Day 8: Memphis

The next morning we drove up along the western border of Mississippi toward Tennessee to spend the afternoon and evening in Memphis before we began to venture east again. We did only a small amount of tourism in Memphis, seeing at least the outside of the relocated W.C. Handy House (closed and locked despite signs saying it should be open for tours), reading some historical markers on Beale St., and visiting the Cotton Museum.

The oddly-situated and sadly-closed W.C. Handy house.

The Cotton Museum was clearly new and very polished, with some really, really nice bits, and some slightly odd quirks that I will think about and discuss in a future more museum-centric post.

Interior of the Cotton Museum.

That evening we also did a bit of cultural tourism, if you want to call it that, by spending a few hours on Beale St. eating BBQ and taking in the atmosphere of live music and street performances on a Saturday night.

Beale St. on a Saturday Night

We did get in one final museum, and it was an absolute gem. The Schwab/Beale St. Museum is simply a landing area within the Schwab general store, which has been on Beale St. for nearly 150 years. Objects from the store's history were displayed charmingly though with no museum polish to speak of - which is far from a bad thing! There were easily a half-dozen people through the space just in the few minutes before closing.,..on a Saturday night, when bars up and down the street were open! I'll talk more about why I really, really liked this space in a future post.

Looking down from the third floor into th