The USA Road Trip: Memphis

Welcome to part 3 of my USA road trip diaries, which is Memphis. We decided to pay a visit to Memphis after hearing that it was kind of an up and coming Nashville and a bit of a country music state too. Lee's main reason for wanting to visit was to go to the Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid.... which was obviously our first stop.

 

So, to say this place was crazy is a bit of an understatement. I know everything is big in America but this place is something else. They have a tree house-esque hotel INSIDE the shop, with aligators in the ponds (yes, ponds) and you can buy anything from a baby pink rifle to a speed boat in here. It was insane. We headed up on the worlds tallest freestanding lift to go and have a drink on the 28th story which was absolutely breathtaking. The views from up here were fantastic. This was when we discovered that our flight home may be cancelled due to hurricane Irma that was about to hit Florida, so we sat here, had a few cocktails and started our hurricane watch.

We decided to go and find somewhere to eat and me being me, I have to check everything out on Tripadvisor first. We came across somewhere called central BBQ and went to go and find it. This is when we discovered that Memphis wasn't quite as pretty and upmarket as Nashville. It was the kind of place I felt like I didn't want to walk around on my own and I definitely didn't feel entirely comfortable there (even when we parked up, there was a guy sat in a chair with a gun, presumably some kind of security guard?!). But we found the restaurant and we had the best brisket and ribs we had ever had. I also got bit by some sort of insect 15 times on one foot (perhaps I stood on some kind of nest, but damn my allergic skin).

The next day we headed to their Downtown section, which I had read online was supposed to be somewhat similar to Broadway in Nashville. I mean, I could see the similarities, but it certainly wasn't on par with Broadway. Nowhere was as friendly or captivating and it all looked a little deserted. I don't know if we just picked a bad day, but it just felt like something was missing a little. 

That evening we were quite tired and weren't quite sure what to make of Memphis, so we decided to head back to Bass Pro. Where else in the world could you want to spend a Saturday night in an outdoor world store? But we thought the sunset would be beautiful on the 28th story and we weren't wrong. We stood and watched in awe as the sun beamed down on the mirrored glass and it was just amazing. Once the sun had set, we headed back down the $10 lift (lol) and went for some Tacos (my favourite) and a game of bowling, still inside the store. I even won the first game.

We did plan to visit Graceland the next day, the home of Elvis, but on arrival we discovered it was crazy expensive so we just drove past, took a few snaps and we were happy enough with that. It's safe to say that Bass Pro was one of the highlights of Memphis (along with the food) and to be honest, I wouldn't really pay another visit other than to go and see the pyramid, even if it was just for those views.