Downtown Memphis – Beale Street “The Home of the Blues”

It was time for some housekeeping and laundry so on Friday we spent most of the day on those chores.  The park has a small laundry room with two washers & dryers so we didn’t have to go out in search of a Laundromat.

Beale Street

Almost there!

The Rendezvous

That afternoon we went to soak up some Beale Street color and have Memphis ribs. The ‘Rendezvous’ was recommended but we had some difficulty locating it up an alley.  With some help we finally found it.  The ribs were great… rubbed with spices and served.  Two different BBQ sauces, one hot & one regular, were on the table to add to the ribs if you wanted ‘wet’ ribs. 

Daylight on Beale

With our stomachs full we walked along the three main blocks of Beale Street.  It is sooo much nicer here than the French Quarter in New Orleans. It’s clean with no stench of urine and while you can have alcohol outside on the sidewalk & street, just like New Orleans, no one appeared to be drunk.   

 

With every few steps you would hear the Blues coming from another club…. and it was great music… just what we had come to hear!   At a small park we stopped to hear another band featuring Don Valentine.  They were very good and we bought one of their CD’s. (The sound quality left a lot to be desired but the music itself was good.)

Don Valentine & band

We found a table on the sidewalk outside of The Superior Club, ordered a few drinks and watched the show provided by street acrobats or tumblers. I don’t know what type of performer to call them.  They would start doing back flips up the street, continue past where we were sitting and stop half way down the street.  Amazing!! 

One beer for Jim

Beale Street's finest

As it started to get dark, more and more, people/tourists showed up to join the throng. It never got rowdy or out of control. That was probably due to a very strong police presence. Squad cars were parked up and down the streets and the police themselves walked the street. We only saw a couple of really drunk people and they were encouraged to walk on. It was getting late so we headed back to camp.

We decided to stay one more day (Sat.) so we could stock up on some supplies and after an Internet search we found a CostCo on the other side of Memphis.  While we shopped Jim had the tires on the truck rotated and then went back to camp for some R & R.