"Walking in Memphis"

As we were about to begin our day of biking into Memphis, I started off the day plugging my iphone into our group speakers that we listen to every morning and blasted the song "Walking in Memphis" by Lonestar. Despite the fact that I am not a huge fan of the song, it pumped me up for the day and all the days after as well (as it is continuously in my head). We actually were staying in Germantown, TN, right outside of Memphis, but we got to go into Memphis several times, which was awesome. The night we got there, we first went to this awesome bbq place and then a minor league baseball game (tickets were donated). It's amazing how many times I can have bbq and not get sick of it. Just about every host has given us bbq, and if not we all happen to find a local bbq joint around town and go. I think the best part about having so much bbq is that it is different every single time. It's amazing, almost every host serves us the same types of things, but it is always delicious and different.

After the baseball game in Memphis, a lot of us went down to Beale street to hang out. It was a lot of fun. Beale street was really cool. Everything was lit up and we just kind of roamed around everywhere, checking out the local hot spots. My favorite place, was this Irish pub place , Sulky's, who had live piano music. These two guys would basically play anything we suggested to them on the piano. And by the end of the night, we got them to tell the crowd about what we were doing and our casue, and when we left the restaurant we got a standing ovation from the crowd. It was kinda crazy.

I didn't realize the Memphis had so much history to it: Martin Luther KIng Jr was shot there, Elvis Presely lived and died there, it's where St. Jude's Children Hospital is, plus al the musical history.

The next day we had a day off to do whatever we wanted (our second day off out of the four on the trip). A majority of us woke up...around 9 o'clock, feeling so well rested and headed to a local diner. After that Michelle, Danielle, and I walked around Germantowna bit, checking out the local shopping, a lot of cute stuff, but we none of uss goyt anything :-(. After that, a couple of us decided to head back towards Memphis and go to Graceland, where Elvis lived and died. It was a pretty cool exerience getting to see his mansion, plane, cars, all his records and movies, and all the different exhibits on him. I didn't really know much on Elvis going in, but it was a lot of fun seeing all that he accomplished. After graceland, we went to Anna's aunt's house for another amazing pool party! It was a very nice night. I enjoyed just sitting outside hanging out with everyone.

Today, we made it into Arkansas, by going on the interstate for about 1.5 miles, and then walking our bikes on a bridge full of glass. It was quite the interesting experience, and it was totally legal, because the only way to get across the Mississippi river was this way. I wasn't able to get a picture of me with the Arkansas state sign because it was in the middle of the interstate, but I did get a picture of it. The rest of the ride was basically flat, with terrible roads and head winds. We basically just pace lined the whole day (getting in one minor collision, but no one was seriously injured).

I tried uploading pictures on to facebook tonight, but it failed several times, so I gave up. I'll try to upload pictures the next opportunity I get.

Tomorrow is Little Rock, AK and we got invited to the annual bikers festival...I'm pumped. I'll end this with a nice quote from Michelle, "We left the Tennessee bottle throwers, to come to the Arkansas sock throwers." Yes I did get a wet sock thrown at me today by a guy in a tractor. The things that amuse people these days.