memphis was an arguable 4-5 hour drive. it was neat, because i got to go to two new states: arkansas [we drove through about 30 mins of this state] and tenneseee. i dont really remember much of arkansas, beyond the gas that was 89 cents at boomtown. [the name of the gas station]

we got to memphis somewhere around 8 or 9 at night. the best thing i remember about driving in and out, was that there was no sign saying you were in tennesee. it makes me think of being in virginia. it doesnt matter where you enter virginia, there is always a sign telling you you are there.

i dont remember a lot about the first night in memphis because it basically consisted of of us getting food at wendys, watching buffy and sleeping.

the breakfast in the morning was great, and then we were off to "explore." our first stop was the civil rights museum, formerly the lorraine hotel where dr. martin luther king, jr. was shot. the museum was part of the smithsonian and was pretty amazing. there was a woman protesting the museum outside, because money was given to the museum instead of public service programs she thought would be better.

i personally thought it was money well spent. the museum was a walking tour with narration by ossie davis via headphones. he was both pleasant and informative, and while i gasped at the admission price -- im very glad i was able to see the museum.

after our expedition at the civil rights museum, we headed out to sun recording studio. i was pretty disappointed, but we didnt take a tour. we just looked in the store front, being cheap. it wasnt a big deal to me, but my partner was really happy to finally see the studio.

we parked somewhere near downtown, and walked around for a bit. the downtown seemed neat, and reminded me of market square in pittsburgh. there were all these cobblestone roads that were blocked off for pedestrian-only passageway. we ate at a chinese restaurant on union, maybe a mile down from sun. it was probably the worst chinese food ive ever eaten. add that to the fact i got stuck in the bathroom and was screaming for someone to open the door. the people in the restaurant were all laughing at me when i came out, so we quickly left and headed off for more sightseeing.

"sightseeing" ended up not wanting to spend money, even thought we wanted to see the rocknsoul hall of fame. we got a booklet listing things to do in memphis, one of them was this obsurd mall, wolfchase galleria. i dont remember much about it. it was huge, and had a carousel.

after the mall, it was back to the hotel and back to sleep. the next morning we left towards dc in a very roundabout route. nashville didnt seem worthy of a stop for lunch, so we ate at dennys off of the bluegrass hwy in kentucky. it was so beautiful driving through kentucky, then west virginia, where we finally pulled over to sleep for the night. after 14hours [combined, both days] on the road we were finally back again.