Memphis Musings

Today seemed to be the day to see famous dead people's relics. And why not? It makes for a theme!

The day began with a long, leisurely morning chez Howorth. That's Bebe, Lisa's youngest, hiding behind the NY Times. Just wanted to show you again how cozy and comfortable it was there. Lisa's lucky I'm so driven or I'd probably still be there sipping yet another vodka and tonic.

Perhaps to ease me out the door (totally kidding), Lisa and I drove over to tour Faulkner's house.

This was his writing room. And below is the actual phone he answered and learned that he had won the Nobel prize. Notice that he scrawled phone numbers on the wall. It's all preserved as it was. This is a popular pastime in these parts, as I continued to learn throughout the day.

The house is wonderfully sited off a bend in the road. Stately cedars shield it in the front and it looks quite grand if slightly heading to seed. I was glad to see it.

I dropped Lisa off at home and headed to Square Books, the renowned bookstore that she and her husband own. I picked up the new Franzen book on David's recommendation and also Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Lisa's recommendation as the best intro to his writing (since I've never read anything by him). The store has the same charming, cozy, cluttered feel as their home and is filled with signed and will-be-signed-at-the-upcoming-reading editions. The personal connection they seemingly have with every book in the store creates a very special space. I'm looking forward to returning when David does a reading there from his new book (a girl can hope!).

Based on the discussion we'd had the night before, I decided to try out Tullulah's, the restaurant run by Lisa's friend Laurie. And that led to another first -- my introduction to catfish.

There's the dish, complete with hush puppies, slaw, and fries (which I'm delighted to report I didn't eat). A delicious if potentially deadly cardiac event in a handy disposable box. The good news is that I also resisted the deep fried Twinkie and its companion deep fried Oreo. I kid you not. Must be some regional specialty. Laurie's an exceptional cook and her food is prepared with such love and care, so be sure to put that on your list when you head to Oxford.

The drive to Memphis was only about an 1.5 hours. There was nothing new landscape-wise with the exception of some wonderful kudzu sightings.

As David had said, the way it grows it looks like topiary! I remember that from my trip through Mississippi 40 years back.

My great automotive achievement of the last two days is that I've learned how to create a "genius" playlist on my iPhone. I'm delighting in creating different sets for myself. Yes, I know, all the rest of you have known how to do this for ages, but now I do, too!

I charted my course into Memphis to be able to stop first at Graceland. Well, actually, I did a drive by, which the folks at Graceland are very careful to ensure reveals absolutely nothing (although I did catch sight of a couple of Elvis' jets on display). But it did enable me to drive along a very special street.

From there I drove to my hotel (an extremely nice Hyatt well located a block from Beale Street) and settled in. Here's the view from my window.

Pretty nice, huh? I walked across the street and checked out the Rock and Soul Museum.

It presents a thorough history of the Memphis music scene, explaining how the white and black roots of music eventually intertwined in this city to create the blues and give birth to rock and roll. Gives an excellent context to Elvis (and includes the requisite costumes and other paraphernalia). Quite fascinating, although it's a bit disconcerting to see things I remember from my youth (like Wurlitzer juke boxes and 8-track tapes) displayed as relics!

From there I walked past Beale Street over to Rendezvous for their famous ribs.

No picture of dinner -- the ribs weren't especially photogenic, especially in the dark of the bar. These are dry-rubbed and pretty darn good, served with slaw and beans. I have to admit, though, that the dinner at Cochon kind of spoiled me for other pork. Had a nice chat with a fellow who told me he travels on business 4 days a week!!

I walked back along Beale, which is like a miniature Bourbon Street. Things were beginning to crank up for the evening. Lots of music, lots of drinking, but nothing particularly appealing. So instead I came back to plot my next adventures. Tomorrow it's on to Nashville, the last stop on the music tour. I'm keeping half an eye on hurricane Earl and hoping we won't intersect! Looks good so far.

Fun in Faulkner Country

I'm sitting and enjoying breakfast, the play of the morning sun in the backyard, and Lisa's generous hospitality here in Oxford. It's so delightful to be here that I almost don't mind leaving David behind in New Orleans and setting off on my last week of adventure.

It was (finally) sunny when we woke up yesterday morning in Nola. After packing up (me to leave, David to move to another room at the St. Pierre), David and I walked over to Frenchmen Street for a final food fest.

Here's what we had, from the "Benedict" portion of the menu: eggs Marigny, which is fried green tomatoes topped with poached eggs, artichoke remoulade, and hollandaise; and eggs Atchafalaya, topped with crawfish and creamed spinach, two poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce. OMG!

For the sake of my waistline, I had to get out of this town. We walked back along beautifully dappled streets, trying to avoid the hot sun. Mary, this shot's for you.

One very amusing aspect of New Orleans is how often you come across the tattered remains of someone's revelry.

And then, as the lump grew in my throat, I said goodbye to David and headed for Mississippi.

The GPS sent me on I-10 west. Somehow, after days of driving that road, it just unsettled me to be back on it and going in the "wrong" direction. Fortunately, I noticed on the map that I was near the Lake Ponchatrain Causeway. I headed onto that and enjoyed the 22-mile cruise along the water.

On the other side, I passed up the chance for companionship by not picking up a hitchhiker. (I had another opportunity later that I also skipped.) Instead, I settled in for the five-hour drive with Max for company.

Storm clouds appeared intermittently all day and there were periods of quick, torrential rain, some clear sailing, and occasional drips and drizzles. It was enough to have me keep the top up all day.

Not too much to say about the scenery except how green and lush it looks. Here are two photos of the view from I-55, three hours apart.

I did notice that it seems to be a requirement in Mississippi (and perhaps Louisiana) that your car have a cracked front windshield. I swear, I've never seen so many!

And then it was off the interstate, down a more charming road, and into Oxford. Bebe, Lisa's youngest, greeted me and entertained me until her dad, Richard, arrived.

Lisa appeared shortly and the party began. Drinks, delicious jambalaya and salad, friends over to celebrate their birthday, a walk into town for a drink, and then back home, all with lots of chatting.

Their home overflows with books and assorted collections of mementos, children's artwork, Persian carpets, photos, and all the other artifacts of a busy life. It couldn't be more cozy or comfortable and it's going to take all the discipline I've got to push on to Memphis today.

Hola from NOLA

This picture seems like the appropriate way to celebrate the day in New Orleans and my last 24 hours with David. As you've duly noted, we've been committed to a week of outstanding eating, and today was no exception.

We began the day with brunch at Elizabeth's, where we met up with Joel's daughter Christina.

Funny story about this place. I had met the owner's parents, who are friends of Bonnie's, when I was in California, and they had recommended trying it for brunch when I realized I'd be in New Orleans on a Sunday. I had mentioned it to David and he'd been pretty neutral about going there, saying that he had plans for us in New Orleans (he lived here for nearly three months five years ago). Somewhere along the line he mentioned that the place he had in mind for brunch had this amazing praline bacon. How funny, I said, Elizabeth's has that, too.

Finally, at some point yesterday, David looked on Google maps to see where we'd be going. And guess what? It was Elizabeth's. We'd been talking about the same place the whole time.

Really attractive spot with incredible food. We all shared the famous praline bacon, which is the most seriously decadent food you can imagine -- think sweet AND salty AND chewy AND nutty -- and highly addictive, then David and I tried two dishes and sampled Christina's pick as well. Here's the first: duck and sweet potato hash on a waffle.

It's like three dishes in one. That's about all of the dish the two of us could pack away. The waffle was saturated with syrup, there's a spicy pepper jelly on top, and it's just an insane combination.

Our other pick was eggs sardou -- poached eggs atop artichoke bottoms with spinach and hollandaise sauce.

And in case that wasn't enough, Christina shared her cream cheese-stuffed French toast.

As you can imagine, after that there was nothing to do but walk and walk and walk. Which is what we did, through rain that was sometimes drizzly, sometimes quite strong. Mid-afternoon we took a break (and a cab with the cabbie listening to "Car Talk") up to the Garden District. It was time to try a Pimm's Cup, a popular New Orleans drink, at the Columns Hotel.

We enjoyed the relaxed setting and the beautiful views inside and out.

That's a streetcar not named Desire. We didn't grab it right away, preferring to walk some more first. Our trek took us past one of New Orleans' famous above ground cemeteries. The cloudy sky made it look even eerier.

We wandered back to St. Charles and picked up the streetcar to head back to the hotel.

It was a fun ride followed by a this-is-getting-harder walk. Once back to the hotel we took off our wet shoes (David dried his with his hair dryer -- they were so wet they were squishing out water as he walked), put our feet up for a bit, and figured out dinner strategy.

Too tired to wander far, we walked over to the Gumbo Store. There we sampled both seafood/okra gumbo and chicken/andouille sausage gumbo. David preferred the former. I preferred the latter. We also tried pasta with a tasso (bacon) and shrimp cream sauce. And a side of spinach.

All yummy and a nice, easy five-minute walk back to the hotel. We stopped at the car to check the mileage and pronounce David the winner for most miles covered by a companion -- 2000 miles in 6 days.

I'm of course sad as can be that we'll be splitting up tomorrow. We have such a good time together and I know that I'll be missing him like crazy. He's such a wonderful guy -- so funny, so bright, so caring, and so well grounded. I think I'm the most blessed person in the world to call him my son!

No More Texas

Today was mostly about getting from there to here. We traversed the rest of big ol' Texas (and it really is big when you slice through it horizontally) on our old standby, I-10, spending 9 hours (including stops) going from Austin to New Orleans.

Somehow, though, the drive didn't seem so onerous. In fact, given that David had woken me up at 8:30 so I was operating on about 5.5 hours of sleep (and he on even less, which he made up for with two hour plus naps along the way), we really seemed to sail along today. Partly, I think, that was due to having the top down, which makes the drive more fun. Certainly it wasn't due to the breathtaking scenery because there was hardly any.

Here's how the world looks when you're the passenger in the convertible in east Texas.

And here's how it feels.

If you ever look at I-10 on a map, you'll basically see a clean horizontal line that slices across the lower US. I've driven it Phoenix to LA, Phoenix to Tucson, Tucson to El Paso, El Paso to (almost) Austin, and (almost) Austin to New Orleans. We've been involved with I-10 for days.

This particular stretch was not so scenic, so I entertained myself when I wasn't driving by playing with the camera. I took pictures of transportation stuff, since those things caught my eye. Here's a variable toll sign in Houston.

And the abstract beauty of interlaced interstates, also in Houston.

Here's another shot of something neat (I think) that they do on the interstate in Texas. I've never seen that elsewhere and I'm totally impressed that I actually snagged this shot as we zipped through.

In addition to signs above indicating lanes and directions, they simply paint the appropriate interstate number on the actual lanes. So you know which lane to be in. Terribly clever, those Texans!

Here's something else that caught my eye in Houston.

Both David and I thought that was George Bush on the left end. But after some research I've learned that it's actually Austin, Houston, Lincoln and Washington and is entitled, "A Tribute to American Statesmanship." It's a rather jarring sight sitting right by the highway, Houston's own Mt. Rushmore moment.

Some other ways I entertained myself when I wasn't driving:

Took a nice shot of David while he was driving.

Noticed that my upper body has gotten quite suntanned and I now look like I am two different races (that's my hand on my leg).

And snapped the requisite photo of us in the car zooming down the highway.

I even took some photos of particularly unsightly spots and didn't even try to make them look good.

At one point when I was driving, the road coursed through the Atchafalaya swamp. I can't share photos because they're on David's phone and I don't have access to that right now. But after writing all about how it was built (for the website we designed for Federal Highway), it was pretty darn neat to travel that 18-mile span.

I will point out that the terrain has transformed yet again. No more hills or mountains dotted with scrub pine and sagebrush. Today was mostly flat stretches saturated once again with lots and lots of green color.

Were it not for how spacious it is (and my first glimpse of Spanish moss), you could be on the east coast. All the jaw dropping terrain of the west and southwest is now a memory.

And then, finally, we arrived in New Orleans. Our hotel is in the French Quarter, on a quiet and charming street. Here's a shot I snapped as the sun set and we waited for a cab.

We dined at Cochon, a Cajun-inspired shrine to pork. Oh what a delicious dinner we had! We started with grilled oysters (look at me having oysters two days in a row -- haven't I just completely transformed overnight!), some charcuterie that included BBQ pork shoulder, tomatoes and watermelon, and a shredded zucchini salad. Oh, and the chef sent over a complimentary terrain accompanied by horseradish coarse mustard and homemade pickles. Fortunately I didn't quite hear what it was before I tried it. Turned out to be head cheese and some other nasty components. Truth be told, it was actually quite delicious.

Here's a photo of the appetizer spread.

Our main courses were grouper and pork shoulder. That's about as descriptive as saying that in Paris there are art galleries. But by now I'm getting really tired and just can't recollect what made each one a tasty and perfect composition. I just know it was fantastic.

After dinner we walked over to Frenchmen Street. Lots of music blaring from lots of bars and sometimes right on the street. We ducked into a place, then were joined by some of David's NY friends (some of the ones we had met up with Marfa). The party moved on to another spot but by then I was ready to call it a night. And so it's to bed to prepare for a full day of checking out Nola tomorrow.