Day 5 - Memphis, Arkansas, Oklahoma

I'm starting to think all Southern Cities don't wake up until the afternoon.

But that's okay, because it means that when I get up early to ride my bike around the city I don't have to worry about traffic.  And that is just how I did Memphis.  What a treat.

The other bonus to that is morning light is one of my favorites to shoot photographs in - long shadows and a warm glow.  The city is full of amazing old buildings and factories along the railroad tracks.  Many of them closed and/or abandoned, but some have been renovated into lofts or other businesses.  It was tempting to weasel my way inside to get a look at the gutted interiors, but, for the sake of my parents' sanity, I stayed on the outside.

 Let me start by saying, I love Southern hospitality.  After trolling around the old factories, I started to make my way back to the hotel.  I found a closed road that led to train tracks which would lead me back to Memphis.  A train was coming about 50 yards away, so I figured I would wait for it to pass and check the train out.  The train approached slower...and slower... and then stopped.  The conductor then got out of the front of the train and yelled over to me "Are you going to cross or what?  I stopped the train for you."

!

I'm still laughing about it.

 

Since we were staying about a mile from Sun Studios we decided to walk over and check it out.  What a cool building - of course decked out with some outrageous sign (in this case a Gibson Les Paul) in what seems like pure Memphis fashion.  Unfortunately, this is the start of Elvis Week in Memphis, so the place was packed like a sardine cane inside.  Needless to say, we quickly toured and got the heck out of there.

Off we went - away from the storms to come and towards Arkansas / Oklahoma.  We lucked out and narrowly missed some quarter sized hail and flash floods in the area... phew!  We decided to stop in Ozark, Arkansas to stretch our legs and see the city "Where it All Begins".  The town was more or less shut down for miles of yard sales and tag sales, so we aren't quite sure if the motto is valid.

We left Ozark just as a Flash Flood Advisory warning went up and put the pedal to the floor towards Oklahoma City, OK.  With a stroke of luck we drove next to about 30 miles of black sky and lightning, but made it out safe and dry.  So beautiful seeing a dark wall of weather duking it out with sunshine.

Sunshine won in the end.

While Oklahoma City seemed like a neat place to spend the night, we decided to push another hour or West towards Santa Fe.  Clinton was our final resting stop, and boy did we rest.

Off to Texas and New Mexico!