A day in Memphis!
Well, Kevin and I are on the road on our great epic adventure, crossing the country from British Columbia all the way to South Carolina in our sexy 1987 Chevy getaway van, Ruby the Red, excited and delighted to attend my sister’s wedding with her betrothed (don’t forget to check out our stories on Instagram @cindysedd for daily updates on this wonderful adventure! )
High school sweethearts, both widowed, I watched as my sister reconnected with her old flame about a year and a half ago, and fell in love again. I don’t think it took very long before they started thinking long-term, and really before you could turn around three times and clap your hands, the word marriage had been mentioned! So, coming soon in May, Kevin and I get to be a part of their wedding as they make their sacred vows to one another. If that isn’t a love story, I just don’t know what it is! We might just have to have them on the podcast to share their journey; stay tuned on the Sizzle Not Fizzle podcast!
Anyway, as we continue to make our way there, we try and keep our mileage down to about 300 km, or just over 200 miles a day now that we have the bulk of the trip to South Carolina under our belt. As I am writing this, I am coming to you from North Carolina, and today’s blog is about Kevin and I’s romantic date in Memphis Tennessee. Memphis is home to The roots of rhythm and blues music, which took the world by storm! Memphis was where music, legends, like BB, King, Elvis Presley, Otis Redding, Johnny Cash ( to name a few ) got their real start!
So, we kind of looked at each other and said, “DATE DAY”!!!
Our first romantic event occurred as we driving into Memphis, when I told Kevin to turn right, and we ended up the wrong way down a one-way street! With on- coming traffic!! and a police car sitting right there! That certainly got our hearts pumping, but everyone was polite and waited for us to pull into a parking lot which m ant driving across the sidewalk, looking like idiots! Oh well, mischief was managed! Even the police officer overlooked our little indiscretion, and just smiled and waved!
And then?!?! we were on our way to Beale Street!
Beale Street is this remarkable History of music, legends, live music, open air, restaurants, and several other characters along the way!
So how do we make it a date? Well, the first thing we did was throw the budget to the wind. Sometimes you have to do that. When you go on a date that is way out of your regular zone, and it is likely a one time only lifetime event, just GO FOR IT!!
First, we went for lunch on Beale Street. Kevin as usual got a beer with his lunch, and I asked the waitress for their best cocktail. I don’t know what I got, and it doesn’t really matter, but she was pretty happy to serve it to me as I went with her recommendation. It was delicious!! Walking around, we quickly came to understand that Beale Street is the hub or the heart of live music in Memphis.
We booked two separate events online! One was a musical tour on a bus through Memphis, which was absolutely out of this world fabulous! There was a musician on the bus who had fantastic knowledge in the rich history of the Memphis music journey, and he regaled us with songs We all knew and recognized, and we were encouraged to sing along, as we drove by so many places of interest! We saw the church where Elvis first sang, we saw the radio stations that first played the blues music from the greats, and record labels that made many of the greats famous. We learned so much while having fun singing along to oldies, but goodies!
Just a great an interesting story and as an aside, all of this rockabilly music started in church, and churches became pretty popular places, especially with teenagers as the blues morphed into hip shakin’ rockabilly blues and jive. According to how the story goes, parents weren’t quite as excited about their teenagers, attending church once this shift in music caught on!
After our tour, we took a little break, and next on the date day list was dinner out on Beale Street again! We went to the famous Alfred’s restaurant. There was live music across the street which was so so good! We sat outdoors on the upper deck, just soaking it all in, ordering some of those wild and crazy drinks, and eating Memphis ribs! What a special night! And finally, we finished our date day off with a romantic carriage ride at sunset through Memphis. A horse drawn carriage was waiting for us, just at the beginning of the sunset, dusk, and Robin, our Driver, with Blue, her horse, took us for a romantic carriage ride through downtown Memphis. I dressed up, and so did Kevin, we sipped on pink champagne, with Lovely laying at our feet, and as the purple and pink lights came on on the carriage. Our carriage ride just slowed our day right down, and we both agreed - completely a once in a lifetime forever memory!! it was absolutely so romantic! And lucky for us, our timing was spot on because that night there was a significant weather change, and it poured rain all night, and all the next day!