In them old cotton fields back home....
Within the hour, we were crossing the Hernando De Soto Bridge over the Mississippi River from Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee. In this era of political correctness, I was surprised that there has not been a movement to rename this bridge because De Soto has come to be regarded as an example of all that was wrong about the conquest of the New World by the Europeans. Still, the name continued to percolate throughout the southeast.
I read online that the Tennessee Welcome Center on Riverside allowed free all day RV parking. It was easy to get off I-40 and drive straight to their lot, where we parked and went in to see what the city had to offer. An older lady named May Ann gave us a map of the trolley routes and a guidebook. She said we could buy an all day trolley pass for $3.50 each (exact change) and that we could leave the car and trailer in the lot free until 11:00 PM.
The main (Red) trolley line ran on rails and went up and down Main Street. A trolley came by about every twenty minutes. The Green and Yellow lines operated on tires and were not as frequent. We just missed a Green trolley at the Welcome Center, so we walked two blocks up to Main Street and waited for the Red car. The rule with trolley's seems to be that as soon as you give up waiting and start walking, the trolley will come along.
We walked south a few blocks and then caught a trolley. The driver/engineer/operator helped us feed bills and coins into the machine that spit out our all day passes.
At the south end, we debarked in front of the National Civil Rights Museum. The museum occupied the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was staying in 1968 when he was assassinated on the balcony. It also included boarding house from which James Earl Ray took the shot that killed him.
I remember that evening in 1968 when Rod, a classmate of mine, and I were were on an eleventh grade school project about Norway when the word came that King had been shot. It was one of those moments frozen in time.
The museum had many places that brought home the struggle against government sanctioned racial discrimination. "All men (and women) are created equal...." took a long time from the signing to the enactment in law. Unfortunately, discrimination still exists today in many forms because human nature always seems to target anyone who is "different". "Content of character rather than color of skin" is an ideal I strive to follow.
From the museum, we walked down Main Street to the Beale Street Entertainment District. The trolley came by as soon as we started walking.
We reached Beale Street, the home of the Memphis Blues, on foot. After walking down one side of the street, we had hamburgers for lunch at Dyers before walking back up the other side.
Back on Main Street, we waited for another trolley to come along.
After boarding, we rode to the north end and then walked a couple of blocks to the Bass Pro Pyramid. This structure housed a Bass Pro store, restaurants, an elevator to an observation tower and restaurant and lots of water.
We took the elevator to The Lookout. The outside deck had a see-through floor as you approached the railing. But you had to approach the railing to get clear photos. I should spend an hour a day in a place like this to get rid of the butterflies in my stomach.
Back on the ground, we circled the store. They had a small lake in the middle stocked with some large fish. They also had quite a few very expensive Tracker boats.
We left via the back door and waited for the Green Trolley to take us back to the Welcome Center.
At the Welcome Center, we asked Mary Ann about other things to see tomorrow. She suggested Discovery Park of America in Union City. It looked interesting, so I booked a room at a Days Inn in nearby Martin, Tennessee. The car said it was 98 F when we got back to it, but it was hotter inside.
We left on I-40, which immediately jammed up with rush hour traffic. Soon after, we exited on US 51 and followed it all the way to Union City. It was a short hop to Martin on Tennessee 22.
Clouds to the east stretch to the Atlantic coast
Once we got settled at the hotel in Martin, we walked next door to the Subway restaurant and got sandwiches to take back to the room. I anticipated having some time in the morning, so I didn't do much work on the blog before going to bed.
Today's Route (178 Equinox miles):
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