Day Six: Memphis, TN

Felt like total shit in the morning, but scraped myself out of the room and got on the road. I continue to overpay for gasoline. Every time I fill up, I drive 15 minutes down the highway and see it for 20 cents cheaper.

I stopped at a rest stop and this fat lady's fat butt was on display. Gross.

I took lots of pictures in Memphis, so be prepared.

I parked across the street from a BBQ restaurant I wanted to go to. I didn't realize I was directly across the street, so I walked toward where I thought it was. I finally doubled back and found out it was closed. Here's a courthouse I saw.

There are a lot of churches in Memphis.

See?

There were a bunch of these sweet paintings on the side of a building.

Here's another.

I went looking for another BBQ place and stumbled across this museum, which I had to go into. The Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum. Focused mostly on musicians from Stax, Sun, and Hi records. There is music happening everywhere in Memphis. There were two blues guys hanging out on the street, not really playing anything in particular. There were several outdoor concerts going on. And there was one guy sitting in front of the FedEx Forum playing solo trombone.

The museum began with a setup illustrating farm life for people in the Memphis area around the turn of the century. Here's a plow.

An old-timey turntable.

Here's a really old TV. Watching TV used to suck.

This Isaac Hayes tour box was just sitting around, kind of out of place, but not that out of place since it's Memphis and they love Isaac. Highway 65 is even the Isaac Hayes Memorial Highway.

This dulcimer was given to Elvis Presley by June Cash. A lot of the displays were behind glass, so hope you like looking at my silhouette.

This is ring attire worn by wrestler Sputnik Monroe. He picked the name because a woman called him Sputnik after he put his arm around a black guy. Apparently Communist Russians were cool with equal rights? More likely, she was just a dumbass. Wrestling actually helped a lot in ending segregation; Sputnik had so many black fans that they couldn't all fit in the designated "colored" area, and the promoters wanted to make more money, so they helped push for the end of segregation.

I think this is Elvis's guitar, but I don't really remember. It's a beaut, though.

At this point I had to use the flip-up maneuver to hide my guitar boner.

Two of B.B. King's guitars.

Some recording equipment from Sun.

And the tape machine, too.

Here we have Ike Turner's first piano, which was used in several recordings.

This is Isaac Hayes's watch, and I don't know if the picture does it justice but holy shit that thing is baller. Also, notice how it says "Mink Cape" on there?

HOLY FUCK.

That's Duck Dunn's bass guitar. I wish there had been more Booker T. & the M.G.'s stuff in the museum, but what can you do.

Al Green performance outfit. I was gonna say that only black guys could pull off clothing like this, but ...

Jerry Lee Lewis coming with the fury.

It's too bad that if anybody wore something like this nowadays they'd get called out for trying too hard or being corny or something. I mean shit, look at this thing.

This was one of the more dialed-down getups on display.

Hammond B3 and Leslie speaker. It was very hard to not try to steal this.

Same goes for this Fender Toronado.

Rickenbacker signed by Tom Petty, along with a shirt of his. This was in a section of the museum where they showed bands that weren't from Memphis but had recorded there. I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the guy from Three Doors Down's bass.

I should have read the description, but I'm guessing this board came from Stax, Sun, or Hi.

This is from a display of clothes people used to wear way back when.

Johnny Cash duds. All in all, it was a pretty sweet museum and I would suggest going there if you're ever in Memphis and are a fan of things like this. Time to get some food.

OH MY GOD YES.

Of course I had to get ribs. I went to a place that was just called Pig. Those were the best ribs I've ever had. So plump, so tender, so smokey and spicy with a hint of bourbon. I'll have to see how they stack up to Texas's BBQ when I get there.

Chubby Checker, always with the fucking Twist. Enough. And oh, hey lady.

I guess what happens on Beale St. is that a bunch of people park their motorcycles and then dudes do backflips all the way down the road. And you get to eat a bunch of ribs and drink tons of beer. And you can drink on the street. This might be the best place ever.