Roadtripping Pt. 1 — The Route
Miles, memories, and Memphis in the rear view mirror…
I've just returned from the best trip with my husband and brother, and I have so much to tell that I think I will break it down into three different posts – where we went, what we did, and what we ate.
WHERE WE WENT
When John and I were growing up, we went every single summer to Hot Springs, Arkansas, with our mother and our grandmother. Granny suffered from a rare form of arthritis called Marie-Strümpell syndrome, and somehow she heard about the hot, mineral baths and thought they would help her "rheumatiz," as she called it.
Mama and Granny first went there in 1957 and for at least the next 35 years. The last time we were in Hot Springs was about 20 years ago when Mama, Daddy, John, and I took my son there.
But back to my childhood. We always stayed in the same hotel, The Arlington, and we always did the same things – the grownups got the hot baths and massages, the kids swam in the pool, three meals in the hotel dining room. We always went to see a few different sights, the same ones year after year. As one would say in today's parlance, we were making memories.
And it is because of those fond memories that John and I would recount to my husboo, Ricky, that we decided to take a trip back to Hot Springs to stay at The Arlington, take the baths, and see the sights. Then we decided to make a little road trip out of it. We tacked on a night in Memphis at the beginning because it's on the way, and we booked two nights in Clarksdale, Mississippi, to break up the trip home.
I've been through Memphis a couple of times and even stopped once to see Graceland. Still, Memphis is a city I know virtually nothing about, except there's Beale Street, they march ducks through The Peabody Hotel and let them swim in the fountain, and you can get good BBQ at the Rendezvous. Actually, now that I'm writing this, I do know more things. I know about the Lorraine Motel, Sun Records, and Stax. My point is, I don't know much about the neighborhoods or how the city is laid out.
Despite my general ignorance of the area, I figured that if I booked a hotel close to Beale Street, The Peabody, and The Rendezvous, we would be okay. And that's what we were—okay.
We stayed at the Hotel Indigo, which is an IHG brand, and I usually have great success with their properties. Our rooms were… okay…and the location was… okay…and the service was…lackluster at best. Not the greatest Indigo experience ever.
And like many famous streets that have given way to pure tourist cheese – Bourbon, Broad, Michigan – I feel like there must be many better places to spend time than Beale Street. It's kitschy, touristy, and full of panhandlers and dead-eyed people who scratch out a living slanging dranks to people in jorts and Crocs who holler more than they tip. Beale Street, which I was excited about experiencing, made me sad in the way that Bourbon Street and Tootsie's Orchid Lounge make me sad.
Let's see the ducks, we thought. Unfortunately, the Peabody was so jam up and jelly tight with tourists that I'm surprised the ducks didn't take to the wing and flee, if the ducks were even there. Who knows? I couldn't see through the crush of people. Nor could we even get waited on at the bar after spending about 15 minutes trying to flag someone down.
We did find our way to a cute little Irish pub called The Brass Door. We quickly found seats at the end of the bar, ordered a round of Manhattans, and finally relaxed into vacation mode. This bar has a small kitchen in the back and a fairly extensive menu of Irish fare. I'd go back there to eat because the food looked amazing. For some reason that I can't recall now, we decided after a few drinks to go eat dinner at The Flying Fish, which was just a couple of blocks away. Something about the lure of fried seafood just spoke to us in a way that bangers and mash didn't in that precise moment.
Back at the hotel, the air conditioning wasn't working in Ricky's and my room, but the hotel did find us another room. We ultimately got a decent night's sleep, but we were about ready to put Memphis in the rear view mirror the next morning.
If you love Memphis, I'd love to know more about making the most of a day or two there. Please let me know your favorite places to stay, things to do, and places to eat.
The drive from Memphis to Hot Springs is easy—really, the whole road trip was easy. You don't pass through any major cities, the traffic isn't bad, and the route is pretty direct. After a few hours of driving and a stop in Brinkley, Arkansas, for a Chinese buffet lunch, we checked into The Arlington, found our rooms, and refreshed ourselves just in time for cocktails in the lobby bar.
Like I said, Arlington holds a great deal of nostalgia for my brother and me, and that's why we can overlook the fact that its former glory has faded, shall we say, over the years. After all, this grand dame—the largest hotel in Arkansas—is over 100 years old. The good news is that she's getting a facelift. The other news is that none of the rooms are finished yet, and our room came straight out of 1986—jewel tones, stained carpet, and all.
But we didn't care.
I think my brother best described it when he said that going to The Arlington is like going to your Granny's house—you feel really welcome and you love being there, but you know she hasn't been sweeping up the dust behind the beds.
We were buoyed to see, however, that the marble staircases are still grand, the murals in the lobby are still there (although one is a bit worse for wear), the Venetian Room is still opulent, and the wrap-around porch is still breezy and relaxing. One thing that is gone, though, is the big birdcage in the ladies' lounge off the lobby. In my memories, the birdcage was in the center of the lounge part of the restroom, filled with tropical plants and live parrots.
I actually talked to the hotel manager, a man named Alan Sims, who came to the hotel in 2017. He said he had seen the birdcage in their storage area and wondered what it had been for. I also couldn't find anyone on staff who remembered it being in place at all. Of course, it's been 40 or more years. But boy…When I was a little girl, it was so impressive to go into the ladies' lounge and see such a display. It felt like the height of glamor right there in the potty. And I tell you this story to say that if, in the "good old days," the hotel took so much care to present a bathroom this extravagantly, imagine what the rest of the place was like.
At The Arlington, I always felt like Eloise at The Plaza.
John, Ricky, and I spent a wonderful week in Hot Springs doing all the things one does (stay tuned… I'll write more about that for next week) before we got back on the open roads to make our way to Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Put this part of the trip under the heading of "You Can't Get There From Here," but we got to see some beautiful countryside on the way to The Shack Up Inn. Rural Arkansas and the Mississippi Delta are stunning parts of the South that everyone should see.
Clarksdale and The Shack Up Inn have been on my bucket list for a while, and I was pleasantly surprised in some ways and vaguely disappointed in others. I'll tell you more about that later, too. Suffice it to say right now, if you ever get a chance to stay in a grain silo, do it. The folks at the Shack Up Inn know how to put a place together to look "poor" but be comfortable. Like Dolly said, "It's expensive to look this cheap." And I'll bet you a dollar they really spent a lot of money to make their accommodations as nice as they are.
After we did all things Clarksdale (again, more about that later), we hopped on the road back to Birmingham with a short stop in Oxford, Mississippi, to see Square Books. Of course, you have to stop at a famous bookstore if you're in the area.
If you're looking to do a fun road trip, I highly recommend Birmingham > Memphis > Hot Springs > Clarksdale > Oxford. Next week, we'll discuss some particulars about things to do. The week after that, I'll talk about food and drinks. Somewhere in there, I'll have to get into history because there are volumes. That's why we have to take it in niblets.
Do you have a favorite road trip route? Let me know! I'd love to try it.
Entertaining as always. Hope to get to Clarksdale further on up the road.