Day 70 - Uh-huh-huh

It took a long time to get to sleep the previous evening, so it was a struggle to get up for the alarm at 8.30am. Just after 9.00 we had one of our better motel breakfasts.

First stop of the day was to 306, Elvis Presley Drive, Tupelo, the birthplace of Elvis Aaron Presley. It is incredible that they named a street after him before he was born!

The Birthplace of Elvis Presley is now a large park containing his actual birthplace house, his local chapel that had been moved a block, another chapel, a museum, fountain, a lake, a car, several statues & strangely, possibly insensitively, an outhouse toilet! The Museum didn’t open until 1.00pm, so his house & the chapel were locked & not available to see inside. This was not a bad thing, because we could save our hard earned dollars for Graceland.

We were however able to walk around the entire park reading the various plaques & photographing the buildings, statues, etc. It was a pleasant morning stroll, especially as the heat hadn’t got to hot.

Afterwards we picked up Highway 278, then dropped down into Historic Pontotoc, which was once a hiding place for Jesse & Frank James & their gang. We then traveled along a quiet back road to pick up the 278 & paid a flying visit to the town of Oxford, home to the University of Mississippi.

Highway 278 took us through Batesville & Marks & into the Mississippi Delta. We drove into Clarksdale & located the crossroads of 61 & 49 Streets, where in folklore, legendary American Blues Singer & Musician, Robert Johnson Met the Devil. It is believed reference is made to this encounter in his song ‘Me and The Devil’ and then being at the crossroads to hitch a ride in ‘Cross Road Blues’. It is all slightly tenuous.

Anyway, the crossroads features a a Monument of three guitars on a post to mark the ‘event’. In reality it is believed that his ‘Deal with the Devil’ relates to him cutting corners in the pursuit of fame & fortune. It was worth a visit & a photo!

Clarksdale is the home of Delta Blues & was deserted, possibly because it was Sunday & they were all at church. We drove around the old town snapping away at the buildings, including Ground Zero Blues Club, Delta Blues Museum & the Rock n Roll & Blues Heritage Museum.

We headed north on Highway 61 through the enormous Mississippi Delta, then west on Highway 49 over the Mississippi River & into The State of Arkansas.

Our destination was Helena, which has a lot of associated history, including the significant Battle of Helena fought in 1963 when Confederate forces unsuccessfully tried to expel Union forces from Helena. It was also considered to be the capital of Blues music during the 1940s & 50s, drawing in black musicians from rural areas.

We again drove round, snapping away at the Historic sites including Freedom Park, Fort Curtis, Pillow-Thompson House & the Spirit of the American Doughboy statue. Jackie calls me ‘Doughboy’ for different reasons........my love of dough based foodstuffs!

In Helena, the skies started to turn very moody, so as a precaution we put the hood up. It was just as well, because after crossing back over the Mississippi River into Mississippi a localised rainstorm hit us full force as we sped through the cotton fields. After just a couple of minutes of blind driving, we were out the other side & back in sunshine.

Apart from a very small detour to see the boyhood home of Robert Johnson (from a far), we continued up the 61 to Memphis, Tennessee. We were looking for some reasonably priced suitable accommodation outside of the city centre where prices were too high. We initially tried the Motels around the airport, but they looked soulless, so we then tried West Memphis, which was back over that river in Arkansas.

The locality of the Motels in West Memphis was horrendous. The Motels were stretched along Interstate 40, which was undergoing roadworks causing a massive dust cloud & creating a car park for hundreds & hundreds of lorries. We tried to convince ourselves it was ok, but decided it wasn’t.

In desperation, we went back to Booking.com for divine inspiration & to our joy discovered that a Best Western in Midtown Memphis that we had previously been looking at had dropped in price by $15 (Prices are reassessed on Booking.com every 2 hours). Without hesitation we booked it & crossed the river AGAIN.

Our hotel is funny looking, but ideal. It is less than 2 miles from Downtown Memphis & close to restaurants in Midtown. Our receptionist was the very helpful Linda & she recommended beer & pizza from the Little Italy Pizzeria a short walk away.

The Pizzeria was perfect, off the tourist trail, but frequented by locals due to the good food at reasonable prices. There was a great vibe & the staff were very friendly. Jackie & I ordered a 16” square thin crust pizza with extra toppings of pepperoni, jalapeño & bell peppers, washed down with a couple of beers. It was very nice, but needless to say we couldn’t eat it all & took the last 3 remaining slices away in pizza box & with a little plan!

On the way home, I gave one of our pizza slices to a homeless guy, who with a big smile gratefully excepted our food offering & wolfed it down. It felt good making him happy, I just hope he had access to a toilet because it was spicy 🥵 🌶 !!

Upon arrival at the hotel we presented Linda with our pizza 🍕 leftovers & innocently enquired what the room rates would be if we kept our room for a further night. She looked it up, but it was coming up at the higher price, so we regrettably declined.

Bribery is a wonderful thing, because Linda then said, “Hang on, I’ll see if your booking will accept my staff discount”. It did & she booked us a 2nd night at the reduced rate. It’s a good feeling when a plan comes together!

Song of the Day - Cross Road Blues by Robert Johnson.Read more