Day 33: Memphis, TN

Last night I had dinner at The Bar-B-Q Shop on Madison in midtown Memphis.  Apparently it's not typical of Memphis style barbecue, but it's been rated number one in the city for the past several years.  The pork ribs came highly recommended, so I tried those.  They have a really unique style.  They actually sell their own dry rub mix and their own barbecue sauce, both called Dancing Pigs.  They use the dry rub to smoke it, but then they seem to brush it with a really thin coating of the sauce, then sprinkle more dry rup on top of that.  The result is a sweet, salty and very flavorful rack of ribs.  The coleslaw and bbq beans were the best I've had since I left Seattle.  It's hard to say for sure, but I think Stubbs in Austin was a little bit better, based just on the quality and texture of the meat itself more than the flavor.  After dinner I went to a cafe down the street and was enjoying a glass of ice tea on the patio when a strong wind blew in and I saw some pretty ominous clouds to the west, which happened to be in the direction of my hotel.  I figured I should try to get to the hotel before the rain hit, but I was about 5 minutes away when it started to fall.  By the time I got to the hotel, I was almost completely soaked.  At least it cleaned most of the Mississippi bugs off my helmet and jacket.  Since I woke up this morning it's been raining hard, so I've just been passing time in the hotel lobby, drinking coffee and trying to plan my next stop in St. Louis.  It looks like a little break in the weather is coming, although it probably won't be completely dry until I get all the way into Missouri.