What to do in Arkansas?

[luiz]

Business reasons will take me to Blytheville, Arkansas (Mississipi County) from May 16th to May 28th. I'll have one whole free weekend and another Sunday with nothing to do. I'll arrive via Memphis airport, and I know that's Elvis land, so I might visit his house on the 16th. Other than that I am clueless on what to do.

So, can any locals help me out?
Are there interesting stuff to see in town? And if I rent car, are there cool places to go nearby in the weekend? What to do at night during the week days?

Any help will much appreciated. Wiki wasn't very helpful.

 

[Shekwan]

Wander around with a banjo looking for a Deliverance style jam session.

Failing that, have you checked Tripadvisor? If thats got nothing then there really is nothing to do in Arkansas.

 

[MobBoss]

Wander around with a banjo looking for a Deliverance style jam session.

Deliverance wasnt set anywhere near Arkansas.

Failing that, have you checked Tripadvisor? If thats got nothing then there really is nothing to do in Arkansas.

Let me take a stab at it.

Luiz, you will actually be within a hour or less of where I was born and raised in Newport, AR. Unfortunately for you, you will be in the extreme NE part of the state, right on the border with both Missouri and Tennesee, and part of the agri belt.

Closest town of any real size is going to be Jonesboro, AR (where I enlisted into the Army as a matter of fact), but I cant really speak to whats available there now since the city has more than doubled in size since I was there last. Its a college town, hosting Arkansas State University, and has a population around 70k or so.

Your best bet for interesting things is in Memphis proper. You can always take the tour of Elvis's place, which is nice. Memphis also has a nice zoo. Night life centers around a lot of established night clubs/restaurants around the Beale Street area. Good food would include fried catfish, barbecue of all types, and a pretty good selection of sea food oddly enough for a town far away from the coast. My dad used to take me every year on my birthday to a seafood place there called Pappy and Jimmys and we would pick a live lobster out of the tank for dinner. Hehe, place is closed now, but many of its type are around Memphis.

One thing I can absolutely recommend is spending some time at Mud Island at Memphis. Mud Island is something the city built onto what was once a large sandbar on the Mississippi river. They turned it into a river museum, concert venue, etc. etc. If you ever saw John Grishams 'The Firm' it was featured a lot in the film. One of the most amazing things there is a scale replica of the entire Mississippi river with flowing water that runs the length of the Island (rougly a mile or so in length). If you might be interested in the culture that arose from all around the river, you may find it very insightful and fun.

If racing betting is your thing, they used to have a greyhound dograce track across the river in West Memphis Arkansas. Went there a couple of times, but I found it to be not as fun as the Horse Racing track on the other side of the state.

Hope that helps.

 

[RedRalph]

Sounds like you could do a tour of Mobboss' childhood

 

[Quackers]

Sounds like you could do a tour of Mobboss' childhood

I don't see lynching there....

 

[Cutlass]

Go diamond mining.

Go cave exploring

 

[Harvin87]

just get drunk with some redneck.

 

[luiz]

Deliverance wasnt set anywhere near Arkansas.



Let me take a stab at it.

Luiz, you will actually be within a hour or less of where I was born and raised in Newport, AR. Unfortunately for you, you will be in the extreme NE part of the state, right on the border with both Missouri and Tennesee, and part of the agri belt.

Closest town of any real size is going to be Jonesboro, AR (where I enlisted into the Army as a matter of fact), but I cant really speak to whats available there now since the city has more than doubled in size since I was there last. Its a college town, hosting Arkansas State University, and has a population around 70k or so.

Your best bet for interesting things is in Memphis proper. You can always take the tour of Elvis's place, which is nice. Memphis also has a nice zoo. Night life centers around a lot of established night clubs/restaurants around the Beale Street area. Good food would include fried catfish, barbecue of all types, and a pretty good selection of sea food oddly enough for a town far away from the coast. My dad used to take me every year on my birthday to a seafood place there called Pappy and Jimmys and we would pick a live lobster out of the tank for dinner. Hehe, place is closed now, but many of its type are around Memphis.

One thing I can absolutely recommend is spending some time at Mud Island at Memphis. Mud Island is something the city built onto what was once a large sandbar on the Mississippi river. They turned it into a river museum, concert venue, etc. etc. If you ever saw John Grishams 'The Firm' it was featured a lot in the film. One of the most amazing things there is a scale replica of the entire Mississippi river with flowing water that runs the length of the Island (rougly a mile or so in length). If you might be interested in the culture that arose from all around the river, you may find it very insightful and fun.

If racing betting is your thing, they used to have a greyhound dograce track across the river in West Memphis Arkansas. Went there a couple of times, but I found it to be not as fun as the Horse Racing track on the other side of the state.

Hope that helps.

It helped a lot, thank you sir!

I think I should definately rent a car than, right?

@Cutlass: good tips too. As a kid I once took a tour on an old gems mine in the Smoky Mountains region, I don't know if it was Tennessee or West Virgnia, but I remember liking it a lot.

 

[emzie]

Go diamond mining.

Go cave exploring

I've always wanted to do the diamond thing. I've heard it's quite a bit of fun (though your chances of striking it rich are remote)

... as an aside, what kinda business meeting goes to Arkansas?

 

[nonconformist]

get elected governor, work your way up, and get blown by a pollack with a cigar

 

[Shekwan]

Deliverance wasnt set anywhere near Arkansas.

Cool Beans.

Bet you'd still get plenty of Deliverance types in Arkansas though.

 

[MobBoss]

It helped a lot, thank you sir!

I think I should definately rent a car than, right?

@Cutlass: good tips too. As a kid I once took a tour on an old gems mine in the Smoky Mountains region, I don't know if it was Tennessee or West Virgnia, but I remember liking it a lot.

Only thing about the Murfeesboro diamond mine and the caves is that they are on the other side of the state, and would require a few hours of driving time to get there. I wasnt sure how far you were willing to travel so kept it more local.

But yeah, if you want to adventure out of Blytheville you'll need a rental to get anywhere, thats for sure.

 

[luiz]

... as an aside, what kinda business meeting goes to Arkansas?

Steel business. They have a Nucor Plant in Blytheville.

 

[classical_hero]

So were your parents also in the Iron and steel business? Meaning that your mum irons and your dad steals? I know, bad joke.

 

[Perfection]

Deliverance wasnt set anywhere near Arkansas.

Wrong, it was set in the Southern US.

 

[bhsup]

Yeah, in Georgia. Picking a wilderness area between Macon and Savannah puts that about 600 miles away. That's like driving across Rhode Island 30 times at its widest point!

 

[Formaldehyde]

Yeah. There are no inbred rednecks in Arkansas who play the banjo. They are all located within 20 miles of the Chattooga River. Everybody knows that.

BTW it's nowhere near Macon or Savannah either...

 

[bhsup]

"...decide to canoe down the fictional Cahulawassee River in the remote Georgia wilderness..."

I just picked a relatively centralized location because it wasn't actually near anything real beyond just being in Georgia.

 

[Formaldehyde]

The "fictional Cahulawassee River" is actually the Chattooga. Names were changed to protect the local rednecks.

 

[bhsup]

That's just where it was filmed. It doesn't mean the Chattooga River was meant to be implied as the real river. That would be like claiming those worlds SG-1 went through were really all supposed to be British Columbia.