The Duck Walk

If you're going to stay at The Peabody Hotel and spend that kind of money, you need to have front seats to see the duck walk. They don't give patrons a special section. Tony and I got up, got packed, had the hotel's breakfast buffet (I only really cared about the coffee, since there is no in room coffee maker -- this is horror for someone like me. But, their coffee is brought to the table in a French Press and is pretty awesome) and then set up camp at the Lobby Bar (it opens at 10 am) in front of the fountain. Bloody Mary for me (OK, nothing special) and Bailey's Hot Chocolate for Tony. If you want a good view, you really need to come early and set up shop. The Peabody Hotel earned another plus (I still need to add up the pluses and minuses to see what they average out to be prior to posting on TripAdvisor) with an app called Press Reader. It lets you read hundreds of newspapers and choose from them instead of leaving a newspaper at your door (they say it's for the environment, but they need to advertise it giving you the ability to read lots of papers instead of one -- including The Dallas Morning News). For a news junkie, I need to look into this service. Didn't see The Wall Street Journal, but it is a Sunday.  The Duck Master shows up early to get set up. He ropes off areas, get the potted plants just right. And deals with the media/camera crew who are shooting for something. He is very gracious and proud of his job (he's the fifth duck master). About ten minutes until 11, he does his "talk" to get you excited about the walk. Talks about them being on the Johnny Carson Show, and Sesame Street (for Rubber Ducky Day). And then goes up the elevator to get the ducks (BTW, they close one of the elevators for this procession).

Duck Master

Bloody Mary (with pickled okra) at The Peabody Lobby Bar

Breakfast time

 

Peabody ducks in the fountain

  At exactly 11, they come down. The ceremony is much more entertaining in the morning. At night, they pretty much get out of the pond and walk down the red carpet to the elevator and go home. In the morning, they get off the elevator and roam around outside the fountain a bit before getting in ("Use the stairs," says the Duck Master a few times). And then it's over and people crowd around the fountain to get pictures. But, if you wait another 10-15 minutes, the Duck Master comes back with a silver platter to feed the ducks. Another ceremony. Time to head out and Tony sets me up at the curb and goes to get the truck. Outside they have the duck walk of fame that includes Elvis. We have a moment. Missing key to the truck. Tony unhooked it from the door opener and it's missing. We go through the backpack, and open up the suitcase. Tony is about to head back to the truck to search it again and moves the suitcase for me to rest my leg on. They are clipped to the suitcase. Sigh. Tony bought a coffee mug for me, and a fuzzy duck pen, and some Rendezvous BBQ sauce and rub (the Rendezvous is down the alley from the hotel). 

Elvis Presley (and my shadow) on the Duck Walk of Fame

Peabody Hotel

Rendezvous BBQ

  Off to get the truck. Pulls around and we have a mechanical issue. All of the road bumps have blown out a bulb on the trailer, and the  fender is loose. Tony works on it on the trailer and finally off we go. We will stop at a gas station to buy a bulb and gas up to head home.  Before crossing to the bridge, there's a weird pyramid. Then across the Mississippi River and off to a Love's before heading towards Little Rock. Tony's worried about the trailer and his bike -- says that it's bouncing through the plate metal and is going to fall through.     Does some more work before we head off. 6+ hours and we'll be home. That's a lot of driving for Tony. And a lot of bent knee time for me (my knee to my foot are pretty swollen from not elevating -- that's what I'll be doing on Sunday. Tony says that I'm not leaving the bed.).

Trailer work outside the Peabody

The Bass Pro Shop Pyramid???

  Home. Wayz again amused us and we have lots of points and likes from our posts. Home. Kat is happy to see us and doesn't leave us out of her sight. Adventure over. Sunday is a rest and clean up day (and rig the bathroom for me to take a shower). Liking this new app to blog, but still new to it. Have to learn how to make the links live. Tony is also reading all of my posts and looks like I need to go and fix some incomplete sentences and typos (a horror for me, but part of blogging on a trip). Pretty happy since this is my first time blogging on an iPad. And, the gizmo I got from Amazon worked -- I uploaded the photos from the camera. Unfortunately user error and all of the video I took on the trip... Well, nothing over three seconds. Good trip. Now time for surgery.