SOMEDAY our weather will clear up and I will get back to getting my half track sorted out. Until then, you will have to put up with more Elvis Collection....(and a teaser).
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Here's The Kid, posing with his teddy bear (but I think he's gonna need a bigger bed).
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Actually, on our road trip we stayed at Memphis' Pyramid which was formerly a very elaborate sports venue. Luckily, my wife's employer pays to keep rooms reserved there and we managed to get booked on the QT (and at the corporate rate!) after being turned away on our first phone inquiry. Any other time, I would have considered their usual price (even
at their corporate rate) completely out of reach. Happily, or unhappily, depending upon your point of view, my wife has been on the dreaded
Covid Front Lines from Day 1 and she was
ready to play...with Beau and I along for the ride. So we slept in high style in Memphis.
The mattress and the pillows were so gooooooood!
The Pyramid, which is mostly a hollow structure and
was a BIG financial
loser for the City of Memphis, was leased by Bass Pro Shop (reportedly for 55 years!) and they changed it into a something rather unique. They cleared the entire first floor, installed a Super-Duper Bass Pro Shop with a much bigger selection.....and surrounded it, three floors high, with their hotel, constructed on what I imagine had been upper tiers and 'sky-boxes' for the filthy rich. So, that part of the structure became The Big Cypress Lodge which artfully (and cleverly) overlooks the retail end of things. You can go out on the interior balcony (yeah, there's an
exterior balcony too) and browse, even when the store is closed...provided you brought your binoculars. They did a mighty fine job of it. Think,
DUBAI with
tree bark instead of Swarovski crystal. It's just another place where people will
pay to get to.... just so they can shop.
All this....
to shop! Humanity really
is doomed.
Well, to be entirely fair, anyone can go in and shop, and eat, and drink, and go bowling and fool around at the shooting gallery and watch the fishies swim around in circles
without paying to spend the night. No matter who you are, Bass Pro knows your money is green and Dear Reader, they are more than willing to take it.
Still, we were just looking for a room for the night. My usual choice would have been Motel 6 or even better, drive all day and night so as to avoid the expense of overnight accommodation. Paying for a place to snooze, no matter how uppity it may be, just goes against my sensibilities. (I'm used to being dead broke and I weigh
every expense against potential purchases of useful tools or necessary MV parts.) If that makes me a cheapskate, my reply is, GUILTY AS CHARGED, but you
KNOW that attitude is
not gonna make Doc happy when she's on vacation. I'm retired, so
every day is potentially a Vacation Day, but the Doc....not so much....not after wading through all this Covid BS. So, we splurged and I wisely kept my danged mouth shut.
The Big Cypress Lodge is appointed in the same way that much of their stores are; very outdoorsy (but in an upscale, Disneyesque kinda way). Presently, the whole place is suffering from the great spoiler of fun (COVID) but by all other appearances, it really rocks when things are normal and despite the threat of La Rona, in the morning checking out is somewhat hampered by a line of people who are masked up and waiting to go inside to shop.
Anyway, stay tuned for some pics of the place. It's pretty interesting.
Cheers,
TJ
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By way of comparison, think of food quality just a bit below that of Denny's, but as always, BPS earned high marks for interesting decor. Unfortunately, you can't EAT decor! I'm not talking free continental breakfast which is expected to be sub-par, either. This was a you-pay-for-it-here-and-now breakfast. I guess they had to make cuts somewhere and this is one of the places they decided to pinch a penny. So, we ate just a little to fortify ourselves and then Doctor Mom practiced a little 'retail therapy' while I trudged back to the room to get our gear together. It was a LONG walk...both ways! 
