Exploring Memphis for Free

When we camp near a city, we spend some time researching the attractions at our new home town. Memphis has a large number of museums, but we were disappointed to find that most of them have a $10-12 per person price tag. If you've read the blog long, you know that we are frugal travelers that go to very few attractions that expensive. So how will we stay busy with our four-day visit in this area? Well, it turns out that it was easy!

We found out that the brand new Big River Trail opened just last week, so we took our bikes to the large parking lot on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River along Highway 55.  The wooden barricade that was just removed was still beside the trail at the entry, and there are construction vehicles with more improvements going on in the area.

We immediately found ourselves going uphill towards the bridge. Denisa could barely see the light at the end of the very long tunnel that would mean we had gotten to the top of the bridge.

Once we were over the Mississippi River, we no longer had a roof over our heads, and we could see the view of downtown Memphis from the south.

Once on the east side of the river, we biked through some residential areas to get to the river trail that runs parallel to the water. Denisa was racing this tug boat pushing a barge upstream, and she was winning.

This is the bridge that I-40 takes over the Mississippi River, and the one we traveled on with the motor home. Its curvy roof-line is the iconic symbol of Memphis.

The sidewalk along the river is wide, with benches for resting and watching the water go by. There is also some interesting statuary with pieces that catch the wind and move.

We could also ride our bike all the way downtown to where the Memphis egg was decorating the lawn of the visitor's center. Normally, we would also be walking on that bridge you see over Mark's head. That is the free way to get to Mud Island. It doesn't sound like much, but we were looking forward to another free attraction. So we were disappointed to find that Mud Island closes on November 1 until next spring.

Inside the visitor's center, Memphis's favorite citizen is honored with a bigger-than-life statue in the front entry.

Memphis is also proud of another local guitar-player--B.B. King.

We could ride our bikes all the way to the giant pyramid we had seen as we first rolled through town. This was once the home of Memphis's professional basketball team. But its location next to the river made the process of getting an arena full of fans in and out for the game too cumbersome, and the venue was moved to another location. So the giant silver pyramid stood empty for a decade until the perfect tenant moved in.

Bass Pro Shop  is one of the few tenants that could pull off the transformation of a basketball gym into a Spanish-moss draped swamp with a little retail space added. There is also a lodge added along the edges, made to look like cabins in the wilderness.

That neon tower looks a little out of place in a swamp. It changes colors to entice people to ride its elevator to the top point of the pyramid. From there, tourists can view Memphis from the outdoor viewing balconies. Considering the $10 ticket, we didn't take the ride on this free tour of the city.

We did meander through the swamp, where some trophy fish were swimming in the perfectly clear water among the new boats on display.

This sturgeon was cruising the swamp, swimming so fast that all our pictures were blurry. This might sound like another fish story, but this guy was around five feet long, and there were several more close to his size.

Denisa kept trying to take pictures of those ugly old fish, until she spotted the ducks that also call Bass Pro their home. They are swimming around the cypress knees of the giant cypress trees that decorate the swamp.

You would think these ducks were in the wild, if you didn't see the neon lights reflected in the sparkling water.

Mark liked the duck in the picture above, but Denisa's favorite was the male wood duck. He was more cooperative to photograph than that sturgeon.

Like other Bass Pro stores, there are waterfalls, aquariums, and plenty of stuffed wild animals. We've been looking for bears on the trail, but we personally hope we never find one this close.

Denisa preferred to take her picture with these handsome young men. Bass Pro had hosted a halloween party, complete with a photo opportunities for their young customers.

On the second floor of the pyramid, the Ducks Unlimited organization has a museum filled with displays of their favorite fine feathered friends. This shot includes a brass duck statue in the foreground, with stuffed ducks over the fireplace surrounded by a very large collection of duck calls.

In a museum of all things duck, our favorite display was the hand-carved decoys.

We were inspired by the patience of artists that could recreate the intricacies of every carved feather, hand-painted with such detail.

To think that the beautiful detail it takes a talented artist months to recreate, God can make perfect every day.

Another great free thing to do in Memphis is a visit to the Peabody Hotel to see the ducks that hang out in the fountain in the lobby.

But the special time to go to the Peabody is at 11:00 when the Duck Master escorts them from their penthouse home on the roof, down in the elevator to the lobby. Then they waddle down the red carpet and into the fountain.

The Duck Master is holding the silver domed plate filled with cracked corn--a gourmet meal to a duck. They will hang out here in the lobby until the march of the ducks is reversed at 5 p.m. The Duck Master told us that the flock of ducks is replaced every three months, when they trade this glamorous gig for a life in the wild.

If you go straight out the front door of the fancy Peabody Hotel, you can walk down a narrow alley to another of the well-known institutions of Memphis. The Rendezvous has been located in this downtown alley since 1948, and they were recommended to us over and over.

Even though walking down the alley to see the restaurant is still a free activity, eating there technically isn't part of the free tour of Memphis. A full rack of ribs set us back $20, but it was plenty for both of us.

We tried the dry rub ribs, but we still preferred them with sauce. You have to respect a restaurant that has capacity crowds all the time. They weren't scheduled to open until 4:30, but they invited us in at 2:30 when we asked about the ribs. So we got a picture of the front seating area of an empty restaurant before the crowds appeared.

We're not sure where all those Rendezvous costumers park, as there is no parking in the alley, and very little in the area. It wasn't a problem for us, however, since we rode our bikes. That's a great option for visiting downtown Memphis and the river front area. We didn't have to worry about paying for parking since we left our bikes at the river front visitor's center while we walked to attractions in the area. At the end of the day, we headed back towards the Hiway 55 bridge. There is actually more than one bridge crossing the Mississippi here, as there are four lanes of automobile traffic, 3 railroad tracks, and now the walking/biking River Trail crossing the water here.

There was a good number of walkers on the bridge today, as Memphis is getting used to this new exercise outlet. When we were on the bridge, we stopped long enough to take another picture of downtown Memphis in the distance.

The only problem with our bike plan today was the parking area on the Arkansas side of the bridge. We mentioned that there is still construction happening in this area. Those big construction vehicles stir up the fine white dirt as they roll past the parking area. We got a little shower of rain this afternoon, and the extra moisture made that white dirt adhere nicely to our car. By the time we got back, we couldn't see out of any of our windows. It took a trip through the car wash to uncover the gray paint on the car again. So we guess our free day did have a price after all! But we didn't have time to see everything, so we'll be back for another day of "Memphis for free" in the next blog.