Greetings to all our dear readers. As a special treat, today only, I will be doing two blogs for your pleasure. Yes dear fans, there was so much excitement that we'll need to double your fun.
We met a nice older couple at breakfast, talked for over an hour, and left about two hours behind schedule. (If getting up and leaving when we want to can be classified as a schedule!) This couple, John and Jean, were the grandparents of the bride whose wedding had taken place yesterday. Did I mention yesterday that we were entertained for nearly an hour watching the wedding party and the guests parading back and forth through the pool / lounge area in their formal wear. It was cheap entertainment for us. Let's see where was I...oh, yeah. John is a retired Georgia-Pacific VP for governmental affairs. He has been retired for 12 years. They have lived in Washington D.C. the past 26 years and are former Little Rock residents. Their daughter and son-in-law live in Little Rock. Hence the wedding there. Jean and John told us all about the wedding and reception, John's career with GP, the political climate during the civil rights movement in Arkansas, and the extensive travelling they have done. We could have spent hours visiting with them.
It took us about two hours to travel from Little Rock to Memphis. Nice straight level freeway. 31.3 mpg!
When we arrived in Memphis we found our hotel room was not ready for us so we left the car in the parking garage and set out on foot. We walked about a mile through downtown toward the Mississippi River. We took a monorail over to Mud Island River Park. They have a museum (everything you want to know about Big Muddy's history), park areas, swimming, fountains, and the neatest River Walk...wait, I'll show you later!
Here's Karen trying to hoist the anchor so we can get underway!
Here I am ready to start my second career as a river boat gambler.
Mark Twain even offered me a seat at his table.
Ok, back to the River Walk. It is a 5-block-long scale model of 900 miles of the Mississippi River. The model is complete with flowing water, street plans of cities and towns along the river, and panels of information on the river and its history.
Dipping the toe in the Mississippi.
The walk follows the river through the countryside.
Karen is reading one of the informative panels.
Then I'm walking in Memphis
Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel
(Thanks to Marc Cohn for the lyrics and to my better half for providing the inspiration for this caption)
We finally reached the Delta! What a great project.
We thought one should be done like this for the Snake and Columbia Rivers.
How could this blog be complete without a photo of the real Big Muddy?
The mandatory skyline photo.
Remember the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock?
This is the original Peabody Hotel.
It's where the Peabody Ducks rose to fame.
This is a photo from our room. That's Beale Street behind those trees.
This is the same shot at night. Music is still going!
A photo in the other direction. Lots of action all around.
These are some tired little piggies. They did a lot of walking today!
Don't forget to check out the second half of the entertainment!
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