Memphis (BBQ and Elvis)

My dear friend Julie and her boys live in Memphis and have for a year or more now. The boys were back in the Peoria area with their dad and grandma for some summer vacation, so I visited for some girls time :)! 

Julie has been in Memphis for a year or so now and this was my second visit. Their move was driven by the location of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the discovery that their then ~18 month old had a stage 3 brain tumor. After two surgeries and a slew of chemo treatments, he has come out with NED (no evidence of disease) on his recent scans.  He has also been tested for any developmental deficits from his treatments and he's right on track for a two and half year old little boy. All such wonderful news!! (You can learn more about Ryan and his journey at St. Jude at www.caringbridge.org/visit/ryanmeyer.) His older brother went through his own health issues before baby brother came along, including heart surgery. Needless to say, the last few years have challenged Julie and her family so much and I'm in awe of how she deals with it and keeps an upbeat outlook. 

Anyway, she's probably blushing at reading that, but we've been good friends since starting our job together the fall after we graduated from our respective universities back in 2003. We worked together until I left for Singapore and even travelled together (Greece in 2006). I arrived Thursday evening and we were up late catching up with so much changing in both our lives in the past year. I felt bad that she still had to work Friday morning and I could sleep in :). 

Last time I visited, they were still at Target House and her son was mid-chemo. So this visit, she did a great job of showing me Memphis!

Friday night we went for barbecue at a very local, unassuming place. I forgot to get a picture of the "shack" though :). The food was awesome. We split fish tacos (grilled trout I think) and a pulled pork sandwich. I also tried the chili and we had a side of jalapeño coleslaw that had bleu cheese crumbles (yum!). All was so good! I was completely stuffed and no room for desert. 

Picture doesn't do it justice

Based on our feast the night before, we were a little more active Saturday and took a bike ride on the Greenline, which is a 6.5 mile paved path for running, biking, walking and roller blading. I'm typically not a good biker. But she assured me it was pretty flat and would be fine. And it was! We rented some cruiser bikes and stopped along the trail for lunch. 

We stopped at a neighborhood sandwich shop and I did a 'create your own' that was a little crazy....egg salad, artichokes, roasted red peppers, tomato, feta, mustard, hummus spread...I think that was it. It was awesome but very messy. Afterwards, we stopped in at the local grocery and I found some fresh baked molasses cookies that lasted me about three days :). 

After the bike ride and some errands, we planned to head to Beale Street which is the party street in downtown Memphis. But first got some more barbecue. :) It was also really good and we split the pork nachos and ribs. Yum!

Then we walked to Beale Street. The police block off the street for a few blocks and there are people, drinks and live music everywhere. Very interesting people watching :). We saw the church group of teenagers from dinner in line at security, a bachelorette party, people dressed for clubs, others barely dressed, the old, the young (who brings their infant?) and everyone in between. 

The security line in the "front" was crazy long. We asked and went down to the next block/side street and got right in. We basically walked up and down each side and took in the sights and visited some of the souvenir shops. I really wanted a cheap, tacky Elvis tshirt but had no luck (for the $5 price point). 

Years ago the two of us would have lived it up a little but we are older and were tired. :) So we did our walking loop and headed back to the car. 

On our walk back we ran into the mounted patrol. I think Beale St is open til like 3am. There were tons of cops on foot and these three mounted cops looked to be joining the fun. 

Sunday we went to the church of Elvis ;)..... i.e. Graceland. We toured the house/mansion along with some of the other exhibits. It was interesting as I knew next to nothing about Elvis. It was done better than I expected at first sight. It makes Elvis sound so wonderful and doesn't mention hardly anything negative. It had about one sentence that he took some prescription drugs and ultimately died of heart failure (not necessarily even linking to two). So probably a bit one sided but still good. You couldn't use flash really anywhere but you can see some of my no flash pics. 

Elvis was a car guy....and he had a little Honda motorcycle like me :) (note the pink Cadillac as well)

They sold photos and I managed to get a quick photo of our official photo as the guy angrily swiped it out of our view (note his hand at the top). $25, I think not.

The house was not that big considering it was Elvis. I loved this stained glass wall in the living area. Also see the kitchen that was remodeled in the 1970's - recognize anything :)? 

Perhaps my favorite room design ;) - I actually do love the look of the ceiling though. 

 

Outside the house is the meditation garden with the graves of Elvis, his parents, his twin brother who died at birth and Grandma Minnie Mae who outlived them all remarkably. Elvis died in 1977, Grandma 1980. 

Outside the house is a stone fence in front of the road. People from all over and for years have signed and left messages. Julie and I each left our own stamp that will probably wash away after a thunderstorm or two. It is weird to see the mansion plopped down in the middle of town with normal middle class housing all around. 

I found out Elvis never forgot the tiny Tupelo, MS house where he was born and lived for the first portion of his life before the family moved to Memphis. He was a great humanitarian and very generous with his fame and fortune. Below is a plaque of some recipients of his donations, including St. Jude. He also had a big donation to the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor, among many, many others. 

 

A couple fun suits on display. The replicas in the shops were only like ~$2,000.

 

And perhaps my favorite moment of the day.....a boy in grade school asked his dad, "hey Dad, what's this? What's this box?"

Bald Knob Cross

The park service person mentioned that a friend hiked Bald Knob Cross a few times before heading to Colorado and that it was the highest point in IL (I have not tried to verify this). They told me it was about 1,000 feet, so still not very high. But I figured it would be good for me. 

I did manage to get in an hour or so nap in the morning light after my short night. So my start was later than I would have liked. But thanks to the 'polar vortex' the temps still weren't too high last week (last Thursday). I followed signs and quickly realized the road was taking me to the top. It is a loop trail and my preference was to start and end on the bottom rather than saving the hike up for last. It did allow for me to see the cross from afar though. 

Once I found the trailhead (which was down a couple gravel roads), it took me a little time to organize myself, so I didn't start hiking til almost 11. Then, I had to find the trail which was harder than expected. But eventually I found the white diamonds nailed to successive trees and I followed. 

It looked like there were some fairly recent downed trees on the path and there were spider webs everywhere! I had my trekking poles with me and I started throwing them out ahead of me, even above my head, to try and clear webs before I ran into them with my face. I hate spiders. The bugs were around but not too horrible considering I sprayed my exposed skin and was covered almost everywhere. No one was there to take my pic, but I had my heavy duty hiking boots, tall socks, hiking pants, icebreaker (merino wool) short sleeved shirt with a long sleeved button up on over it, sunglasses and topped off with my sun/hiking hat that I love. Only when I had to stop to pee did the mosquitoes find somewhere to bite (and my hips itched all weekend). 

The trail says it's 1.5 miles. My hiking app said as high as 4 miles. Based on the level of phone service, I think my phone was quite a bit off. However it still took two hours up and one down. I didn't eat lunch until 1  but finished off my tuna and tortillas along with some other items. There was a breeze up top that helped dry me out, I took some pics and a toilet break before heading back down. It was a good hike and I felt like I could tell a difference in my endurance (but who really knows). 

Then I got on the road for a 3.5 hour drive to Memphis for the weekend. So glad everyone has the 70mph limits now :). 

**One more item of note - I found my first ever attached tick on my leg after ending my hike, and one crawling up the outside of my pants that I brushed off. I think that's actually pretty good considering all the alerts for tick season and other comments I've read. I thank all my clothing :). 

Camping with Critters

I feel like today is one of my first lazy days in a while. I've arrived in Colorado, my last stop of this road trip. I need to do a hike today but am tentatively leaving that until this afternoon and trying to catch you up on my goings on :). 

Where did I leave off.....yes my last night of camping. I went to the western side of Shawnee and found a $10 campground. I was basically the only camper there. There was another group further back, but I couldn't see or hear them, so it felt like I had the place to myself. I set up camp, had some dinner and retired to the tent. One of the guys from the other camp came up near the front of the campground, where I was, with his flashlight looking for water. But there was none to be found and he promptly left. It is nerve wracking to hear sounds and not see anything though. So I opened a flap on each side of my tent and started to read my book. 

Campground

Walking stick at my campsite (middle left, crawling up over the chunky stick)

I had brought an apple and string cheese into the tent with me for a late treat. I again got nervous about food in my tent and threw the leftover apple core out a ways (I can get it in the morning) and left the string cheese outside the tent. As I read my book, I thought I heard sounds outside the tent. No flashlights to be seen and it's about 10pm, so the insects were loud and it was pitch black. 

I decided it was time to sleep, turned off my light and laid down. Now I hear everything. And I begin to really freak myself out. I swear I hear movement outside the tent. I'm fairly close to my car. I can't see anything though. I hit the lock buttons on the car to see if they will show me anything. Nothing. But it was a quick flash of the hazard lights. I hit the lock button twice, the lights flashed and the car beeped. That did it - "they" scurried! Oh man now I knew something was out there because I heard them all run away. I still didn't know what "they" were. 

Now it's dark again and I swear I hear them advancing. My mind is running with what it could be. I lie still. I think I hear them to the right, where my car is. I look. I still can't see well, but I convince myself I see raccoons crawling all over my car. All that separates me from them is a mesh screen. I get my headlamp out and at the right time, shine it at the car. Nothing! Absolutely nada. I had thought I saw 3-4 for sure. I check out as much area as I can with my headlamp while still staying in my tent. Nothing...anywhere. 

My tent and car

I lay back down. I drift in and out of sleep as I continue to hear noises, imagine raccoons and possums, check with the headlamp and never see anything. Frustrated, a bit scared and tired, I drifted off to sleep for several hours and was up with the morning light about 5:30. Outside the tent, my string cheese was still there, but the apple core is no where to be found. Then I knew there really had been something. I didn't know what and was happy they left me and my tent below. 

I was up sending my morning texts to let everyone else know I survived. As I walked out the gate, I looked to my right and what do you think was crossing the road??

An armadillo :). I believe this to be the culprit. I tried to chase after and get a pic, but not much luck. I feel like armadillos are much less scarier than raccoons and possum so it made me feel better. I googled it and sure enough armadillos are nocturnal, most active at dusk and dawn, and have in the last few years been seen migrating as far north as southern Illinois. 

Stupid iphone did not catch the armadillo

So without the best night's sleep, I head off for a day hike.