24.6.2012 – 24.6.2012  36 °C

We started our day with a drive out to the crossroads of the old Hwy 61 and Hwy 49 here in Clarkesdale. This is supposedly the place where one of the first Bluesmen, Robert Johnson, sold his soul to the devil to allow him to master the guitar! I think the legend is a good story and today the marker is a good photo opportunity so it was worth the slight detour to see the “crossroads”!

Our final stop in Clarkesdale, was to this cool old plantation that looks like its stuck in the forties. The general store (for the plantation workers) has been converted into a restaurant/ pub/ dance area and is filled with early to mid 20^th century Americana artefacts. It was a great place to stop and check out some old advertising signs, cars.. you name it and you could see it on this old plantation. Apparently they have live bands on the weekends, it was a shame we missed it because it looks like a pretty fun place to hang out. Incidentally, you can stay overnight in the slaves qtrs, so if you ever come to Clarkesdale try to stay at the Shack Inn, you’ll be shocked when you arrive (at the gungy daggy décor) but you won’t regret it!

After our short sightseeing this morning we headed straight up the 61 for Memphis. We continued to see acre upon acre of cotton/ soya beans/ corn and again saw more and more impoverished looking towns on our way out of Mississippi. We found a nice park on the shores of the Mississippi River for our morning tea before we hit the Tennessee border (and therefore Memphis) just before lunch.

Because we were entering Memphis from the south we were able to detour off the 61 onto Elvis Presley Blvd to see the gates of Gracelands. The brick fence looks pretty impressive (as do the parklands behind the fence) but the suburb that Gracelands is in, leaves a fair bit to be desired. I’m sure back when Elvis lived here this was a rich, affluent area. Today, the area looks quite impoverished (rubbish everywhere, grass growing through pavement, dilapidated houses) and the road! It had the hugest pot hole in it (that of course, we hit).. It was so bad we stopped to check that we hadn’t damaged the car!

We continued driving towards downtown and towards what we thought would be our night’s accommodation. On our drive in, we weren’t feeling confident (more dodgy houses, boarded up buildings etc) and by the time we actually got there we decided that drug users probably stay in the hotel so we decided to keep going and see what we could find (luckily for us we hadn’t booked on the internet…. NB If you have the time in the States don’t just go by the internet, it’s a good idea to actually go and see the hotel.. many of them look good on the web and when you see the area they are located in you quickly change your mind).

We continued downtown and found Beale St, Memphis (home of the Blues and Rock and Roll). At least in this part of town something was happening! So we started driving around, deciding to pay the extra and stay in this area (two reasons, downtown is not dodgy and we would be able to walk down to Beale St whenever we wanted to). After checking in to our hotel we went straight across the road for some lunch at the local burger joint (the Yanks really know how to make a burger!) before we went to hear some blues music and generally cool off down on Beale St… (It is REALLY hot here at the moment!).

Beale St is a really cool area. The street is a pedestrian only street and is lined with bars, clubs and pubs (most of which serve food and cheap drinks) that pretty much all have live music! How many places in the world can you find live music playing any day at any time in multiple venues? I know I haven’t seen many places like this (so far the only other place I can think of is Bourbon St in New Orleans!) After a great evening at an Irish pub (playing funky soul style music… hmm?) that has pet goats on show(?) we headed back to our hotel for some shut eye.

Song of the Day– Billy Joel, Walkin’ in Memphis