28 January – Memphis

Packed up. It’s a big job! Lots of scrubbing, cleaning, defrosting the fridge, packing up our gear. The van is all shipshape.

Picked up the scooter from its service and dropped the van at the RV repair place. She will be in the shop for  a week or so getting new waterproofing on the roof joints, and a new awning.

Taxi to the Peabody Hotel, where we will stay for 2 nights. The Peabody has been around since the early 20s, and it is just lush. There is a soaring lobby with stained glass, intricate carving, marble columns, and the famous Peabody Ducks. The Ducks started as a joke after a few drinks – someone thought it would be funny to put some ducks in the fountain in the lobby. The guests loved it, so they engaged a Duck Master to train the ducks to comedown the elevator every day at 11am, spend the day in the fountain, then go back up at 5pm to their duck palace on the roof.

We had a cocktail in the lobby bar and waited for the duck parade. It was a bit underwhelming – coming from owning a flock of around 30 of the beggars ourselves, 4 was a bit of a tiny flock. Still, it was very theatrical, the Duck Master in a red coat with gold braid, a red carpet and the ceremony started about 40 minutes before the ducks were herded out and away. They scampered up the red carpet and into the lift in a few seconds.

We had dinner at the restaurant “Chez Phillipe”- 4 courses with paired French wines. We are going to say that it was truly one of the best meals we have eaten.

After dinner we went to the roof to take in the final moments of sunset over the Mississippi – flashes of deep orange and red before the black velvety night finally took over. We said goodnight to the ducks in the duck palace before heading to bed.