0 miles ridden – 0 feet climbed – temperature 31C

We had a radical sort to the day with a lazy, late breakfast at 7am and didn’t leave hotel until 09:00 – it felt very weird but pretty nice. First on the list was a walk downtown to the National Civil Rights Museum located at the Lorraine Hotel where Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated on 4th April 1968. It is a sombre yet uplifting experience reminding us that civilisation is often a very thin veneer.

Memphis sits right  on the Mississippi River and even though it is over 600 miles from New Orleans where it enters the Gulf of Mexico it is huge.

I was unaware that Memphis considers itself to be the home of the BBQ. Nearly all restaurants are offering some variation of pulled pork, ribs, and hot chicken wings and as luck would have it we happened to be in the city at the same time as its Championship BBQ cooking contest.

It was $12 to get in and then we found out that the actual competitor BBQ areas were not open to the public! We were directed to the catering caravans at the back and intriguing as Gator on-a-stick may be we went to the evening hotspot – Beale Street – and met up with some others for a BBQ feast at PIG on Beale. Great atmosphere but the noise from the motorbikes indicated that the elderly riders had forgotten to put their hearing aids in.

It was a great day – Memphis is worth a trip.