Day Thirty-nine

The bus to Memphis wasn’t much fun. It took a little over 24 hours to travel from Philly into the mid-west, although we did pass through some big-name cities which I wouldn’t have gotten to see otherwise, which was good :). We passed through Baltimore (which seems to be the home of, well, nothing), hen onto Washington DC. I spotted the White House, and that was surprisingly exciting. You see it all the time in TV and on movies etc, but the actual building it really kinda impressive. Not just to look at, but to consider what goes on (and has gone on) there. Washington otherwise seemed to be full of a whole lot of cemeteries.

The bus from there to Richmond had broken air-conditioning. It was only a couple hours, but with no openable windows, a warm day, and a full bus, this was not good. Richmond, Virginia, is the home of the FBI, far as I can remember. They live in Quantico or something. The bus from Richmond had air-con but no cooler, so it was just moving air around. It was still pretty comfortable. But noooo, the Americans had to complain very noisily, which eventually got us turned around, back to Richmond for a replacement bus. Seriously, the air-con on the first bus was fine. This delayed us by a good hour for no good reason.

Then we passed through Nashville. And boy does it have a lot of guitars. It’s a lot more modern than I expected for the home of country music, but apparently that’s more resultant from the business of country music than the love for country music.

All these US cities seem to have some sort of signature food; in New York it was pizza (or hot dogs... or pretzels... They seem to specialise in a lot :P), Philadelphia has the cheese steak of course, and Memphis seems to have “BBQ”. It’s not BBQ in the Australian sense, but cooked pork in a roll/burger (“sandwich” here, apparently), or ribs and the like. I have to give this a try still! New Orleans’ speciality is gumbo which sounds surprisingly regardless of me having completely no idea what it is made of or looks like.

Speaking of Memphis, I have been up to very little here so far! It is a very safe city though. I’m in an actual HOTEL (who woulda thunk it) which is very lovely. I’ve never slept in a king size bed before. Arrived Friday late afternoon, it’s now Sunday mid afternoon. After getting in Friday I got settled, had a shower etc (it’s been about 26 min, 36 max every day so far, with very little wind), got everything sorted before heading out on the town. It wasn't terribly lively, but I met a few people to chat with and hang out; one was a local and the other visiting family here from New York.

It was still late by the time I got to bed though, about 4.30, and I ended up sleeping through til 12pm when the housekeeper checked to see if she could come in and clean, apart from a quick wake-up at like 7.30am. So even then I didn’t get ready and head out til about 3pm. I went into downtown Memphis, also dead, apart from the entertainment district on Beale St, which is host to many neon-lit live music bars, pubs, gift shops, ice creameries etc. Lots of live blues, lots of live rock, it was pretty cool :).

I was only out for about an hour and a half though, had to get back to get ready to go to the Jewel concert. She was playing in the Memphis Botanical Gardens. And she was grrrreat! At first she wasn’t feeling it, there was something wrong with the acoustics. But she was really personable and chatty too. She even did some short kind of stand-up comedy type talks. And the playlist was so varied; she started with Hands, and finished with some yodelling - even though she claimed to be losing her voice (but still sounded brilliant). Go figure. In between she only did about three songs from her new country album (which sounds more country live than it does on the recording), and some of the more random, obscure songs from both her first album (Near Me Always and Morning Song), and some less-well-received albums (Everybody Needs Someone Sometimes and Love Me, Just Leave Me Alone from This Way).

Even a newly-banjo-infused version of Intuition from her really rather forgettable pop record, 0304. Some guy in front of me thought Intuition was a Beyonce cover. Foolish Games and You Were Meant For Me have to be two of the best depressing break-up songs ever. She scatted too! What was really odd, was right after the concert was done, as she was walking offstage after the yodel-encore, they blasted MC Hammer’s Can’t Touch This out the speakers. Only that song though, they didn’t play anything after that.

One problem though. I had no way of getting back to the hotel. It was 10.50pm, all the buses had stopped running, I couldn’t find a taxi to save my life. So walking was the only option. It took about two hours. It was close to 1am when I got back into the hotel, gave the peeps from Friday night a call, and they were back out at the same club (we were told that Saturday night is the polar opposite to Friday nights), and it was packed. So I went back out again! And it was seriously sooo much better. They have a huge dance floor with an awesome light and laser system, and it really was packed. Tonight (Sunday) the club is hosting some Miss USA thing, so we might even be going out again. Three nights in a row. That’s new to me :P.

As for today, I was up about 10.30, and have spent most of the day by or in the pool. Tomorrow I’m heading out specifically to find myself a book. Probably the first in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, I hear that’s good. To read by the pool, and on buses/trains when I get bored of the scenery. Tuesday I’ll do Graceland - Elvis’s home. A local was saying I have to go across the road where they sell Elvis’s favourite meal; a fried peanut butter honey banana sandwich. Oh my. Wednesday so far is up in the air, and Thursday morning (EARLY) I’m boarding the train to New Orleans!