Day 6: Vicksburg, Mississippi & Memphis, Tennessee

Mississippi river witnessed America’s history up close from its Native Indians settlements, arrival and establishment of new settlers and   most significantly, at Vicksburg, the American Civil war.  We lived upon her tributaries – Des Moines River in Iowa and Ohio River in Cincinnati and once drove the scenic way up to Burlington in South East Iowa to see the Mississippi river closer. The reason we stayed in Monroe was to see the Civil war battlefields that are overlooking the Mississippi river and at the time of the war, Union army had found it hard to penetrate beyond Mississippi river and resorted to starve the city to weaken the Federation army.  The siege of Vicksburg in 1863 was a turning point in Civil war history and the Confederate army subsequently surrendered to the Union forces.  National Military Park preserves the sites of American Civil War battles that run 20 miles long with thousands of monuments that are in a way alarming the price of a war.  We drove around and stopped at historic trenches and restored gunboats and immersed ourselves in civil war history.   It’s abundantly clear why the south north divide is still so strong in the United States. It’s lost lives and battered pride.  General Grant obviously was the winner and so as President Lincoln. However, it’s hard to confer a victory to anyone when you stand on this side of the Mississippi river.
 

National Geographic featured The Blues Highway, the Route 61 between Vicksburg and Memphis, as drives of the life time and that’s another reason we came to Vicksburg. A few miles into the 61 we started seeing the vast cotton fields that was also a fertile field for delta blues once upon a time. We stopped at a couple of places for pictures. Tara was fascinated to pick the cotton flowers and was playing with its texture and complications inside the car.

Delta Blues is one of the earliest form of blues music developed in this area among the poverty ridden black cotton field workers. Looking for opportunities outside Mississippi during the industrialization time, a lot of people took this road to Chicago and other places and probably that helped to spread the Blues music to other places. We could see the small towns Rosedale and Clarksdale on our way. At Clarksdale, actor Morgan Freeman runs a nightclub called Ground Zero Blues Club but we skipped it for a later visit. We took another exist searching for a famed BBQ joint but ended up in a run-down area and the restaurant was closed long ago. We drove about three more miles and found a Wal-Mart Super Center with a Subway to feed the hunger. We also picked up some supplies and it felt quite awkward inside the Walmart store for no specific reasons.

We reached Memphis by 5 O’clock in the afternoon and found a parking near the Peabody place and walked to Beale Street. The street was closely watched by the cops and people were filling in for the Night Life. Step in to the Beale Street; you will now relate every word of “Walking in Memphis’ song. Live music is played in most of the pubs and blues clubs and we had fun peeping into them looking for someone famous. B.B King, Elvis, Johny Cash all played in this street at some point in time. W.C Handy Park, just after the busy Beale’s street block, had a bad playing Blues so we sat there for a few songs. Tara too seems to enjoy the music and her swaying to the tunes at times made the singer perkier. The night was getting darker and we knew the city is not that friendly at night so we walked to our dinner destination. The storied Charlie Vergo's Rendezvous Alley to try their famous Memphis-style BBQ.

Sixty years old Rendezvous is a hole in-the- wall, but a very large one. Many famous people ate there before us. Bill Clinton, Al Gore, George Bush and Justin Timberlake, to name a few. We ordered a full slab of rib with a pitcher of local beer, Ghost Rider IPA, as Sheena agreed to drive to the hotel. Rib was not as meaty as the regular ribs we are used to but just right amount of meat. Not dripping saucy but dry rubbed with some spice seasonings outside and flavorfully moist inside. Different sauces were on the table but they were unnecessary and we did not even notice the brisket and coleslaw. After fifteen minutes of eating we agreed to each other that this is the best ribs BBQ we had in our life- Kansas and Texas included. And the cold beer, a pitcher full, helped in washing them down tastefully. We normally order some fries for Tara at restaurants but this time she preferred the rib to fill her little tummy. So we repeated the statement- probably she is having more fun than us throughout this trip.

Best Western was just three miles far from the downtown and by 9 O’clock we checked. I called Shaji who lived just 10 miles from downtown and he suggested we go over to their place. It was a long day so we refused the offer for some other time. We also have few things to cover in Memphis before we proceed to Nashville. Earlier plan was to go to Birmingham, Alabama but Nashville appeared to be a better stop over before we meet Sheena’s cousins in Atlanta. This is a deviation farther from Atlanta and would cost us about four hours of driving.