Bill and Helen's Fulltime Travels Here we go again and again

Hada' stay one more day Oct 15, 2008

We woke up to the most beautiful sunrise yesterday morning. The river looked red from the reflection of the sun. We could see that it was going to be a perfect day and all of a sudden, we had a strong desire to just sit and enjoy it. We had planned on leaving but instead Bill went to the office and bought us another day. Every time we do something like this we are reminded of how lucky we are to be able to change our plans as it suits us.

We played around for most of the morning and just enjoyed some down time before getting in the truck to find a Best Buy. I had purchased a charger for my ipod and it wasn’t working so I wanted to return it. We found one about 11 miles from our place and off we went. That meant leaving Arkansas where the campground is and crossing the Mississippi into Tennessee and a little later crossing the river again into Mississippi. Wow, we sure were in a lot of states in a very short time.

After taking care of business at Best Buy we headed back to downtown Memphis. Our friend Jan used to work for Northwest Airlines and Memphis is one of their hub cities so she had spent a lot of time in the area. She told us about the place to go for the best ribs ever. It turned out to be right in the middle of town at a place called Charles Vergos’ World Famous Rendezvous. Believe me, this one really is World Famous, having delivered their ribs as far as Australia.

We were surprised when we found this World Famous Restaurant. It was down in a cellar and the entrance was through an alley. Not at all what we expected but we were fortunate to find a parking garage right across the street and pulled in there.

When we went in the alley entrance we saw steps leading up to a very long bar and “waiting area” for the restaurant down below. We took the stairs going down and met a huge man that was sitting on a very high chair looking down at us. Bill asked him if he got a nose bleed from being so high.  . He told us that they weren’t officially open for meals yet. They didn’t open until 4pm but if we were just looking for the ribs and beans we could sit at any table. Man, for a place that wasn’t open, we had a hard time finding a table. The place was packed. Everyone having ribs with beans and slaw. The only difference was the size of the order. We chose the small size and had to bring half of that home.

A stop back in West Memphis, Arkansas for a few groceries; we got back home and just enjoyed the rest of a beautiful day sitting out on the river bank watching the barges go up and down the river. It was wonderful. Bill had talked to the owners of this park (since the early 1900’s) and asked why some developer hadn’t bought them out a long time ago and they told him that ever spring the entire park is under water. Wow.

We will never again just drive through Memphis. We know that we have only hit the tip of the iceberg with all there is to see and do but it is time for us to move on again.

Next Stop.... Birmingham...