Goal: Laundry
First task is to get laundry done. Deryl and Rob had driven to a number of near by laundromats to the RV park. All of them are run down, and only take coins. When we checked out some of the laundromats yesterday, Deryl came away with the impression that “White Folk” aren’t welcome here. The one laundromat that she had decided was acceptable, the clientele were at least welcoming.
Therefore after we broke our fast, and had sufficient coffee, we gathered the laundry and headed over to that laundromat. The convenience of having multiple machines to process the washing and drying makes efficient use of our time to get laundry done.
Goal: Memphis Metal Museum
Our next objective is the Memphis Metal museum. This is located out near the Mississippi River. On route to the museum, we get to watch a BNSF train of coal hoppers coming across the single track bridge over the Mississippi. The single track bridge is the northernly most bridge of the three bridge set. The train consists of 2 engines pulling the long line of coal hopper cars, and 3 pusher engines.
We then continue on to the Metal Museum of Memphis. The history of the area is interesting, as are the exhibits at the museum.
Across the street from the museum is a large mound with a doorway. This turns out to have been a native American ceremonial location, which was used by the Confederate army as a munitions store during the Civil War.
The buildings next door to the museum and the museum buildings were all part of a naval hospital, which first established by John Adams. The buildings are interesting to look at, and it is nice that they have been preserved.
The museum houses a interesting collection of cast and forged steel artwork. There is also an active forge and casting building on site, which is used by “resident” artists.
All told we spend an hour touring the interior and exterior exhibits. We feel good escaping the gift shop without something grabbing hold of us.
On the ride home to The Roost, we stop and feed Clyde the go-go juice Clyde will need to take us to our next destination tomorrow. When we get back to camp, Rob makes short work of dumping the tanks and lightening the trailer.
Deryl combines a number of leftovers into dinner and we talk for a while before heading to bed.