Driving into Memphis, TN

and a side trip to Grinder's TN

	video
BB King	Elvis	Minnie Pearl

Going by way of mEMPHIS, I took a side trip to Grinders, TN. The home town of Minnie Pearl. From I-40, I took HWY 50 southeast, and then north 1/4 mile to the city square. It's an olde-tyme city square for sure, with a huge bronze statue of Minnie Pearl right there. I didn't take the time to explore, since the 18 miles of highway from I-40 to Grinders took almost 40 minutes. The reason this might be of interest to MV'ers, especially M35 and other large vehicle owners, is the very steep grades on HWY 50. Not to be satisfied with this, take HWY 100 from town and then HWY 48 back northeast to I-40. Throw 6000LBS of top-heavy load in the bed of your truck and this route is sure to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, with its snaking banked hairpin turns going up and down thrilling steep grades, engine braking was a must and I spent most of this in 3rd. There is literally nothing to the right, no guard rail, just a steep drop into the woods! Oncoming traffic has a rock face for their passenger's entertainment. The lanes were very narrow and the few bridges way too narrow for two trucks to pass. Maybe this is business as usual for some, but we have nothing like it in Texas. I wish I had been rolling video for this ride, it was very much like an amusement park thrill ride but for keeps and my knuckles were white. And I thought it would be easy when the clerk at the store said "It's all downhill".

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