Memphis to New Orleans - 33°c After having a relatively chilled out day yesterday, alongside a fairly early night and a good night’s sleep, I woke up feeling very refreshed and ready for the long driving day ahead. Waking up at 7:15am, Scott and I got ourselves and all of our belongings ready and down for the coach departure at 7:45am. I managed to doze off back to sleep again during the first two hours of the journey before we stopped off for a quick restroom break just on the Tennessee and Mississippi boarder. Another two hours into the journey we [View Full Entry]

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Memphis - 33°c Somehow I managed to get up early enough this morning to make the bus to Graceland! We departed for Graceland soon after 8am, and Scott and I were definitely still a bit drunk when we woke up after our three and a half hour sleep! We were still giggling as much as we were the night before and running on the adrenalin of the night before too. We arrived at Graceland just before 9am and were some of the first people there. - I guess Kristina wanted to get us there as early as possible to avoid the [View Full Entry]

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Temp: 27°C - muggy tho. Today we had to be at the coach by 8:30am for our trip out to Graceland. We arrived and jumped on a shuttle over to Elvis's Graceland Mansion. It was such a pretty house. All the inside was still set up as it originally was when he was there, the jungle room, the trophy room, even his parents bedroom. We weren't allowed on the 2nd floor as Elvis never let anyone up there when he was alive so they have decided to keep it that way in his memory. Apparently he bought the house and land [View Full Entry]

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Attempted to go to Denny's for our free brekkie..... It took them half an hour to take our order.. and we had to be at the bus another 10 mins after that so when our food didn't come we just gave up and went without... So angry and shattered too.. Ran to the bus, we were on our way to Graceland! Elvis's mansion was amazing and very pretty. You're not allowed to go upstairs because even when alive he didn't wish to bring visitors upstairs.. So they've respected his wishes and noone goes up there. Also around the side of the [View Full Entry]

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As usual, had to be on the bus by 7.45am, though we ened up being delayed 15 minutes by someone anyway... Slept on the bus most of the way... Only stopped a couple of times and most weren't that interesting anyway.. We did stop in Little Rock, where Clinton was governer for years and years and years before becoming President. We also stopped in Texarkana, which is situation on the stateline between Texas and Arkansas. Originally, someone thought it was also on the border of Louisiana, and so that's how it got it'sname. Got into Memphis, quickly got ready, then headed [View Full Entry]

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Temp: 35°C Day 32 - We had to have bags to the bus by 7:45am. One of the girls slept in therefore we didnt end up leaving til 8. We got on our way. We passed though a little town called Hope in which Bill Clinton grew up. and reached the border of Texas and Arkansas, Texarkana. We made a quick stop, took a photo straddling the border and moved a little bit further into the town for lunch. We had KFC (FYI, here its actually still written on the sign as Kentucky Fried Chicken). We got left standing in the [View Full Entry]

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Gleich nach einer Meile, auf der Bruecke ueber den Mississippi River beginnt Arkansas. The Natural State, 27th groesster, Bevoelkerung: 2,7 Mill (33rd). Wir Deutschen sagen immer schoen ArKAEnsAEs, gesprochen wird es aber Ark-an-saw und diese Ausdrucksweise ist sogar vom General Assembly 1881 festgelegt worden. Heute ist es keine grosse Strecke, wir wollen nur nach Hot Springs, AR und dort in den heissen Quellen, einem alten Thermalbad der USA einen Tag ausspannen. Im Visitor Center wird uns "The Arlington" waermstens empfohlen. Ein altes schoenes Hotel, wo auch schon Al Capone sich [View Full Entry]

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We got up this morning in St. Louis, but we were moving slow! We made it to Memphis about lunchtime. WE had lunch outside by the river at the Welcome Center. There were some pretty cool statues inside the BB King Elvis Presley Welcome center; the kids thought it was neat. I threatened the boys within an inch of their lives when I read the sign that said, "Don't Touch! Alarm Protected" That's liike a flashing sign BEGGING them to touch!! Outside, there was a really cool egg given by the Stained Glass Society of Memphis or something like that. It [View Full Entry]

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It's 7:30 AM. I'm sitting in my office at work. It's my last day here. This job's been good to me. I've made more money here than any other I've ever had, and I've been endowed with full day-to-day control of every aspect of this furniture store's operations. Being the boss is good. But this is not my purpose. I'm quitting the best job I've ever had so that I can travel through South America for 4 months. About a year ago I stepped back and took a look at my life. I had recently gotten promoted to Store Manager younger [View Full Entry]

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It's been just over four months since my arrival in Memphis (the city I used to refer to as "The Land of Pork and Poverty") and much to my surprise life here in the capital of the 'Mid-South' region has grown on me. Perhaps its the amazing group of friends from work, the low cost of living, the Southern Charm, non-existent traffic, the chance to live in-town (as opposed to exile in suburban Virginia) and the feel of a small town community in the midst of two million citizens. I'd hoped to gather pictures from a greater variety of Memphis' many [View Full Entry]

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