Thursday, Sept. 27

We slept like logs last night, and didn't wake up until around 8 a.m. After a breakfast of the honey/pecan bread with cream cheese, and fresh fruit, we got ready to go on our final tour of the Memphis area for this trip.

While we enjoyed breakfast, we watched a crop duster spray a field just beyond the soybean field adjacent to the campground. Down he came, to what looked to be within inches of the ground, where he released the chemical, and then flew up to loop around again and head for the ground. This is a dangerous job, and one I wouldn't want.

Before we went to Memphis, we stopped by a cotton field down the road, so I could snap a few pictures. Although we country mice are quite familiar with cotton fields, I think maybe our city mice relatives might not be, and will be interested in seeing snapshots on my social network page.

The field is the worse for wear, having been defoliated and picked by large cotton picking machines, but there are still bolls of cotton there. Hubbie thinks all the cotton left in the field is a waste, but the machines can't pick it as clean as human labor can. But no one wants to go back to days of picking cotton by hand. It's horribly hot, labor-instensive work. My parents tried it a couple of times after we moved south from the north, and found out quickly it wasn't for them. They just couldn't pick enough to make much money.

On our tour today, we wanted to visit Mud Island, but before that, we were interested in a winery listed on the attractions map. As with yesterday, finding it was anything but a cinch. The area map we had showed Madison Ave., the street on which the winery was supposed to be, as feeding off Riverfront Road. But we traveled the length of the road and never found it.

So we decided to go one street over and try again. Still no luck. We passed several president-named streets...Jefferson (shouldn't Madison follow Jefferson?), Monroe, Adams. No Madison. Where was Madison? Hubbie stopped at a gas station to find out. Yes, Madison was three blocks back, supposedly between Jefferson and Monroe, and there was a sign indicating it, he was told.

Okay, back we went, but still no luck in finding it. Hubbie stopped at another gas station. Yes, Madison was a couple blocks back the other way. This time, Hubbie traveled at a snail's pace, and we finally found a sign...about the size of a postage stamp...directing us onto a ramp that looped around to the street.

Of course, since there are rarely numbers on any buildings, we had to travel way up Madison, and then turn around and come back, before we spotted the building...which is now a beauty salon. Phooey.

So we proceeded to Mud Island, where we spent most of the day. It was warm today, but not excessively, so being outdoors all day was pretty comfortable. Our tour began with a monorail trip from the parking deck, across the river, to the river walk and museum on the other side.

The monorail runs approximately every fifteen minutes, so we had to wait a while. In the meantime, a staff member sprayed all the seats with a sanitizer, which was comforting.

On the other side, we strolled through the two levels of observation decks, then went to the lower level, where the museum is located. This is an interesting museum that traces the history of the area, and its people.

It also displays history of river transport, and how Memphis sprang up as a music capital. A film shows how dangerous the river has been over the years, as riverboats and other boats sank in storms, and how the river flooded much of the area in earlier days.

The museum is comprised of 18 galleries showing 10,000 years of history. Here, there is a full-size replica of a riverboat, and a replica of "Old Ironsides," which includes cannons that loudly "fire" upon the enemy.

The museum also includes five galleries that trace the area's musical history, from Jazz to Ragtime, to Blues, to Rock 'n Roll.

From the museum, we strolled the unique river walk that includes an exact scale model of the lower Mississippi River from its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Ill., 954 miles south to the Gulf of Mexico. Twenty cities are mapped along the river walk. The model empties into an acre size Gulf of Mexico. All of the model flows with water, through concrete sections designed to allow the water to flow from north to south. The entire model is five blocks long. So we got our exercise today walking its length and back.

By 1 p.m., our tummies were rumbling. There was a sandwich shop near the museum and gift shop, but we wanted something more substantial. In asking, we were told that another restaurant was at the other end of the walk. No one seemed to know about the restaurant we could clearly see in what looked like a glassed walkway above, and which was clearly identified on the side of the building as a restuarant, so no one could tell us how to get to it. So we traiped down to the other end of the walk, where we found a hamburger joint, and paid dearly for two hamburgers, a bag of potato chips, and two bottles of water.

By 2 p.m., we were ready to head back to camp. Relaxed for a while, and then prepared a supper of leftover lasagna, served with coleslaw, and sliced tomatoes.

Afterward, we went to the casino, where we played for a couple of hours. Mother had sent $20 to play for her, and we won that back, plus $2. I personally blew $18 of my own money. But we still came away with the $26 from the $40 free passes given to us by the casino. Hubbie broke even.

The thing we don't like about this casino is that you can't play the penny slots one dollar at a time. You have to put a minimum of five dollars in. Tuesday and last night, I found one penny slot machine that took singles, but tonight it would only accept $5. Staff at the casino managed to get wise about the machine and fixed it, I guess.

Spent the rest of the evening in our own activities...Hubbie reading his John Grisham novel, and I playing on my laptop.