How y'all doin' tonight? " Hon" . . . .
Came across Arkansas today coming through some hilly terrain in the Ozark Mountains and then flat land again. Picnicked at a rest area following a not so pleasant pit stop/bathroom break at an exit prior. yhug.... Having become somewhat of an expert on public toilets in the last three-plus weeks, I can safely rate this one in the bottom two, the other being the outhouse in Yellowstone while out on the chuck wagon supper. There, at least, was fresh air coming up from the toilet.
We drove through some smoke which we first thought were forest fires (or controlled burns) or do they grow sugar here and burn the fields? - meant to "look it up". We have seen little of the damage by black pine beetles which are destroying the pine forests in places we have visited on this trip. Some graphs at Mount Rushmore estimated 40% of our forests have been lost in those areas. The bears eat the pine cones from those trees. That is why there is such a bear problem this year - they've lost their food source.
On to better things.We arrived in Memphis a little after 2:00 and went straight to the National Civil Rights Museum. It's located at the site of the Lorraine Hotel where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. We saved two dollars each on the admission price because we are old and turned around and spent it on audio tapes to guide us because we get lost.
The museum was very interesting and well done. Of special note are the scenes they have reconstructed of the Woolworth lunch counter where protesters sat, the bus on which Rosa Parks was arrested for sitting in the white section (the whole bus - you are invited to step in and sit near her - then a bell rings and you are asked to move to the back of the bus), a Greyhound bus that had been burned ,and so on....a lot of film footage too.
After that we checked into our hotel in the downtown section. Happily we can self-park enabling us to go back and forth to the car. We are about 5 blocks from Beale street so we walked there to see it and get some supper. Music blared out of every club, restaurant and bar. After dark I thought it looked a little like a dream of one on acid (showing my age there - and NO - I don't know that from personal experience).
We ate at "Pig With Attitude". You can visit it online. We had pulled pork and ribs with potato salad,onion rings (2) and a little ear of corn that I swear came out of a can (or was field corn soaked a week). For the most part it was pretty good and Major Tom had a piece of peanut butter pie to cap off the evening. We walked back - it is very warm now even after dark - had been in the upper 90's . Clear skies and a near full moon.
We will try to see as much as we can tomorrow!
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