Off to Tennessee

December 27 2011

So after 4 days in Arundel basically doing nothing more than eat and drink we are now on our way to Memphis/Nashville to do more of the same! Last night we spent the night in a hotel picked up on hotwire, that turned out to be the same hotel that we stayed in last year and met our friends at on the way to Texas. Lots of memories, but so much better weather this year! Last night was a Shrek marathon on TV so we watched a couple of movies, and called it a very early night.

Up early this morning to return the car rental, and get to the airport. We have now done the Montreal to Toronto portion and are sitting in the lounge in Toronto waiting for our flight to Memphis. We have quite a wait here, the flight was changed a couple of weeks ago, which now means 4 hours in Toronto, disappointing as we were supposed to be in Memphis originally by now I think. Andre has hooked up our phone so that any messages are sent to our email, just received a message to phone American Express fraud center. I just got off the phone, this is the second time we have had a possible compromise, but this time everything is OK, yes we have bought that much liquor and gas lately??? So one crisis over, lets see what is next. Will give an update tonight from Memphis, we're hoping to visit the Peabody duck parade at 5PM, though I think our schedule may be too tight and that may have to wait until tomorrow. Until later...

Arrived safely in Memphis, picked up our rental car, and found our hotel. This place is definitely a 2.5 start, last night was supposed to be a 2.5 star in Montreal, but it was more like a 4 star, tonight is truly a 2.5 star, oh well we are only here for 2 nights and won't be in the room much. We arrived at the hotel at 4:30, unloaded the car and headed straight for the Peabody hotel, we could see the sign from our hotel. We knew the duck parade was at 5:00PM and I had read you should show up at least 30 minutes early, knew we wouldn't make that but we were fine. This is a beautiful old hotel, it reminds me of the Banff Springs, only on a much smaller scale. The hotel lobby is beautiful, surrounded by an open walkway above that you can see down into the lobby area. There was a beautiful Christmas tree and decorations set up, the tree had to be at least 25 feet tall. In the morning 5 ducks are marched down into the fountain in the lobby, and at 5PM they lay the red carpet out again for them to march back to the elevator and back up to the rooftop for the night. This has been going on now for over 50 years, and it is quite the tradition to go and see the Peabody ducks when in Memphis. So, now this has been crossed off the list.

Next we walk along Beale street, the neon lights are just starting to come on, and it really isn't very busy. We found a great old bar with a guy playing the guitar, there are people hired on the street to try to get you into the bars, and this guy told us it was happy hour so in we went. We ask the bar tender what the happy hour specials are, neither of us have any idea what he said, our southern accents are not yet up to par. So Andre had a local beer, I had a gin & tonic, total bill $6.00 with tax, OK much more reasonable than South Beach in Miami! Tips to bartender and guitar player and we decide we should go back to the hotel and get ready for some BBQ for supper.

We had heard about a place called Rendezvous that is famous for its ribs, but didn't see it on our walk, so back to the hotel we go for a change of shoes and check out where this place is. We walk by all the same poor people living on the streets asking for money, this would be a cold place to live on the street. We have been asked from money here now as many times as we were asked for hair braiding in Nassau, it is getting a little old. They start off asking if you need help with directions, and then it turns into do you have any spare change. So, more comfortable walking shoes on and we find the restaurant we are looking for. It is now 7Pm and there is a 30 minute line up for dinner. This is a huge restaurant that you eat in the basement, but at one time I think it would have filled up with 3 floors. The second floor did have some big parties here, but the basement is huge! It is in a tricky place to find down an alley. We decide on ribs since this is their speciality and we are not disappointed. The only funny thing is you get no knife and fork, you are served on paper plates, a plastic spoon for the coleslaw and beans that are served as sides, no butter for the bread and you are off. We asked a waiter for cutlery and they told us to just tear the ribs apart, OK when in Rome.....very messy, but very yummy. I especially loved the sides. These ribs were done with a rub that was delicious, but they also had BBQ sauce on the tables, I prefer mine in a sauce, so just to be even messier I added lots of sauce to my plate. Very yummy start to our eating adventures. After dinner just went back to the hotel, a busy day planned for tomorrow.