When we left Ocala, we were just at the tail end of the pollen. When we got to Texas, they were a little behind Ocala and pollen was running rampant. Here in Memphis, the pollen is everywhere. That yellow fine powder covers the truck everyday but the good side is all the beautiful spring flowers and trees are in full bloom. The brilliant azalea colors with a backdrop of that special spring green on all the trees is almost breathtaking. There are red bud and dogwood trees in full bloom everywhere trying to take your mind off your runny nose and itchy eyes.
We spent the day exploring downtown Memphis and finding things that you don’t readily hear about. We started with Mud Island Museum with 33,000 square-foot unique exhibits. They walk you through the history of the Mississippi from the time DeSoto saw it as a major obstacle to his exploration west to the current day barge traffic. We turned one corner and found ourselves walking on the deck of a three story paddle boat. Just as unexpectedly, while walking through the Civil War exhibit we were suddenly on an ironclad boat (steam engine boats completely encased in iron). I must not have been listening when we studied the Civil War but I have no recollection of President Lincoln commissioning these boats to cut off the supply route on the Mississippi. Being fresh off the Civil War battle field in Jacksboro, Texas, it was impressive to see some of the same artifacts of surgery tools and uniforms in this museum.
Then we got to the present day barge pilot exhibit and that’s where I learned that these tugboats today can push up to 35 barges at a time. We saw one this morning that had four across and 7 back or 28 barges and we thought that was a lot!
Outside the museum there is a five-block detailed model of the Mississippi that you can hike or wade. There were three classes of first graders with their shoes off and pants rolled up splashing through the water. One little boy had forgotten to roll up his pants and his teacher was frantically trying to get his attention by calling his name and and screaming “roll up your pants”. Too late, they were wet up to his backside. I forgot to mention that yesterday we shared the zoo with elementary students filling about 20 buses.
From there we walked to Main Street and the Majestic Grille for lunch. This is a movie theater that was built in 1917 and remodelled as a 1940’s restaurant showing movies from that error on a screen. While we were eating, they were showing one of the Thin Man movies with William Powell and Myrna Loy. The food was very good, but nothing unusual to mention.
After lunch we hopped on the trolley that circles Front Street and Main Street. These two streets are completely shut to car traffic and the trolley is the only motorized vehicles permitted. Made it very nice to walk, although much of this area seems to be depressed. There are lots of empty store fronts and boarded up buildings.
Our final stop was the Cotton Museum. Did you know, cotton is the only plant that is used completely. We all know about the white puffy part is used for cloth, and the seeds are used for cottonseed oil but even the stem and leaves are used as livestock feed and fertilizer. This museum was the original Cotton Exchange that functioned until the mid 1960’s and influenced over 150 years of the city’s history. As a major commodity, cotton brought a great deal of wealth to Memphis which is obvious from the ornate stone work on the old buildings. Here is your Trivia fact for today: In 1997 they developed a strain of cotton plant resistent to the weed killer Roundup so they could use it for weed control.
We had to get home because there was a big storm headed our way and we wanted to be back in the RV when it blew away. (Joke) Actually its pouring right now with wind gusts that feel like 55 mph, although they say they are only 33 mph. The temperature is falling fast and is supposed to go to 40 degrees by tomorrow morning. We leave in the morning for Kentucky, just outside of Louisville. If we don’t blow away, we will post more information tomorrow.