I am a motorcoach…
. . . following paper-orders to unordered places of discovery. Destination: Tunica Mississippi. But the itinerary called for several stops to pick up passengers along the way. What’s in Tunica? An annual conference for hotel and restaurant managers employed by Mid-America Hotels. The last stop before our destination: dinner in Memphis.
What’s on a street corner? Well . . . BBQ, I thought, “slow smoked Memphis style.” The paperwork said Central BBQ, 147 E Butler Avenue, downtown Memphis. According to conversation among my passengers, the dinner location was the suggestion of a former Memphis resident, who said, “If you want great Memphis BBQ, go where the locals go – Central BBQ.” That is how I came to be parked along a curb near the intersection of Butler and Main Street on Tuesday, November 8, election night 2016.
Selfies
(which by definition means I’m in them . . . though you might have to look for me)
Someone pointed at a building cattycorner from the restaurant. “That’s it right there, right across the street,” they said with a tone of gravity to a few nearby associates. “That’s Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot.” So unexpected, the information landed like a hush upon the night. I decided to roll on up the street, park myself on a different corner and pay respects.
Another coach was already there. We introduced ourselves and quietly observed and absorbed details in this place of our crossing paths. The other coach was Two One One Nine. He was changing coasts – on his way from New York City to Los Angeles. Still wearing the 7Bus uniform of the former employer that went out of business, Two One One Nine had been purchased at auction a few days earlier. In LA he will go into shuttle and charter service for Transit Systems, a company of some 20 coaches and 40 transit buses.
I did something quite out of the ordinary for me: I failed to notice Two One One Nine’s make. Usually that is just automatic – habitual. It was a coincidental meeting on a consequential night at a location of monumental significance. I guess in those circumstances it didn’t matter if he was Prevost, MCI, Van Hool, Setra . . . That’s the world of travel: though it begins with plans on paper, it’s as much about the unintentional as it is the intended.
At Central BBQ in Memphis, parking real estate was at a premium. Parking in Tunica is vastly different. Our stay was at the Horseshoe Casino-Hotel, part of a vast system of casinos and hotels, amidst a vastly greater sea of surrounding pavement, all seemingly tiny in the middle of truly vast surrounding farmlands.
MEETING THE NEWS on the roadways of America, first-hand, real time, real world news—going out and discovering the news . . .
DREAMER NEWS: Lorraine Motel has been converted into the National Civil Rights Museum at Lorraine Motel. Preserved as on the fateful day, April 4 1968, in front of the Motel are two vintage autos, a wreath on a railing in front of a door, and a stone slab bearing a scriptural inscription: THEY SAID TO ONE ANOTHER, BEHOLD, HERE COMETH THE DREAMER. LET US SLAY HIM . . . AND WE SHALL SEE WHAT BECOMES OF HIS DREAMS. GENESIS 37:19-20
(Unlike selfies, these are not about me, but about travel discoveries I think you’d like to know about.)
Butler Avenue from Mulberry Street to 2nd Street: Central BBQ is located at the corner of Main Street and Butler avenue; The Lorraine Motel is one block west at Butler Avenue and Mulberry Street; and one block east, at the corner of Butler and 2nd Street is Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies. Serving up “Da best cookies in the world” since 1999, one taste and you will be hooked. (This family owned business is named in honor of Makeda Denise Hill, who lost her battle with Leukemia in 1997 at seven years old.)
Quote Of The Day samples
“If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t run, then walk, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” ―Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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