If you’re looking to hear the blues, Memphis is the town.

Looking to savor the sweet taste of BBQ? Memphis is a good choice.

I recently got it into my head that I’d like to do both. I emailed a co-worker to see if there was any mutual interest. This is how the emailed exchange went.

Do you want to go to Memphis? [Me]

Are you serious? [Co-worker]

Yes. [Me]

What brought this on? [Co-worker]

$100 roundtrip offer being made by Northwest Airlines. [Me]

Let’s do it. [Co-worker]

I guess it’s clear from the email exchange that I’m a bit of a free spirit and most of my friends tend to be cut from the same cloth. Therefore, this type of exchange happens more often than one would think, especially since I receive updates from various travel sites listing each week’s top ten best travel deals. (It was one of these offers that served as catalyst for my Carnival Cruise, which I wrote about back in October, ’07)

Anyway, we swooped into Memphis early Saturday morning, and we stayed at the Comfort Inn, a fortunate choice. Choosing accommodations in a city that you haven’t visited before is tricky, but sometimes luck is on your side. Our Comfort Inn was truly an inn. The price of the room included a continental breakfast that turned out to be much, much more then mere donuts and coffee. What a delight.

Speaking of delights, another one of our friends drove clear across Tennessee to meet us in Memphis. What began as a spur of the moment jaunt, became a glorious three-day reunion, jam packed with loads of fun, music, history and good eatin’.

Our first stop was to the famous Beale Street, where we swooned over the music at B.B. King’s and ate catfish, shrimp po’ boys and, what else? BBQ.

More about the Memphis adventure next week.