi Delta begins with the lobby of the Peabody hotel where the ducks swim in the fountain.

Across the street from the Peabody is the Kooky Canuck.

From there I walked to the park along the Mississippi River at the foot of Beale Street.

While I was trying to get a photo I stepped on an ants nest . . . again. While waiting for hte bus I intentionally stepped on an ants nest just for the heck of it. This time it was a mistake. This guys sting!!!! My foot was on fire.

I took my stinging foot to Sun records. In 1954 Sun Records released Elvis Presley’s first record. The place is an Elvis shrine now.

By this time I was hungry. Off I walked to Beale Street.

On my last motorcycle trip I had a great meal there at Rum Boogie Cafe. This time I thought I would try BB Kings.

The only thing was that the prices were too steep for my budget. So I only had a beer for $6.

After looking around I settled on Rum Boogie. There were one of the few with Red Bean and Rice, and it was at a reasonable cost.

It is actually one of my favorite comfort foods. It gives you that warm feeling in your stomach. And I really enjoyed sitting out on the patio watching people.

I had planned on staying late on the street. But I was hot and tired. And the predicted storm looked like it was about to dump some rain.

The Rest of My Vacation

For the next 5 days I did nothing! The temperatures were hot!! The local news had it at over 100 degrees F for each of the days. It was stifling, especially with the humidity. My routine went something like this:

8 am to 11 am – Starbucks
11 am to 6 pm – Air conditioned Hotel room to clean and organize equipment
6 pm – McDonald’s
7 pm to 10 pm – Watch TV
10 pm – Bed

This was actually good for me. I had been having a hard time slowing down. By the end of this time I felt a lot more relaxed.

My Route for August 24, 2016

My Route for August 25 to August 30, 2016

The Motel 6 ha ha ha.

Great River Road to Memphis

From one awesome city to another, I followed the Great River Road to Memphis from St. Louis.

It was suppose to be a partly cloudy day. No such luck. When I woke up it was cloudy and about to rain. Luckily, I managed to pack up just before the rain started. It was nothing serious though. But enough that the drops stung my face and had to put my visor down.

Antigravity Battery

I stopped for my usual McDonald’s breakfast.

A large coffee and cinnamon melt.

I needed to charge my cell phone but couldn’t find a plugin in the entire restaurant! I guess they don’t want me hanging around. No problem though. I pulled out my Antigravity Battery and charged my phone.

This battery is great. It does everything from charging my phone to charging my motorcycled batter should it go dead. And I can charge it through my motorcycle as I travel.

Mississippi River

I really didn’t see much of the Mississippi River today as I rode the Great River road through Missouri, over to Kentucky, into Tennessee and finally into Arkansas. But I did see some of it.

Lost

Somewhere between Clinton and Hickman Kentucky I got lost. I thought I was following the Great River Road signs, but suddenly they disappeared on me. As luck would have it I was running out of gas as well. It is nice having a GPS though. You are never really lost. I set it for the nearest gas station.

It took me through a series of gravel and partially paved roads through fields of corn and soybean. At one point I misjudged a corner. I had to lean hard to make it. The tires started to come out from underneath me. I thought for sure I was going to end up in a field. I was turning and braking at the same time. Not a good thing to do, but I needed to slow down fast. After a couple expletives under my breath I managed to make the corner thanks to my ABS. I was quite amazed how it transitioned from the paved to gravel portions of the corner in the wet.

I made it to the gas station where, of course, it started to rain harder.

Weather Shift

At this point I just wanted to get to Memphis and was thinking about getting a cabin at the KOA I booked. I rode through the rain on the interstate.

Now, I am not sure where the north ends and the south begins in the US, but I think I found it. All of a sudden I rode out of the swath of cloud the had engulfed me, and into blue sky and stifling heat. I watched as the temperature got up to 34 C. I got into Memphis and it was HOT and HUMID.

That is one think ab out riding a motorcycle, you feel all the different weather. Not like sitting in a car not feeling anything.

It was time for a cold drink and settle in my tent for the night.