On December 3 (John’s Birthday!) we packed up and headed to Memphis. Thankfully, we didn’t have any huge problems along the way – we had to stop briefly when the truck ran out of DEF but that was easily remedied at the gas station. John had to help wrangle the cats, however, and Pallas ended up biting through his finger and leaving him with some nasty wounds – Happy Birthday from Pallas! We washed it out and put on some Neosporin. Cat bites are absolutely no joke even though our cats are all healthy and well cared for and up-to-date on all vaccines, bites should always be monitored carefully.
We were greeted in Memphis by some of the worst driving we have ever seen. We have learned (from experience and by speaking to some friends in the area) that Memphis is something else entirely when it comes to driving. Speed limits and lane dividers seem to be merely suggestions and parking is an absolute free for all. John compares our experiences on the highway to Mad Max. We also had to drive through some pretty sketchy areas (lots of busted street lights, closed/condemned/abandoned buildings, roads with crater-sized potholes) to get to our park but once we arrived, we felt much more comfortable. Our home for the week was T.O. Fuller State Park which sits on over 1100 acres of forest. The campground is kind of in the middle of the park – down three dead end roads- and there are 2 Camp Hosts on duty plus regular ranger patrols. We had a little trouble backing into the site but thankfully a neighbor in a motorhome offered to help (maybe out of the kindness of his heart, maybe because he was afraid we would run into his rig) and we were quickly settled in our spot. The campground was kind of oval shaped off of the entrance road and we were at the very back of the loop under some trees and near some wooded hiking paths. We had a few neighbors off and on during our stay but were mostly one of only a handful of people in the entire park. The center of the oval held a playground, bathhouse and laundry room and one of the camp hosts was our neighbor and we got to know him a little bit while we there.
It was really a quiet, beautiful spot – except for the fact that we had ZERO CELLPHONE OR INTERNET SERVICE!!!!!
One thing that a lot of people tend to forget is that we are not, in fact, on permanent vacation. John works from home Monday through Friday from about 8am to 4pm EST (7-3 Central Time, which is where Memphis is located). To do this, he needs internet access and a reliable phone connection. We currently have internet through T-Mobile and Verizon – just to be safe and guarantee that wherever we are, we can get a connection. Neither worked here. Even after spending around $500 on a cellphone signal booster. John was fortunate to find a co-op space where he could rent a desk for his two weeks in town. The downside to this is that he now had to get up even earlier than usual and make the 25-minute commute into downtown Memphis every day. We didn’t feel safe taking the truck into the city (plus it is hard to maneuver due to its size and gets really low gas mileage) so he drove the Kia. This means that Angel was left at home with no internet or phone access and no real means of getting out of the park during the day. To make matters worse – it rained almost every day. Not a nice, warm sprinkle. A gloomy, cold downpour. Our two weeks in Memphis were certainly one of the hardest times we have had for our mental health but we still managed to have some a little fun and go on a few adventures.
Our first meal in Memphis was Gus’s Fried Chicken with greens and fried okra and a slice of chess pie for dessert. It wasn’t the best we’ve ever had (that would probably be Miss Mary Bobo’s in Lynchburg, TN) but it was pretty damn good and was a great way to end our move day.
We also discovered that right inside of the T.O Fuller State Park was an archaeological site called Chucalissa Indian Village. This Native American village was founded around 900 AD overlooking the Mississippi River and was discovered quite by accident when workers began digging to install a pool for the nearby campground. From there, it became a protected site and has been excavated and maintained by the University of Memphis since the 1960’s.
While I don’t usually like driving the truck around “just for kicks”, I decided I could probably handle taking it just down the road from our campsite to the Chucalissa complex one day while John was working. When I was growing up in central Ohio we lived near Moundbuilder’s Park which was also a Native American site inhabited by a mound building society so I was very excited to visit this village. There was a small museum that had a variety of information and artifacts and then there was the village area itself. There were no active excavations going on at the time of my visit but there was a marked trail leading through the area that had signs describing what the village layout had been like and different things that had been a part of daily life there. It only took about an hour to view everything but it was still a nice little solo excursion.
John and I also made sure to visit the Memphis Zoo while we were in town. This zoo was really unique in terms of décor and we really the way exhibits were laid out. The entryway is Egyptian themed complete with hieroglyphics and statues and really made this zoo stand out from others that we had visited. This zoo was a little on the smaller side but definitely made up for it in the diversity of animal species that we got to see. They had a small but nice aquarium complex that included jellyfish and eels, a reptile building with Komodo dragons and alligators and so many beautiful snakes, elephants, hippos and bears, oh my! We really loved the lion exhibit – it was really like the lions were posing just for us. We also happened to be there on a day that they were celebrating their cheetahs and we were able to buy two paintings done by the cheetahs that live there – one for us and one to give as a gift.
The thing that really surprised us, though, was the pandas. Memphis Zoo was, at that time, home to two pandas and we got to see both of them during our visit. A few weeks after our trip there, they announced that the animals would be returning to China so we were really glad to have had the opportunity to see them. It was actually the first time I had seen pandas since I was a little girl and my great aunt and uncle had taken me to see them at our local zoo when they had them on temporary display. It really brought back memories and made me a little emotional to see them but it was so worth it!
After leaving the zoo we had dinner at Central BBQ which has to be some of the very best barbeque we have ever eaten. We got so much food because we wanted to try as much as possible and it was quite nice because we had plenty of leftovers for the next day. If you ever have a chance to eat at Central, you have to stop in. So damn good.
We also had a chance to face our fears in Memphis. A friend had told us that we should absolutely visit the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid while we were in town. Neither of us are hunting or fishing folks so we hadn’t really shopped at a Bass Pro Shops store before but our new lifestyle definitely had us spending more time outside so we decided to give it a shot. This location, in addition to being a store, is shaped like a pyramid and has an elevator that you can take up to the restaurant and observation deck at the top of the 321 ft tall building. The pyramid is the 10th biggest pyramid in the world and is 535,000 sq ft and includes, in addition to the retail space and restaurant, a hotel and pistol and archery ranges. Watch where you walk because the floor space also features several ponds with fish, ducks, and even alligators.
We paid the $10 each to take the elevator up to the top to the observation deck. The ride up was terrifying for me (I am afraid of elevators). The walls of the elevator are glass so as you go up you can look out and see the store displays and other shoppers getting smaller and smaller. It didn’t help that the base of the elevator was in the alligator exhibit so even if the elevator crashed and you managed to survive the fall you would find yourself surrounded by sharp-toothed reptiles whose space you had just invaded.
We survived the trip to the top and walked out on the glass observation deck. Now it was John’s turn to feel sick. He has a serious fear of heights so the glass bottomed deck hanging out over nothingness was a bit much for him. He elected to stay back up against the building while I walked out to the railing and enjoyed a beautiful view of the city below. We were even able to catch a glimpse of the Mighty Lights light show on the Hernando de Soto bridge. It was rainy and very cold and windy that high up so we took the elevator back down, finished our shopping and headed home for the evening.
One of our Facebook followers recommended we check out a place in Memphis called Mud Island. Mud Island today is very different than it was in years past but we still had a really fun time exploring. This island is a small island that sits in the middle of the Mississippi River. There are houses and shops at one end which is accessible by bridge and the other end used to be a really unique park and was accessible by monorail or footbridge. This is the end we chose to visit. Sadly, the monorail doesn’t run anymore but the footbridge over the monorail track is open to the public and provides great views of the island and the river. Mud Island Park features a scale replica of the entire Mississippi River that runs throughout the park. The river is a cool water feature that starts at one end near the monorail station near the middle of the island and flows down towards the southern point of the island where it dumps into a giant pool representing the Gulf of Mexico. The banks of the scale river are a topographical map of the actual areas surrounding the Mighty Mississippi and if you follow along it has maps of some of the larger cities that the Mississippi passes through. While guests can still visit the park, everything is mostly closed. The stores and restaurants that once filled the train station and the area around the river are all locked up, some of them boarded up, and the water has been drained from the water features. We rented e-bikes and rode the entire length of the park but only saw a handful of other people. The mostly empty park and the empty, dilapidated storefronts largely resemble an apocalyptic movie set. I seriously expected to round a corner and find a zombie horde at any moment. I could just imagine what this place looked like in its heyday, with tourists streaming off the monorail and strolling along the water feature sipping lemonade and licking ice cream cones. I could almost hear the sound of kids laughing echoing off the empty walls. It felt so haunted. I hope that one day the city receives the funding to restore this park to its former glory.
Perhaps one of the weirdest things we did in Memphis (which is saying something because we did several strange things) was visiting the Peabody Hotel for the Duck March. Yes, ducks. These ducks (known as the Peabody Ducks) live in a Duck Palace on the roof of the hotel and spend each day in the lobby fountain. They walk from their palace to the elevator, ride down to the lobby, and walk the red carpet to the fountain every day at 11am and reverse the routine each night at 5pm. The Duck March is a super popular event and has been a Peabody Hotel tradition going back to the 1930’s. We attended the March but were unable to get pictures of the ducks walking from the elevator to the fountain (you have to get there at least an hour early to get a good spot and we got there about 15 minutes prior) but we made sure to visit them and say hello once they were settled in for the day.
While all of this was definitely exciting, we still had more exploring to do. Be sure to check out our next post for the conclusion of our Memphis stay – Graceland, Beale Street, and the National Civil Rights Museum.
