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December 29, 2004

Roadtrip to Memphis! It started at 8am from Andrea’s house. We picked up Beth en route to the Galleria, where we picked up some bagels and muffies for Julia’s family, then to Blockbuster to return some movies, and finally to highway driving. We took 55-South all the way to our first stop, Lambert’s Cafe, Home of the Throwed Rolls. I’ve been to the restaurant before, but it was many years ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

As soon as I walked in a guy came out with his cart of rolls to throw to people. I caught one as I went to our table. We had soooo much food! My chicken-steak with gravy meal, with sides of mashed potatoes, cold apples, and cinammon apples beat me – I was able to finish both apple dishes and half of the chicken, but I couldn’t even touch the mashed potatoes. Everything was HUGE – the water glasses, the “pass-arounds” of fried okra, rolls, fried taters, and black eyed peas. Ridiculous. We were so stuffed that I wasn’t hungry for any of the snacks we brought and it made me tired.

I did drive a bit from Sikeston to Memphis. Beth did take over since I needed a rest, and we hit Memphis in the early afternoon. We met up with Julia, Owen, and Caitlin, and we headed off to the Civil Rights Museum. It was a really well-done museum, which was set in the exact location of where King was assassinated. After seeing a short video on the museum, we took a walk around the exhibits, which chronicled the origins of slavery, the Civil War, and then the Civil Rights Movement. It was a very powerful museum, and it really showed how much effort was put into the struggle, but it was also a reminder of how much is left to be done. There were a few short exhibits on continued struggles – the Gay/Lesbian Movements and the Native America struggles, but unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to look around. Across the street was also an exhibit on the assassination itself, with evidence against James Earl Ray and also some interesting conspiracy theories. Once again, we didn’t have enough time; I definitely would like to go back.

We then went to the Peabody Hotel, which houses some infamous ducks that swim around in a pool in the lobby and then at 5pm they march on a rolled out red carpet to the elevator and then to the Duck Palace on the roof of the hotel. Since we arrived after 5, we went to the roof and saw the ducks as well as the skyline of Memphis at night. It wasn’t anything too exciting, but it’s nice to look out on the world and marvel at all of the development and appreciate the work that has been put into making really really damn big buildings and to also imagine how the land was once just forests and water and full of animals.

After the Peabody we went to the Rendevous, a famous Memphis BBQ restaurant. The waiter was pretty rude, but the atmosphere was great. There were tons of people too. The food wasn’t too great though – the BBQ ribs were small and the sauce wasn’t anything ‘to die for’. I actually prefer my Dad’s ribs. We then walked to a small mall and looked at Gap, Victoria Secret, and a Spencer’s gifts store (where an annoying sales person kept shooting all of us with an air gun). We walked to Beale Street. The music was loud and it looked fun, but it wasn’t that late and it was a weeknight so there weren’t that many people. It looked like a great place to go…I can’t wait until I’m 21!

After that we headed back to Julia’s, where her friends came over and chatted while we watched Harry Potter 3. The movie was alright and afterwards we chatted with some of her friends and played with Molly, her dog. What a bundle of energy! We were pooped, so it was off to bed around 2.