A Memphis Overnight

In Memphis, Tennessee, if memory serves...


Memphis was just an overnight stop for us en route to Red Bay, so we didn’t plan any sightseeing.  We chose the Tom Sawyer RV Park in West Memphis, a rather unique park right on the bank of the Mississippi River, mentioned in many of the blogs I read.  The entrance to the park was a little spooky, but we enjoyed our campsite, which was just a few steps from the riverbank. We sat there and watched the river traffic as the tugboats threaded their way around the sand bars. The water level of the river was extremely low, perhaps as low as we've ever seen it.

Although clearly not in Texas, Sandy displays Texas pride with her purse, don't you think?.

Dawn from our spot at Tom Sawyer RV Park

Since we had earlier done a tour of Graceland, about which I’ve already posted, we decided to eat at Gus’s “World Famous” Fried Chicken, an iconic joint in downtown Memphis. Typically, we like to try new restaurants during our travels, and fried chicken sounded good.  However, I really should have reread that earlier post, because it was obvious when we saw the building that we had already eaten at Gus’s during the earlier trip! Admitting this memory lapse is a trifle embarrassing, but I suppose we are not alone as we get older. I often tell people that I have a great memory, but it is extremely short!

We decided to go ahead and give Gus’s another try, because we didn’t remember whether we liked it the first time. (Gosh, this memory-loss thing is getting painful to write about.) The verdict:  The chicken was hot and tasty and very spicy (which I loved..Sandy not so much), but we thought it was way overpriced. The price issue was probably our perception during the first visit, but we didn’t remember that either.  Egad!

Fried green tomatoes at Gus's; we must be in the South!

After eating, we were pleased that we remembered where Phannie was parked, so we viewed that as something positive and skulked back to Tom Sawyer, now more mindful that, although getting older means getting wiser, it also means getting more clueless.  What’s-her-name thought so, too.