On Saturday
we spent most of the day on Beale Street, three blocks of nightclubs,
restaurants and retail shops. This is
supposed to be where the Blues and Rock and Roll originated.
When we
arrived before noon, the street was really quiet. I think it is a lot like the French Quarter
in New Orleans – quiet by day, loud and rowdy by night.
Lots of
musicians had “notes” along the sidewalk.
This is one I recognize.
The
buildings range from ones that look new…..
To those
that look like they have been here forever.
Several of the nightclubs don’t open up until later in the day. We talked about staying until it got dark so
we could witness the lights and nightlife.
But, we wore ourselves out before that happened, we were back home
before 6:00.
We went into
town thinking that we would have lunch at the Blues City Café. The menu online sounded good and it does look
interesting.
The Pig
“pork with an attitude”.
Silky
O’Sullivan’s looks a little precarious to me.
This is an Irish pub with dueling pianos for entertainment. During the day the crowd seemed to gravitate
to this area, guess they like living dangerously.
Wet Willies
is supposed to have the best daiquiris, we decided it was a bit early for that
(are we sounding like old people?).
As the day
went on bands were popping up everywhere and you could hear them from inside
all of the bars and restaurants since they all had their doors propped open.
We decided
on BB King’s Blues Club for lunch.
The gumbo
and grilled shrimp with Texas toast was great.
We were
seated in an upstairs room that would only accommodate 18 people. We were the only ones there, when we headed
up there we were a little afraid they were heading us out the back door.
Seems they
leave room for a little dancing, Greg wasn’t interested.
As it turned
out we had a prime spot for viewing and listening to the band.
After lunch
we walked a few blocks down to the Beale Street Landing which is right on the
Mississippi River. It is a long raised
(as in hill with grass on it going over the building) complex made up mainly of
a riverfront café. I couldn’t figure out
how to take a good picture of it unless I was somewhere out in the middle of
the Mississippi River.
This artwork
is at the entrance to the area – looks to me like a couple of dueling praying
mantis, but I like it.
The landing
is where the steam boats come in to load passengers for tours.
The river is
up because of all the rain they have had recently. You can see that at least one tier of this
boarding ramp is underwater.
The
playground has a couple of water features for the kids to play in.
There is a
nice view of the Memphis skyline from here.
The Bass Pro
Shop has a unique store here shaped like a pyramid. I know it has a restaurant in it and Greg
thought it also had a hotel inside. We
didn’t go down to check it out. I asked
Greg if he wanted to walk down and see it, I won’t print his reply, let’s just
say he declined since he estimated it was about 5 miles from where we were
standing.
We walked
back up to Beale Street and walked around the Gibson factory and peeked in the
windows. We didn’t go in for a tour.
The Peabody
Hotel was our final destination for the day.
The Peabody was built by Colonel Robert C. Brinkley in 1869. Originally to be called Brinkley House, the
name was changed to honor Brinkley’s friend and philanthropist George Peabody
who passed away just before the hotel opening.
Peabody endowed numerous museums and public libraries in the Northeast. Peabody, Mass. Is named in his honor. The original hotel was built a couple of
blocks from the current hotel’s location, it stood until 1923.
In 1925 the
current hotel opened. In the 1970’s the
Memphis economy took a huge downturn, the hotel closed. The hotel was then purchased and sold by a
couple of hotel chains and ultimately put up for auction and sold for
$400,000. After a 25 million dollar
renovation it was reopened in 1981 by the Belz family and stands as the center
of the downtown Memphis revitalization today.
It is truly a beautiful historic hotel.
The lobby
bar is a popular spot.
We checked
out Lansky Brothers Men’s Shop, one of the retail shops in the hotel. The Lanskys are known as the clothier to the
king (Elvis Presley)
If Greg only
had a place to wear this jacket (just kidding). As you
can imagine we didn’t have any salesmen approach us thinking they would make a
sale, our shorts and tee shirts just weren’t giving off that vibe that we could
afford what they were offering.
He passed on
the blue suede shoes too.
Everything
in the shop next door was duck related.
I don’t think these would last too long in the RV.
The fountain
where the Peabody Ducks spend their day is the center of attraction. Ever take a selfie with a duck? Lots of that
was happening today.
The ducks
have been a popular feature of the Peabody since 1933 when Frank Schutt,
General Manager of the Peabody and some friends returned from a week long duck
hunting trip to Arkansas. The men had a
little too much Tennessee sippin’ whiskey and thought it would be funny to put
some of their live duck decoys (which were legal at the time) in the beautiful
Peabody fountain. They figured they
would wake up in the morning and ducks would be flying around the lobby. Instead the ducks were swimming around the
fountain being admired by the guests.
Today the
mallards, one male and four females, are raised by a local farmer and friend of
the hotel. The ducks live at the Peabody
until they are full grown. They are then
retired and returned to the wild. We
didn’t talk to anyone to get details on this but these ducks are so pampered
I’m not sure they could make it “in the wild”.
When they
aren’t swimming in the fountain the ducks live in a $200,000 Duck Palace on the
roof of the Peabody. They march to the
fountain at 11:00 a.m. every day, swim until 5:00 p.m. and then march back into
the elevator to go up to their penthouse.
The tourist
information on the duck march says to arrive about half an hour ahead of
time. I would advise getting there
before that if you want to sit anywhere you might be able to see them. We were tired of walking around and the
temperature was in the 80’s so we got there way ahead of time to just hang out
in the cooler lobby and have a glass of wine.
Come prepared to pay dearly for a drink, these are $13 glasses of
moscato. It was good and we sipped it
slowly, we were 3 hours early!
This duck
march is a real crowd attraction. It
took security a while to get everyone seated and back behind barriers. Since we were so early we snagged a prime
spot in the mezzanine overlooking the area where the ducks would march out.
There is a
lot of hoopla involved in the half hour just before the march. The Duckmaster brings out the carpeted steps
and red carpet. He gives a history of
the Peabody and the Duck March. He
introduces the honorary Duckmaster of the day.
In case you are interested you can be an honorary Duckmaster by
purchasing a Ducky Day family package which starts at $379 (which includes your
room and some other amenities).
The current
Duckmaster is Jimmy Ogle, a Memphis historian.
He is only the sixth Duckmaster since 1940 when a Peabody hotel bellman
Edward Pembrooke took over the duties.
Pembrooke was a former animal trainer for the Barnum and Baily
Circus. He convinced the manager of the
hotel that he could train the ducks which were then only swimming in the
fountain to march to and from the fountain.
He held the Duckmaster position for 50 years. Needless to say, the Peabody Duckmaster
position is one of a kind. A couple of
things I read online indicated that the salary was at least $85,000 a
year. The Duckmaster does more than just
care for and present the ducks, he represents the hotel at many functions.
The ducks
got “all in a row” and marched out to John Phillip Sousa’s Cotton King
March. It lasted all of ten seconds
before they were out of view. I was so
nervous knowing I had one, maybe two shots I could get before they were
gone. If I blew it we had waited three
hours for no pictures. These are a
little fuzzy but they were shaking off water the whole way out. Now we have an answer for when we are asked
“what is the craziest thing you have done in your travels”. Sitting three hours waiting on five ducks to
make a 10 second march probably qualifies, but we are glad we did it.
As we left
Beale Street just after 5:00 the crowd was picking up.
As I sit
here writing this Sunday morning, it is pouring down rain with strong
winds. Our plan was to visit Graceland
today and leave on Monday morning.
Instead we are extending our stay here until next Friday. Because of the extended rains they have had
in Indiana we think it would be better to wait to arrive there until the ground
has settled so we don’t get stuck going into our summer spot.
