2016?

​Welcome to 2016.  It still feels a lot like 2015.  I’m sure that will change.  Last year I went to Europe for Christmas but was back in Texas for New Years.  This season I stayed in Texas but went to Memphis, Tennessee, for New Years.  I was sick the entire trip, but luckily I was able to drink enough cough syrup to keep me going. 
On the drive there I stopped in Shreveport, Louisiana, to see my pal Chris who just recently moved there from Austin.  Chris and I have known each other for almost a decade and are pretty close so it was awesome getting to see him again.  Originally he wanted to show me a lot of the city, but because of a tornado (yes, a tornado!) I didn’t get to Shreveport until after 9:00.  This made it a late start for carousing.  Especially since I was feeling under the weather.  Regardless, Chris showed me the boardwalk and the casinos and gave me a growler of local beer called ‘Awkward Uncle.’  It was a tasty brew.
I pulled into Memphis the next day.  I was coughing pretty bad by then so I wasn’t going too wild.  But I got to see Sun Studios where Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash all recorded their first hits.  Having grown up listening to those guys, it was a pretty big deal to me. I also got to see some live blues down on Beale Street.  I’d been on Beale Street once a long time ago, but I didn’t really get to check it out.  I was on some bus trip going somewhere and just ran out and ran back.  This time I got to see Blind Mississippi Morris play at the Blue City Café.  I also got some pretty good ribs, too.
By New Year’s Eve I was starting to feel better, but I still had congestion in my nose and chest.  I was able to stay up until midnight but not much longer.  The next day was the long drive back through Arkansas and the back roads of East Texas. 

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