Day 11: May 6, 2015
What's a Dollarway?

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One of the country's earliest concrete roads was constructed in Arkansas. Completed in October of 1914, the twenty-three mile long road was given the name Dollarway because the estimated cost was to be a dollar per linear foot. Like most road construction estimates, this was a little low but the actual $1.36 per foot wasn't enough of an overrun to invalidate the name. When I first read about the road several years ago, I thought I'd like to drive it someday. Today it finally happened. There is a good article on the Dollarway here. The picture is of the northern end of the Dollarway at the Jefferson-Pulaski county line.

The beginning of the Dollaway was not particularly exciting. Roadside America helped out by alerting me to the Mammoth Orange Drink Stand. I probably should have sat down for breakfast but I instead ordered an ice tea to go. I did purchase one additional item that will show up about three panels down.

This is Reynolds Road where the article I linked to said "the road was visible" as of 1999. It looked pretty much like all gravel to me but in hindsight I probably should have looked harder for some concrete remnants. It appears to be signed Old Dollarway rather than Reynolds.

There is another half mile of signed Old Dollarway Road a little further south but it is all asphalt.

I went about a block off of Dollarway to enjoy my Mammoth Orange purchase in White Hall City Park. As I stood by the register in the Mammoth Orange Drink Stand, I noticed some brown half circles on a nearby plate. It was my nose, I think, that actually noticed them first. I soon learned that they were miniature apple pies fresh out of the oven and I soon owned one. The woman who had baked them came out of the kitchen to put it and a fork in a styrofoam box. It was still warm when I sat at a table in the park and made it a sort of late breakfast.

Most of the old Dollarway is now signed AR-365 except for inside White Hall where it is still Dollarway.


I checked into a motel in West Memphis then almost immediately headed across the bridge to Memphis proper. I stopped first at Rum Boogie Cafe not so much because it's all that special but because I'm somewhat familiar with it.

I next headed up to the Blues Hall of Fame even though its official opening was two days away on Friday. For one thing, I wanted to at least get a peek while I was in town but I also wanted to get that third picture. Lisa Biales, who I've mentioned on this site, was in town for the Blues Music Awards and was posting a few of her activities on Facebook. One of her posts was a picture of her sitting next to Little Milton in front of the Blues Hall of Fame. When I posted my own Little Milton picture I claimed to have just missed Lisa by a hour but checking timestamps shows it was closer to three.

Then it was back to Beale for dinner at Dyer's. That's just one of the ways I maintain the physique on display in the previous panel.

When I first saw some motorcycles parked on the street I was pretty surprised. I'd never seen that before but learned that it is an every Wednesday event. Harleys were in the majority but there were plenty of BMWs, Japanese bikes, and three wheelers of both configurations plus at least one Norton, one Vincent, and one Vespa.

I did see some music but I didn't get many names. The guys who seem to be glowing were at Jerry Lee's Club, the duo was at the Rum Boogie, and the last group was at the Blues City Band Box. The guy fronting the group is Brad Birkedahl and I'll admit that the only reason I have it spelled right is because it was on the marquee but he's the only guy that impressed me enough to ask about.

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