Day 19 (7/1) – BBQ and Blues

We woke up refreshed at Harrah’s Tunica, just over the border from Memphis in Mississippi. For our event at Harrah’s we were parked prominently outside the main entrance to the casino. Many people stopped by to talk to us about their experiences with sustainability, how to use biodiesel (it’s the same as petro-diesel), or how to buy a ticket to ride the bus (those don’t exist, sorry folks). We talked to Trudy Pfisterer of Harrah’s about their sustainability efforts. When traffic was slow, we had fun hanging out with the valet guys as they competed to power lights with our bike-generator. “You know why [anonymous valet driver X] is so fast?” one of the shuttle drivers asked us. “It’s ‘cause he’s always running away from women!”

That afternoon we headed into Memphis for barbeque and blues. Before we got to either, we had some mechanical issues that forced the fledgling mechanics to problem solve without the guidance of Rob, our wise bus mechanic from the 2010 tour who had joined us until Chattanooga. Bus fixed and pulled pork eaten, we headed to Beale Street for some blues. For a Sunday night it was an impressively lively scene—at least ten places had live music on one street. The first band we stopped to watch had trumpet and saxophone players jammed for a while until the lead woke up suddenly on his stool and whipped out a harmonica. The singer of the next band we saw told us a story about how his dad had taught him to play the blues. Exhausted as usual, we headed back to Tunica for our last night at Harrah’s.