Where the Mississippi meets BBQ - Our time in Memphis

Our family is attempting to travel to all 50 states through creative road trips. We prefer to choose a route which may have several destination stops throughout the trip. This often results in spending a short amount of time in one city. We love to get the flavor of the place that we are visiting by experiencing dining experiences, seeing a well-known icon from that area or simply experiencing the understated charm of that particular area.

This post shares about our trip to Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

We began this trip by setting our sights on Memphis as our first destination. Memphis is about a 7.5 hour drive from our home. But, my family is intrigued by any interesting stop. About two hours into our drive, we passed Casey, Illinois. Casey is known as the Big Things Small Town as it houses 12 items that are the "World's Largest" and over 20 other "Big Things." We, of course, didn't have time to find every item, but we checked out some of the "World's Largest." This was definitely a quirky stop, but satisfied my curiosity.

After this trip, we focused on the next stop as we were trying to make it to the Peabody Hotel for the evening duck parade. The Peabody Duck Parade happens daily at 11 AM and 5 PM. I was unfamiliar with this attraction until I began to research this trip. You can read more about the Peabody Ducks here. It really was a very unique experience that our family enjoyed. A pro tip is that you definitely want to arrive early as people begin finding their spots well before the parade begins. After the parade, you can follow the ducks back to their palace. We got to meet the duck master which made for a fun photo opporunity.

Following the parade, we grabbed dinner at the well-known Charlie Vergos' Rendezvous Restaurant. They are well-known for their dry rub ribs and Memphis-style ribs were allegedly made famous here. The food was great and reasonably priced. We had a great experience here. And, the Memphis mural photographed below is near this restaurant.

After having dinner, we checked out the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid. This 32- story structure has become quite the attraction in Memphis. We were there on a cold and windy day, but did indeed check out the top of the pyramid. We also participated in some of the activities in the Pyramid. You could really spend all day there. In fact, there is a hotel in the pyramid as well.

After checking out the Pyramid, we called it a night. We stayed at the Drury Inn and Suites Southaven. We had a lovely stay. We are always pleased with a Drury Inn.

The next morning, we had made plans to visit the National Civil Rights Museum. It was quite busy and I highly recommend getting your tickets in advance of your visit. Visiting this museum was definitely a worthwhile experience. My family learned so much about the civil rights movement in our nation and about Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior. This museum is built around the historic Lorraine Hotel where Dr. King was shot. In fact, they have a ceremony every year in remembrance of him on the date of his assassination. We arrived one day after the anniversary of the assassination and wreaths remained present to honor his memory. I would encourage everyone to consider a visit to this poignant museum.

Following our time at the museum, we had a late lunch at Central BBQ which was another recommended barbeque spot. My husband is a firm believer that one can never have too much barbeque, especially when in Memphis. My husband had the wings this time and enjoyed every bite. Everyone enjoyed their meal.

Following lunch, our original plan had been to drive to Hot Springs, Arkansas for our next stop. However, this trip was definitely a lesson in flexibility. When leaving Central BBQ, it was storming very badly. We got in the car to determine our next plan and actually drove to a parking garage to take cover from hail. Our original plan was to wait out the storm. However, as we researched the weather more, it was apparent that this was a long line of storms with concerns for tornados. In addition, Hot Springs was experiencing massive flooding and many roads were closed. We quickly determined that we were going to have to make some changes. We decided to change our hotel stay to another night local to Memphis since the weather was so poor. We had planned on staying at the Hampton Inn Hot Springs. We called the hotel in Hot Springs and they did confirm that there was flooding; however, they were unable to help us with a refund or rebooking. They connected us to the corporate number. Corporate was able to help us and confirmed that they would cancel our hotel due to unforeseen circumstances. This resulted in us needing lodging for the night. We were able to book the Home 2 Suites by Hilton in Marion, Arkansas. This allowed us to at least spend a little time in Arkansas as this was a new state that we were hoping to explore. After booking the hotel, we had some extra time before check-in. We actually spent some more time in the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid just to get out of the weather and to be occupied for a bit. That evening, we arrived at our hotel and decided to get some food to bring to the hotel. This proved difficult as we quickly found that even some local restaurants were closed due to flooding. We were able to grab dinner from a nearby Colton's Steak House and Grill and settled in for a movie. Our day definitely did not go as planned, but I was proud that our family could pivot so easily.

(We did end up exploring Hot Springs, Arkansas in a later trip. If you would like to read about that destination guide, click here.)

Read about our entire road trip on this post: 50 State Journey BBQ, Beignets and the Beach.

Follow along for more multi-destination trips at Middle of the Road Mindset.