Memphis

Well, we are still sitting for this weekend. Yuk. All our friends left the rendezvous for places afar, but we are still stuck here in Iuka, Mississippi while we get the final fix for our starboard drive shaft. This is the same issue we have had for months, but now we think it is finally fixed. But part of the fix is that after being in the sling while they installed a new shaft on Friday, they have to drop you back into the water to let the boat settle and rest before they can do a proper alignment. So here we sit for the weekend.

Have a car and an open weekend, and what do you do? Hmm, how does Memphis sound? That makes the trifecta of Tennessee complete with prior visits to Chattanooga and Nashville. It is a two hour drive straight west down the Mississippi/Tennessee state line to Memphis. Shelley uses her i-phone to guide us down to Beale Street in downtown. Once again, the sound of music from a block long area of bars greets us, just like Broadway in Nashville, or 6th street in Austin. But this is the capital of BB King and the Blues, and Gibson guitars. It was pretty quiet today, but crowds were gathering at the FedX arena for a Taylor Swift concert. We understand it was a sellout. She travels the country in a very luxurious Motor Coach, along with 15 semi-trailers full of equipment. Unbelievable.

We had fun listening to some blues music and a few beers. Shelley does love her Guinness beer. Then her i-phone takes us to the best barbecue in Memphis. Yelp tells her the highest rated barbecue is out in Germantown, at a place called The Chandlery. Off we go, again following her mapping on the i-Phone. We found it, and conquered their ribs. Ummm. It is different than Texas or KC barbeque, drier with a peppery taste, but really good. We left with very full stomachs for our drive back to the boat.

Tomorrow after our final fix, we should be off by noon and head south down the Tenn-Tom. If all goes as planned, we should be in Mobile by the 7th. Since rarely anything on a boat goes as planned, I will keep the blogs up to date with our progress. Marc