@ the Memphis Airport
Man, I hate air travel these days. I had a 6:30 am flight from Laguardia this morning, and that meant I set the alarm for 3:20 am. No human should have to get up at 3:20 am and schlep luggage. Anyway, at least I got to the airport on time, onto the plane, AND to my destination, Louisville, via a quick layover in Memphis.
I know that Memphis is one of the big BBQ meccas of the USA, but I didn’t expect BBQ signs to be plastered all over the airport. I am not complaining! Now I have to confess, I got to the Memphis airport at about 8 am (9 am EDT) and man, I was hungry, having been up 6 hours already. First thing I saw walking out from my gate was this big neon pig, a sign for “Interstate BBQ.” However, they were only serving breakfast, and I was really thinking about some ribs. I probably would have felt a little self conscious chowing down on ribs at 8 am in the airport, anyway, so that was probably for the best. I settled for a bagel and an apple I had packed with me, and stood in the long line for a Starbucks coffee (sorry, yes, I admit it). I would like to say that the airport Starbucks employees were shockingly chipper and friendly, and I really liked the hard-to-type Memphis pronunciation of the word, “cowfee,” drawn out long and dramatically like something that will really get your day going, “cooowwwfee.”
Memphis! That’s right. Alas, that I could not leave the airport. I got a quick airport tour of the city, and I am sure that is not fair, but judging from what I saw represented, including Sun Records, Elvis, the Stax Museum, and lots of BBQ, I realized, I owe it to myself to make a visit to Memphis one of these days soon. (Not to mention that I have very sweet cousins and an aunt and uncle I would like to visit there. Hi yall!)
This guy did not like having his picture taken, so, I thought I would post it.
A trip to Memphis for some Graceland and some BBQ, it must happen.
Comments(3)
You tease! A giant neon pig, the BBQ capital of the USA, and you have a bagel? Is that worthy of a post?
I guess posting the picture of the guy who didn’t want his picture posted makes it all worth while….
I know, it was a teast. Sorry!
My one trip to Memphis left me with the impression that there is a lot of cool stuff there, but even more missing stuff. A lot of the blocks had empty lots where rows of houses had been torn down, sort of like 1960s slum-clearance kind of mistakes but without the ugly buildings to replace them. Also it’s hellishly hot in the summer, but what do you expect? Bet it’s nice in November or March.
Sun Records was cool, their gift shop actually has tons of CDs (not just figurines and other junk), and there’s a good diner downstairs that had great shakes.