Birthday in the Dark

We rolled into Memphis just in time for lunch. (Is anyone surprised?) We had picked out two BBQ spots in Memphis we wanted to try. The first was Jim Neely's Interstate BBQ. This joint was a little hole-in-the-wall, but it was phenomenal. Tim and I split a combination platter--two pork ribs, two beef ribs, brisket, pulled pork, a hot link, BBQ spaghetti (Yes, you read that right.), slaw and baked beans. This platter was more than enough for two. I don't even know where to start. I wouldn't typically order the hot link, but it came with the combo soooo...

Best. BBQ. Ever. The right flavor, the right tenderness, the right "tanginess." Now of course, we'll eat different BBQ tomorrow so I may change my mind. : )

From there we headed to the Gibson Guitar Showcase--the tours were sold out for the day so we put ourselves on the waiting list and headed across the street to the Rock and Soul Museum. It's a museum run by the Smithsonian about the origins of rock and roll through the blues--not a bad little museum. We walked back over to the Gibson Showcase only to find out we did not make either tour for the day. We signed up for tomorrow, but the luthiers are not there during the weekend, so we will not see anyone making guitars. We walked back to the hotel and drove to Sun Studio, the birthplace of rock and roll. This recording studio, the actual room, in fact, is where Elvis Presley recorded his first song. It also hosted the likes of Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and countless others. Sam Phillips, the original owner, sold Sun but amazingly, even though it saw many other uses (a scuba and dive shop for one), it was never torn up or demolished. In fact the very acoustic tiles that soaked up the early notes of rock and roll are still on the walls and ceilings today. To think, it all started in that little room.

After the tour, we drove to Gus's Famous Hot and Spicy Fried Chicken. It's won many accolades and with good reason. I have to say though, that The Lady and Sons in Savannah was tastier to both Tim and me. A strange thing happened while we were there, though. At 6:23, as we sat waiting for our chicken, the power went out! Don't forget, it was somewhere around a million degrees, with the heat index in the gazillions. The waitress said she had worked there for six years and this had never happened. The cooks opened the back door in the kitchen and kept on frying. The mercury rose as the small, stuffy dive became almost stifling. But we came for the chicken, so we waited for the chicken. It was hot; the chicken was hot, and we were hot. But we ate chicken.

We came back to the hotel where the power was off as well. I called down to the front desk where a person informed me that they expected it back on in three to five hours, which would put us at about ten o'clock. The room was getting stuffy so we wandered back outside, where it wasn't much better. It was eerie; everything north of Union Street, where our hotel was located, was without power. This included Beale. Beale Street is where the action is in Memphis, but we didn't even bother to go down there. We just wandered around, looking for something to do with the rest of the masses. We decided to go back to our hotel, but as we rounded the corner, we realized the power was back on (at about eight o'clock). We made a beeline for Beale, which by the time we got there, was already hopping again. Two days ago I was on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, listening to some hot jazz. Tonight I sat in a bar on Beale, listening to some cool blues. Since we hadn't eaten a dessert all day, we stopped in at Blues City Diner for an apple dumpling ala mode--hot and steamy, cool and creamy all at the same time. It's now 1:02 a.m., Central Standard Time; my birthday is over. I celebrated well.