"Memphis Midnight; Memphis Morning"

A song I like, written by Eric Taylor and sung by Lyle Lovett and others:

“The sun went down like a curtain
Memphis looks bigger at night
All the tattooed boys in uniform
Step in and out of the light.
She bought me good whiskey in Memphis
She bought supper and she paid for the room
And as best as I can remember
She paid dearly for loving me too

She said hey don't I know you
Now ain't you the one
The one with the guitar boys
And all them sad songs
About men in the rain
Did you ever miss a plane
In Memphis?

We laughed at the strangers we were in the bed
Two cigarettes lit up the room
Like two backseat lovers can't wait to get started
Knowing everything's over too soon

Now Memphis ain't bad in the morning
Good coffee well it's just hard to find
But let me suggest that you never leave Memphis
With anything on your mind

She said hey don't I know you
Now ain't you the one
The one with the guitar boys
And all them sad songs
About men in the rain
Did you ever miss a plane
In Memphis?”

It’s good to finally be here. I’ve wanted to visit for a long time and I’ve always just passed through. Beale Street is ‘Tourist Central,’ and that’s not a bad thing; there’s real history there with names like Carl Perkins, B.B. King and Elvis getting their starts in and around that neighborhood. Sun Records is just a few streets away. I ran and walked the whole downtown area. It’s pretty, but it’s also pretty distressed financially. I hope that things improve.

Million Dollar View 

I Didn't Know This! 

 I KNEW That The King Hadn't Left The Building!

"Now its a mighty long way down rock'n'roll,
Through the Bradford Cities and the Oreoles,
'N you look like a star, but you're still on the dole
All the way from Memphis." 
                             - Mott The Hoople 'All The Way From Memphis'

Nashville, too. A couple of square blocks of bars, nice music and more history.

He's everywhere



Day 5. Yuck! With me it’s never what I imagined or hoped for. The Park was OK, but 3 days was enough. On Thursday afternoon I drove 15 miles up to Cherokee, NC. It was one of the most UNappealing places I’ve ever been thru: wall-to-wall Native American ‘craft & souvenir’ places, each one the same as the next, for blocks on end. And, a casino, proudly owned by the Eastern Cherokee Nation. Not a drunken squaw in sight, which would have been a saving grace. Give me a break!

But do not despair for Tonto & his ilk, because what’s off the reservation isn’t much better. Friday afternoon was spent on the road thru some beautiful scenery in Nantahala National Park, along river rapids that were the sight of the kayaking events during the Atlanta Olympics. I believe that I rafted down that river way back when in was working for the TVA, in the mid-80’s, but everything is so developed now that I don’t recognize a thing.

On Saturday I arrived in Natchez, MS, to have lunch with an ‘Internet Buddy’ who’s a police Captain there. What a depressed and depressing place. Except for a little downtown that caters to the rich folk it is a place that’s dying, with loss of population, revenue and everything. The PD is a wreck from my perspective. I’d never apply for a job there, so that’s one good lesson learned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natchez,_Mississippi

Then, it was on to Vicksburg, MS. I have to say the Natchez Trace Parkway is a gem. Read the link and you’ll know as much about it as I do. I drove on it for 40 miles or so towards Vicksburg and then traveled thru Port  Gibson, which has some history and is on The Mississippi Blues Trail.

http://www.nps.gov/natr/index.htm

Vicksburg is a lost cause. In the 15 years or so since I last drove thru it has turned into a riverboat casino town. The waterfront is ruined and virtually inaccessible, and the ‘Historic Downtown’ was empty of people at 1700 on a Saturday. Fully half of the storefronts were empty as well.

http://www.houseofisraelhcc-vburg.com/default.html

This is a Black-persons accomplishment 'museum.'

The reference to House of Israel is a mystery!

On Sunday I drove thru miles and miles of corn and soybean growing on true bottom land along Hwy 61. Then I drove thru miles and miles more. Where the fields were irrigated things looked good to this city boy, but where they were not, things looked beaten down by drought.

One stop on the way to Memphis was Lake Enid, a Corps of Engineers facility just south of town that was quite beautiful and only sparsely used. The Ranger said it was too hot to be out on a boat!?

“I'm a traveling man, don't tie me down
There's just too much living going all around
A man, he's got to see what he can see.
I love the road and I love the air
And I don't worry, hell, I never care
I love my women; sometimes they love me.”

Day 1. On Tuesday 05 July 2011 I was off again for what I am calling my Grand Tour, seeing some sights new and old and some people who I haven’t seen in ages.

I drove up to Tryon, NC, and met Ol’ Chief Reuben Greenberg for lunch. What can I say? He’s lost a step or two since his prime, but so have we all. He likes Tryon and is well known there by the regulars. He’s moved on quite well from whatever he had in Charleston, SC.

After lunch I drove to Bryson City, NC, which is one of the gateways to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I’ve been to the Smokys on several occasions, but always on the North side, by Gatlinburg, TN. That town interests me not at all, and the trails in that section are overused and under maintained. Here on the south side things are much quieter, but, in the end, the Smokys are not the Rockys. This morning, the 6^th, I hiked for about 2.5 hours along a trail that was really a fire road. A good first day, but it was not very interesting or challenging.

Tomorrow and Friday I’m planning more of the same and I hope that I’ll be in some sort of better shape if I end up hiking out west.

Tryon, NC

Sergeant Weiss [Retired] and Chief Reuben Greenberg [Retired]

RMNP