Catching up

Due to the extraordinary kindness of an old friend, I'm writing this post from a comfy hotel room.  I'll explain that one later... When I last posted I was leaving the coffee shop with Madison and Tiffany. We drove across town to a small place called Earnestine and Hazel's Sundry Store where the upstairs was once a noisy brothel (now apparently haunted), and enjoyed a famous "soul burger".  Some of the visitors of the establishment were "The Rolling Stones" (ahem.... "Brown Sugar"... ) and Ray Charles.  The coolest part of the place was definitely the upstairs former "hourly hotel" because that's where a real treasure could be found sitting alone in one of the small rooms.  Once I saw it I froze.  It was right in front of me, with no barriers in front of it- not even a "do not touch" sign.  Ray Charles' Piano.  Once I found the courage to sit down and lay my fingers across the keys I began to play.  The majority of the notes were so out of tune that they really just made obnoxious sounds rather than tones, but the ones that survived had a beautiful sound.  The kind of sound that was out of tune but completely appropriate for what that piano had been used for so long ago.  That experience alone was enough to make the trip worthwhile, but we weren't done yet.  Tiffany suggested that all of us go to an abandoned railroad bridge which crossed the Mississippi River; just the adventure I was hoping for.  We hopped back into the car and drove to a local park.  From here we traversed down a small stone gutter which led to the river bank.  Once you got close enough to the water you could clearly see how strong the current was which made it impossible (okay not impossible, but very dangerous) to swim in the river. Along the riverside were huge, unsteady rocks which we carefully climbed until we were underneath the bridge.  We climbed our way up to it and our plans were abruptly changed due to construction on the old tracks near the bridge. This left only two options, we could call the whole thing off or we could venture onto the second, and currently functional bridge.  I'll leave it up to you to decide which plan we went with :)

The people I met in Memphis were truly one of a kind.