Memphis and beyond...

Hoy fuimos a Memphis y salimos a caminar por el centro historico, muy lindo, con tranvias al lado del rio Mississippi. Nos hizo acordar a diferentes lugares con partes viejas y peatonales. Comimos en un lugar tipico una comida bien del sur, costillas asadas para los carnivoros con porotos y ensalada de repollo picante, con salsas barbacoas picantes. Aprovechamos el buen tiempo (20 grados) y salimos a caminar un poco por la rambla de la ciudad. Al salir de Memphis pasamos por Graceland y fuimos a saludar a Elvis. Ahora estamos en camino a New Orleans y con toda seguridad pasemos la noche en una estacion para camiones que tiene seguridad. Esta bueno, porque durante el viaje la gente nos toca bocina y en las estaciones de servicio se nos acercan a preguntar acerca de la camioneta. Hoy fue un dia largo, pero el haber salido del frio hasta nos cambio el humor. De todas formas son muchas horas en el auto y los pobres angelitos no ven el dia en que llegemos a Mexico y acampemos en un lugar por un rato.

We set out from Nashville around 9 and got to Memphis just after 1. We headed straight to the downtown area and stopped at a tourist information centre right on the bank of the Mississippi River. They let us park there for a couple of hours, so we took a bit of a walk through the streets of downtown Memphis, and had lunch at an old and apparently well-known BBQ place called the Rendez-Vous. We could smell the smoke all the way down the street, and we knew we were headed to the right place! The carnivores had some dry-rub smoked ribs with beans and slaw, and I had a Greek salad. Ariel noticed that when the waiter said “thank you very much” he sounded exactly like Elvis!

We really enjoyed walking through the streets of Memphis, especially since there were not many people around (I guess because it is Saturday) so it reminded us of old cities in other places we have been. Some pedestrian areas with cobble-stone streets, horse-drawn tour carriages, and nice old trolleys! We didn’t stop at any museums, but there is a Civil Rights Museum at the site of the hotel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, various music tributes to blues artists (and of course Elvis), and the blood-soaked history of the Memphis Cotton Exchange, which is in a beautiful old building right by the river. Of course, on our way down the I-55 out of town, we had to stop by Graceland just to see what it was all about. The neighboring residential area is quite nice, but the tacky tourist thing is just plain scary! Anyway, we drove by it pretty fast as there is not much to see, really, but the boys got out long enough to write a message to Elvis on the wall.

If one good thing can be said about the economic crisis happening here in the States, it is that gas is pretty dang cheap! We are paying less than 40 cents a litre and are enjoying it while we can, because we know that things will not be the same south of the border, and the price is going to start rising considerably the further south we go. A couple of times today we got some sympathetic horn beeps from other drivers admiring our vehicle, which also happens often at service stations when mechanics pine for the good ol’ days when engines were straightforward.

Tonight we are going to stop for dinner (and hopefully wi-fi!) in Jackson, Mississippi, and maybe try to keep going for a bit longer so that we can get as close to Louisiana as possible. We would like to wake up and drive straight to New Orleans to spend some time there during the day, before making our way for Texas.

Update: we did get to Jackson, Mississippi but were scared off when we stopped for gas and were bombarbed by some sketchy characters trying to sell us CDs, ipods, etc. There was a really strange vibe in the air there for sure. We decided to keep on driving to get away from the city area. You can really notice that Mississippi is one of the least well-off states, as the roads are pretty bad and the most interesting buildings you see (at least from the Interstate) are churches. When we got tired we tried to stop at a cheap-looking motel to rest for the night, but they wanted to charge us $75 (for a smoking room, at that!) so we just kept driving. We ended up at a rest area with 24-hr security guard and asked him how long we could rest. He said, "take as long as you need,"and so we popped the top of the camper and settled in for the night, and had the best sleep we've had in weeks! We woke up early and set out for New Orleans, where we are right now! stay tuned for an update later on tonight or tomorrow morning...

Ayer al final nos quedamos a dormir en un "rest stop" en la carretera con guardia de seguridad, la primer noche durmiendo en el VW! Dormimos re-bien (nos querian cobrar $75 en Jackson, Mississippi en un hotel horrible) y ahora estamos copados con New Orleans!

Elvis corazon!