It's a Small, Small World

We had an e-mail today from some people we met on vacation, saying hello and asking us to check out their on-line travel diary. We met at Morgan Freeman's blues club, Ground Zero, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and learned that we were both going to Memphis to hear some more blues. My husband and I left first (the Friday show was dynamite, but the band who played on Saturday was reminiscent of a Vegas lounge act - and a mediocre one at that, switching to R&B after exactly two blues songs. But I digress.) As a joke, as we said goodbye I told them we'd see them in Memphis. Anyway - well, I'll let them tell you. This is the entry in their travel blog:

"Left the concert, then went to Beale Street for a quick drink and bumped into a couple we’d met at Clarksdale in the Ground Zero club (Hi Betty [sic] and Bernard if you’re reading this!) – such a small world. Had a drink with them as it was Betty’s [sic] birthday and then found another blues club."

Yep. My little joke actually came to pass a few nights later. There we were, my husband and me, walking down Beale Street (he smoothly, me somewhat jerkily from that rum drink with the blue stuff I'd been drinking (it was my birthday, after all). Who do we see having a drink al fresco at a pub but Paul and Lyn from Sussex, England, along with the friends they told us they were meeting in the city. What a kick! Fun folks; Paul's joke about how he asked a man from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (who were performing in Memphis that weekend) if his wife was present and 50 women stood up had me rolling. He sounded innocent as a schoolboy with that charming British accent. Running into them was a happy coincidence. We're pleased they remembered us after their rather lengthy vacation trip to the States (which also included a cruise up the Mississippi from St. Louis to St. Paul and, in a heck of a coincidence, Chicago - we went into the city last weekend, and I laughingly told Bernard to be sure to be on the lookout for them.)

There's nothing like travel.