We drove the roughly 2 hours to Memphis in the morning, arriving a little before noon. Our first destination was Big River Crossing, which is "the longest pedestrian/bicycle across the Mississippi River". It was warm, but the bridge and clouds provided some nice cover. There was also a breeze running along the river that was unfortunately blocked by the train parked directly next to the pedestrian crossing. Still, it made for some pretty views of Ol' Miss and the city of Memphis. We walked all the way across and touched the Arkansas side before walking back.
We had lunch at Central Barbecue at the recommendation of one of our friends who used to live here. It was good, but wasn't life changing. Or maybe I just wasn't feeling it? I'm not sure. "A" and I split the pulled pork nachos and a few sides, most of which he ate. On our way back to the car, we got a few cookies from Butterrific, because.. Well, because cookies are tasty, and the name was silly. They had a pretty cool mural on their wall too. Finally, we drove half a block away to the Lorraine Motel, the place where MLK Jr was shot and killed. It's been converted into a museum and there were a TON of people there or we might have stopped in for more civil rights history.
Our next stop was Mud Island, which is honestly a terrible name for it - there was no mud, and it's not an island. But we persevered anyway! We went the "wrong way" around an amphitheatre and made a bee-line for the giant colorful MEMPHIS sign. The sun was out from its clouds and our walk was quite warm. After a few pictures, we stood under the shade of a building for a few minutes before setting off further. Another cool feature of Mud Island is the Mississippi River Walk. It's a scale model of the lower 1,000 miles of the Mississippi River until it meets the ocean. I'm assuming it's way cooler when there's water in it, but it was still pretty cool seeing the topology of the riverbed and the flood plains. There were also markers for every city along the river.
We piled our sweat-drenched selves into the van, cranked the air conditioning to full blast, and then drove back to the mainland. One of the focal points when we walked across the Big River Crossing was a giant pyramid, and that's where we went next: a giant Bass Pro Shop. For those of you who know me, you may be surprised to hear that I've never been in a Bass Pro Shop. I know I seem like the outdoorsy hunting type, but I'm actually not. Shocking, I know. Anyway, this wasn't what I had expected at all. Walking up to the giant pyramid, we were greeted with valet parking. Apparently there's also a hotel in here, because who wouldn't want to stay in a giant store. Walking in, it honestly felt like the entire building belonged in Las Vegas as one of those themed hotels. We saw alligators, birds, ducks (I know, they're birds too), and 20 different kinds of fish.
We walked out of the pyramid and the weather had drastically changed. The wind was blowing steadily, and the temperature had dropped probably 10+ degrees. Sprinkles were just starting to fall as we put the van into drive, and we were in the middle of full-on thunderstorms before we made it a mile. The picture doesn't do it justice, but there were some fun little dust devils spinning as we crossed the bridge to leave Memphis. Next stop, Little Rock
