We drove a short 150 miles from Dickson, Tennessee to the Tom Sawyer RV Park in West Memphis, Arkansas. We started out with light rainfall and that rainfall increased as we got closer to Memphis. Seems that Hurricane Delta has moved north after making landfall in Louisiana and is not impacting the Memphis area with rainfall and winds up to 30 mph. The roads were excellent and the drive only took us three hours and fifteen minutes to complete the trip.  


The Tom Sawyer RV Park is located right on the bank of the Mississippi River. We have already seen two barges pass our site even though we have only been here for about an hour and a half. I hope to go down to the river and do a little fishing for catfish. We will see how that goes. We will also be opening the back deck on our RV so that we can sit on our chairs and watch the barges move past our site. I also plan to get some drone photos of the barges. That should be fun. We had a slight break in the rainfall as we set up our RV, but the rain is coming down pretty hard now. Affords a good time to work on the travel blog.


We have been driving for one week since we left northern New Hampshire. We are now in Memphis, Tennessee/Arkansas so we have covered 1,690 miles in seven days to get to Memphis for an average of 241 miles per driving day. Needless to say, we have not stopped to "site see" along the way. There has not been that much for us to see, and we have been driving to make sure that we do not get caught in any adverse weather in the northern parts of the country. The average temps for Memphis this time of year are about 70-75 degrees. We find it pretty warm here, even though it is raining. We are now planning to slow down and start looking the areas that we pass through. We have reservations to visit Graceland and take a riverboat ride on the Mississippi River over the next couple of days. We have also found some excellent, paved bicycle trails in the area. We hope to use them.


We are now planning our routing once we leave Memphis. We will head for Texarkana and then head for the Dallas/Fort Worth area in Texas to look around. We will also try to visit with Kent and Heidi Butler who have moved to Dallas, Texas from southern California. We hope to examine several areas of Texas as a future homestead for us when our Travels are complete. We also plan to journey further south to San Antonio to see the Riverwalk (15 miles long) and the Alamo. We will then come back through southern Texas (we hope to visit Big Bend National Park) as we move on to El Paso and Tucson. Sure is nice to be able to go where we want to go, and still be able to change our plans at any time.


Sunday, September 11, 2020 - We drove to Beale Street in downtown Memphis, Tennessee to take a look at the area that is known as the "Birth of the Blues." Lots of music related cafe's and stores, many of which date back to the early 1900s when Memphis was a hub of the music industry. They were mostly run-down brick buildings, but they did have a lot of character. There are several statues to Elvis Pressley and B. B. King in the area. B. B. King's music club is still in operation and there is a small store attached to it. Beale Street is closed off to traffic and you can walk down the center of the street. There were some homeless people and we were panhandled twice during our walk, but, since it was Sunday morning, there was no one on the streets but us; easy targets.


After leaving Beale Street, we decided to get some walking miles so we headed down to the waterfront to check out the riverfront. The road along the waterfront was sealed off and you could walk right down the middle of the road. There were some bicyclists and joggers taking advantage of the lack of car traffic. As we walked along, we saw the riverboats that we were scheduled to take a tour on later in the day. More on that in a minute. Off in the distance to the north, we noticed a huge square pyramid shaped building. We decided to walk to this building that is now the home of Bass Pro of Memphis. This is a huge building that was originally built to house the Memphis Grizzlies basketball team. After playing in the pyramid for a while, the basketball team decided that this facility did not really work for them. A new facility called the "Forum" was built in the center of town. Bass Pro took over the building and have made it into a truly magnificent sporting goods store. There are pools of water all over the floor of the store with huge trout, bass, catfish, carp, gar, crappie, and many more types of fish. there were a couple of gar that had to weigh in at around 400 pounds or so. There was even a six-foot long alligator in one of the pools. It is also a hotel with what appears to be hotel rooms all around the inside where luxury boxes for the basketball team used to be. They are even selling "time shares" for the rooms that are all set in varying camping motifs. On the ground floor there is a restaurant and bowling alley all set in an "underwater" scene. In the middle of the store is a steel structure that houses elevators to take you to the restaurant that is located up at the apex of the pyramid. It is over 300 feet above the ground level and houses a very nice restaurant and bar along with viewing areas that take you outside the pyramid onto glass walking areas. The views of Memphis and the surrounding area were awesome. Be sure to see the photo gallery on this building because it is hard to describe in words. We had a nice lunch in the store cafe' and then headed out to finish our walk and to move our truck to the parking area near the riverboat area.


Memphis is the home base for several companies that originated here. One is Piggly-Wigly, a massive number of food stores located in the southern and mid-western regions the United States. FedEx started here in Memphis. AutoZone started here and contributes in many ways to the community. Memphis is also a major transportation link for trucking and rail in the United States since it is located on Highways 40 and 55 right in the middle of the country. Memphis is also the heart and soul of the "Blues" and "Rock and Roll" music industries that originated here with Sun Records, Elvis Pressley, B.B. King, and many, many more performers. With two-thirds of the Memphis population African-American, Memphis is also a key location in the civil rights movement and actions of the NAACP.


Our cruise on the Mississippi River aboard the diesel powered sternwheeler called the Island Queen was a lot of fun and very informative. The Sun poked through as we started the trip and made the warm and pleasant. The narrator for the cruise was very knowledgeable and fun. We learned a lot about the river, the boat, and the region. We also saw several river barges from the water. River barges are constantly moving up and down the river carrying all sorts of cargo. This is a very efficient method of moving cargo. The trip lasted only for one and half hours, but it was a lot of fun.


Tuesday, October 13, 2020 - We visit Graceland, Elvis Presley's home in Memphis, Tennessee.