Last week I see on Facebook that my friend Darren Lee is bringing his show “Burn N Love” to Memphis, Tennessee from Maui, Hawaii for one night. Unfortunately Karen does not have too many vacation days so after much contemplation, I decided that I would go by myself. There was debate as to how I should get there and in the end since this is going to be a quick trip, flying made the most sense. The best deal I could find was to fly from Detroit to Nashville and then drive to Memphis. I left home just after 5pm and crossed over at the Ambassador Bridge around 8:30pm. I made a quick stop at Kohl’s before checking into the Baymont Inn & Suites Detroit Airport/Romulus ($109.40 USD).
It seemed to me that I had just fallen asleep when I heard my alarm go off at 3:30am. I caught the 4:30am shuttle to the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. I dropped off my free bag at the Southwest counter ($413.96 USD) and very quickly went through security. At this point it was 4:45am. Darn it, I could have slept longer. We began boarding just before 6:00am. Southwest does not assign seats. When you get on the plane, you can pick any seat you want. I grabbed 4D and was lucky enough to have no one beside me.
The flight went by really fast and we even ended up landing twenty minutes early. After grabbing my luggage, I picked up my Toyota Corolla from Avis which I rented through Costco Travel ($310.92 USD). Before leaving Nashville, I stopped by Cracker Barrel to get fueled up for the three hour drive to Memphis.
The drive started off miserable with lots of rain but as I got further along, the sun finally came out and it started to get hot. Once I got to Memphis, I did a little bit of shopping before having the first of many BBQ meals. I had read about Germantown Commissary and decided that I should go there for lunch. The first thing that you notice about the restaurant is how small it is. I think it has at most ten tables. I looked over the menu and decided to have the BBQ shoulder sandwich plate. Let’s just say that it was very yummy along with the homemade Chocolate Pie that I had for dessert.
After lunch, I headed over to the Hampton Inn & Suites Shady Grove ($468.46 USD) and checked into my king bed suite with kitchen. When I finished unpacking, I went down to the pool and cooled off. The temperature in the car early today said it was over 90°F. Throughout the day, I was getting updates from Darren about where he was in his travels. By the late afternoon, I got a text saying he had finally arrived in Memphis. Darren said that today’s activities would be a bunch of small gigs at various bars on Beale Street and that we would have lots of fun.
Well the fun started around 6pm and it did not stop until 12:30am. Darren started at Club Handy and then went to Jerry Lee Lewis’ Cafe & Honky Tonk, Hard Rock Café and finished up at Club 152. Every where we went, people were impressed with his singing and wanted to have their picture taken wth him. The entire night was like time travelling back to 1999 when Darren did a summer tour in Ontario. It was just like the good old days except that the good old days were almost twenty years ago and I am older now. We ended the night at Blues City Café with a very late diner.
Be First to Comment