Day 71 – Memphis (West), AR

We woke up again to the musical sound of raindrops falling on our roof, though without the thunder sound effects. It wasn’t raining really hard, it was just raining. I did a really fast job of retrieving the phony paper, didn’t pause to sniff the air for new smells like I usually do, because I’m really tired of the rain, like we all are. Fortunately it tapered off a little later, before Don and I went out for our walk, and I was even able to find some halfway decent spots to roll in. When we left the coach, Don pointed out a pushboat with a bunch of barges coming upriver, about a mile downstream from us. He had remarked earlier about how fast the current in the Mississippi was running, and how tough it was on traffic going up the river. When we returned from our walk, about a half hour later, the pushboat and its barges were just offshore from us, so their speed was about two miles an hour. No, I didn’t calculate that, Don did. He said that at that rate, it would take them about ten days to get this far from New Orleans. We spent most of the morning doing some more cleaning and maintenance, had lunch, and then got in the truck and headed for Memphis.

The rain was still holding off pretty much, so we were able to do a moving tour of downtown Memphis without looking through raindrops. They were having a music festival this weekend, and there were a lot of people downtown, many of them dressed like it was the middle of summer. The older part of the city, where all of the historic music places are, was blocked off, and the parking lots were charging $20 for short term parking, so we kept going. We drove out to the east end of town, where there are a lot of really beautiful homes, and found a big park. While we were pulling into a parking spot, we saw a woman with five Yorky Yappers, all on leashes, and all running around like crazy, getting their leashes totally tangled. They had been out in the wet grass, and were all soaking wet; she was herding them over to her car, then loading them in while they yapped endlessly. I took pride in jumping down from my private compartment in the truck, following Don’s directions precisely, walking beside him and Geri, and chasing squirrels only when granted permission to do so. Leash? I don’t need no stinking leash! When we got back into the truck, we headed west out to a place called Germantown, because Don wanted to see it. I think he was secretly hoping to find a source for the German red cabbage that he loves so much. When we got there, he was disappointed to see that it was just another upscale suburb, with nothing German about it at all. While I’m thinking about it, I should say a few more words about Garmie. Now, I know she’s not human, or canine, or related to any of us in any way, but I think about her as a fellow traveler who is always with us and wanting to help in any way she can. While we were travelling around Memphis today, we were frequently consulting Garmie on which way to go to get us to a freeway, where to find something we were looking for, and how to get back across the river to home. She was very helpful and gave good, accurate information consistently, even though she hasn’t been updated in over a year. Don didn’t argue with her once today.

We stopped at a barbeque restaurant in West Memphis on our way home, and Geri and Don got some ribs and fixin’s for dinner. They really enjoyed it, and I got some super plates out of it. I say, let’s do it again! Our plans for tomorrow sound pretty simple; head west until it stops raining. Don says he wants to be in Tucumcari, New Mexico, as soon as possible. So, tomorrow we hit Highway 40 until we feel like stopping; don’t know where that will be, but I’ll surely be reporting it to you!