The home of the Blues

 

The sun shone the next morning and we departed from Vicksburg with optimism in our hearts We were heading for the ‘Home of the Blues’, Memphis and the location of the Civil Rights museum now built in what was the Lorraine Motel the site of the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King.

 

The road continued to be largely flat, unexciting and agricultural and we were able to chew up the miles. We went through one small town that had been compleetly destrioyed by a typhonns. Nigel’s car’s temperature at last was holding steady at a perfect 78C, what a repair we had all executed the previous afternoon but largely lead by the radiator expertise of Chris who had washed his Model A radiator out in his hotel room on Peking to Paris in 2010.

 

That is until you get to Clarkdale, the birthplace of the Blues. Fortunately Barbara knew all about it and we all diverted to what was a great visit. A sleepy Sunday morning on main street, Clarksdale with a solitary blues player, strumming his stuff in the morning sunshine. We met ‘the Brick man’ who makes amazing mosaics from brick and has lived all his life in Clarksdale. He shared his life, his hopes and his dreams and was surprisingly positive about the changes that have happened in his life and the changes that will come. We parked outside the Ground Zero Blues club, an iconic venue and got one of the great team photos of the trip. It is a run down town but with so much soul and one can literally hear the music on the streets.

 

On to Memphis and an really easy run into this iconic City, famous for its music and famous for its place in the history of American Civil Rights. And who was waiting for us when we arrived but Paddy, Ham’s new co-driver. They have been on a number rallying adventures so will settle in to the usual rhythm of the road.  Chris, Sophie and Amelia went to visit the Stax museum dedicated as it is to American soul music whilst Barbara, Paddy and Ham went to visit the Civil Rights museum. What amazing and uplifting stories both museum portray with so much achieved by creative and brave people but still so much more to go.

 

Memphis is the home of Elvis and the blues and after a delicious dinner at Fancy’s we headed down to Beale Street to drink beer, perhaps an odd tequila and listen to great music. Chris managed to get up on stage to do a turn much to the enjoyment of the band (second bar he was firmly rejected!) and much to all of our enjoyment. Amelia did a little guest turn on stage, but perhaps the less said about that the better and we wandered back to our great hotel having had a really good evening. We all loved Beale street and the bars. So far we have managed jazz, Blues, Soul and tomorrow night in Nashville it’s going to be Country and Western!

 

 

Nigel’s car is now running well, the Rolls appears to be as reliable as ever whilst Ham’s car runs well on the road but sounds like a bag of nails whilst idling and his clutch definitely needs adjusting. We will see what we can do in Nashville.