Enjoying the Mississippi and how to boil an egg.

Watching the barges pass by....

Welcome center

As I write this I am sitting on the banks of the Mississippi River just watching the barge traffic go by. We are at the Tom Sawyer RV Park in West Memphis on the  Arkansas side of the river just across from Memphis TN. The park itself sits on the banks of the Mississippi and has its own pond that separates a couple of the sections. The thing that sets it apart is simply its location. Besides the river it is only about 10 minutes from downtown Memphis. 

BB King statue, welcome center

Elvis gets his own room in the welcome center

Beale street, closed to fix BB King's

Yesterday we decided to go downtown to check it out. We stopped at the visitors center just across the bridge. I knew there was a trolley that went around the downtown so I asked if there was a good place for us to park so we could just use the trolley or walk. She said I could leave it in the parking lot where it was and walk over to the trolley from there. The trolley is $1 a ride or $3.50 for a day pass. We just missed the trolley so we decided to walk for awhile. We ended up doing most of our exploring on foot and just used the trolley on our way back to the truck. Main street has only trolley and pedestrian traffic except at cross streets which makes for pleasant walking. It was a pleasant walk but Memphis looks a little tired these days, a little worn around the edges if you will. Beale street is a big tourist draw with lots of clubs and restaurants. BB King has a club that is the biggest draw, but Sunday night there was a fire in the kitchen so it was closed. They also had the street closed to traffic for all but the Service Pro trucks there trying to put things back together so they can reopen. There must have been a dozen trucks from small to semi-sized there working on the place. 

We visited the showroom of the Gibson guitar factory, but the factory tours were closed for the day. I own an Epiphone guitar which is made by Gibson, but not as expensive. My son has the guitar now and I love that guitar. I played a lot when I was young but not so much as an adult. It was fun to see all the beautiful guitars they had there, and they even had a couple Epiphones. 

Across the street from Gibson is the Rock and Soul Museum. We debated about the cost ($11 per person) but decided to go for it. It is a self guided tour, they give you a headphone and a device with different explanations that load as you punch in the numbers of the display. Sometimes I’d rather just read and one of the great things here is you could opt to listen to music tracks at different points instead of the commentary so that is mainly how I went thru, listening to great tunes and reading my way around. I think the most interesting part of the Memphis story is how music in this city and the civil rights movement were intertwined and how black and white found a way to come together through the music before they came together in many other ways. This is the city where Martin Luther King gave his last speech. The National Civil Rights Museum is here and I  would like to visit it too. 

Blues City Cafe

We asked at the museum where they felt the best place on Beale street to eat was and they recommended the Blues Street Cafe. We shared a combo of ribs and catfish. The ribs were good but not the best I’ve had. We will probably try the ribs at at least once more before we go. Tomorrow our plan is to go to Graceland and maybe the Civil Rights Museum, we will see how the time goes.

Now for my second subject, how to hard boil and egg. I like to start my day with protein and so my breakfast is a hard boiled egg. When I started doing this I was very frustrated with how to get them to cook just right and be able to peel them without loosing half the white in the process. We tried all the usual suggestions of using older eggs, starting with room temperature eggs, boil and cool etc. etc. All seemed to work sometimes but not consistently. John being the engineer he is, looks at things from a scientific viewpoint and knew the answer had to be out there. The one cook of the Food Network that he likes to watch is Alton Brown because he always comes at cooking from that same scientific bent. We searched online and sure enough Alton Brown had a video and in this one he actually steams the eggs. Here is the video for your enjoyment.

We have been using this method and it works!!! Once in awhile I have one that doesn’t peel well but I’d say so far thats only about 1 in 20 eggs. I’m sold and I actually think it works better and is easier than the other methods we’ve tried. So if you like hard boiled eggs like I do, or you like making deviled eggs, this might be the method for you too.