Day 3, July 5: Memphis to Oklahoma City

We got an early start because Bill forgot to switch the travel alarm to Central time. Lucky break! Good thing, too, because there was at least a little sightseeing to be done in Memphis. The one interesting-looking breakfast place close to the hotel turned out to be a block away from the National Civil Rights Museum, aka the Lorraine Motel, scene of the ugly April 4, 1968, events involving the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., James Earl Ray and possibly a mysterious man named Raoul.

First, breakfast. The Arcade is a treasure. The food isn't all that special (though the combination of too-salty country ham and too-flat biscuits becomes something greater than the sum of its parts), but the frozen-in-time aesthetics are a don't-miss. Jacqueline's exterior picture is below; I'll post my interior shots once we get to Phoenix, where Canon.com should be delivering another copy of the cable I forgot to pack.

It was already hotter than hell around 10 a.m. as we walked over to the Lorraine. Again, frozen in time. Again, photo below. We should have visited the museum, but the road beckoned.

Across the Mississippi, a historic moment: Arkansas was the only state in the lower 48 that Jacqueline had never visited. Mission accomplished! The Arkansas side of the Mississippi is oddly undeveloped. You'd think West Memphis would have a building or two, but no.

We listened to a little more local radio than we had been sampling, and the Forrest City police-blotter reading was a hoot. The radio guy pretty much read every little crime that had occurred in the past 24 hours. Our favorite:

"A Forrest City man was shot in the leg yesterday. Roosevelt Franklin ..."

Still in Arkansas, at the Atkins exit, we did our best to stay low-carb in our first-ever visit to a Sonic drive-in. Mmm, Sonic. We tried the cherry limeade (well, at least the diet cherry limeade) at a Roadfood.com message-board poster's suggestion, and, boy, was that good. The food was a cut above the usual fast fare as well.

We did not visit the historic Sonic location in Altus, where Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie rearranged the sign to advertise "1/2 price anal salty weiner burgers." But we did note the sign for the Altus exit.

It was a long driving day, and a construction-plus-accident-plus-volume delay right before Oklahoma City didn't help.

We were unsure about a lot of our restaurant choices for this trip, but one was firm: We would have steaks at the Cattlemen's in Oklahoma City. As it turned out, the place just happened to be two or three exits away from the hotel that Jacqueline had booked.

Two or three exits and a hundred and some years. You take a little bridge on the outskirts of OKC and suddenly you're on a main street from a much smaller Old West town. "Historic Stockyards City" is the name of the place. Jacqueline got wistful that, contrary to appearances, she wasn't in Wyoming. More photos to come.

The highlight of the interior is a couple of backlighted photo murals. The back wall in our room was one of cattlemen on horses. In another room, there was one of a herd of cattle. Otherwise, the surfaces and the light level and the typefaces ... it finally occurred to Jacqueline: This is Binion's Horseshoe! The Las Vegas casino actually does have a fine and atmospheric steakhouse, but Cattlemen's was what you would have if you turned the casino into a steakhouse.

The restaurant was as good as it looked. Salads and fries weren't great, but the steaks! And the dinner rolls! Here's the freaky part: Bill was disappointed there was no draft beer, but one of the bottle choices just happened to be the custom-brewed Cattlemen's Double Deuce (22 ounces), an unfiltered wheat beer. Very nice.

Back at the hotel, more problems with the wireless connection. Again, it worked fine the next morning.