Walking in Little Rock, only kidding, Memphis.

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The first morning in Memphis was amazing having woken up and being amongst friends. Daters and I had a rough plan of what we were going to do but nothing concrete so we swung by a lovely little deli on Mud Island called Cordelia’s where we bought coffee and headed into the centre. We were aiming for the Amtrak station and went to the correct area but it took us ages to find it and when we did the woman there was completely unhelpful and told me that I couldn’t pick up my ticket anywhere but New Orleans. So, we walked back to the Civil Right’s Museum and bought our tickets. It was not too expensive and we got in as students. The museum blew me away completely, it was immaculately laid out and the information was extensive. It was more than you could read but each section was well summarised and the impression it left you with was incredible. The final part of the museum is in the old Lorraine Motel and you get to see the room that MLK Jr. stayed in and the final events that led up to his assassination. As we left we thought that we were done but there was a second part across the street - to be honest we rushed through it because we were tired and running late for meeting Laura for lunch. It was a mixture of more of the same and some specific details on the assassination. There was a hugely detailed timeline of the last week or so showing the actions and movements of Ray and MLK. It was situated in the building that James Earl Ray fired the shots from. You walked around reading the information and again ended up at the bathroom window where he fired the shots. It was very well done but also quite upsetting. The very final part of the whole museum was a run-down of the conspiracy theories and new information that has been written about the death of MLK since it happened and then a wonderful room of heroes of the Civil Rights movement which was great and you got to end on an uplifting note. We headed back to the car past the stand where one woman has been protesting for years upon years against gentrification. She doesn’t believe that the civil rights museum should be open and so has a stall outside. I was going to ask her about her views but she was on a lunch break when we walked past so I don’t really know what her arguments were but it was still interesting to see. We drove to the Bar-Be-Q Shop (home of the dancing pigs) to meet Laura for lunch. It was really cool inside which was nice after the bright sunshine and heat of outside. The people who worked there were lovely and we sat down towards the back. While we waited for Laura to join us, Daters and I planned out some of the rest of the day. We ordered and had to wait a hugely long time for our food. We all had BBQ pulled pork sandwiches but the girls had platters and I just had it on it’s own. The food was completely amazing. Pulled pork is the same consistency as the shredded duck that you get at UK Chinese restaurants and then the BBQ sauce was wonderful. There was also more on the table so I think I ended up consuming more sauce than meat but it was great. Very true to Memphis as well, I have been told so that’s even better. Afterwards Laura had to go back to work and we headed for Rhodes. Daters drove me past the house that she used to live in which her Dad owns and then we drove into Rhodes College. Daters and a lot of her friends that I have met went there and so it was a bit of a pilgrimage as I had heard so much about it. My jaw dropped as we drove in, all of the buildings are lovely old brick taken from the area. We parked and went into the library which was beautiful. It actually made me consider applying for Rhodes just to be able to study there. They had huge amounts of books, comfortable seating areas, giant study rooms and there was a painting on the ceiling of one of the study areas of the constellations as they looked on the night that Rhodes was founded. We then walked past all of the different departments and I saw the main square as well as the refectory and we went into the bookshop, which was horribly hot, so that I could buy some memorabilia. After Rhodes we did the uber-tourism and headed out to Graceland. I have never seen anything quite so tacky. Everything was Elvis related and it was mind-blowing how many businesses could survive off of the back of Graceland. We drove past to see it and then parked just by the outside gates. There was no way I was going to pay to see a very little ‘mansion’ of some dead guy. Far too creepy and apparently a huge disappointment. I stood outside and had my picture taken so that I could tell my mum (huge Elvis fan) that I had been there. The most enjoyable part was reading what people had written on the wall outside. Some were funny, some were pretty normal declarations of being there, others were barking mad or obsessives. My favourite thing was to spot the Brits there, made my day seeing someone from Bolton and a NFFC fan had made it to Graceland! We went back to Mud Island and hung out for a while before heading into town to try and get something to eat. In the end we went to a pizza place near to the deli by his house. Mud Island was great, there were loads of people there who Daters knew and it felt like a very safe little community. We had something to eat and then went to see Daters friends, including Meriwether who I had met in London and really like. She is brilliantly funny and great to be around. We sat and chatted for a little while and then they were heading out and we went back to Nemer’s place and went almost straight to bed because I was exhausted and Daters was fighting off a cold. The next morning we packed ourselves up so that we could go straight back to Little Rock from downtown. Before we left Daters stopped by the little park area near the river so I could get out and take some pictures and see the river and boats a bit closer. We went and parked just across from the pyramid (Yep. It’s an old basketball arena) and then walked to the trolley stop. We got on the trolley to take us to Beale Street and grabbed a cup of tea as we got out. The coffee shop was pretty busy but had the most amazing invention that I have ever seen. They had tiny solid plastic things which fitted into the gap in a coffee lid where you drink so that you don’t spill your drink when you carry it around. We were just across the road from Beale Street and we stopped to take photos with Elvis. Again. I had heard so much about Beale Street from Daters when we were living together and so was very excited. The street itself was pretty impressive and we went into some of the shops and had a look around. I was shown all of the best bars and restaurants to go to and we walked all the way down and back up the other side. Afterwards we went into the shopping centre there because I had a couple of vouchers to try to use before the end of December. We did a bit of shopping and went into a place called the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Shop where I bought a rice krispie square and we tried the world’s most amazing chocolate fudge. I don’t even like fudge but this was incredible. We were planning on getting the trolley back to the car but by the time we found a stop going the right way we were only a 15-20 minute walk away so we did that instead. It was a nice walk along the front of the river and it was lovely to be walking again. We headed straight out when we got back to the car and grabbed some food from Wendy’s as we were driving. It was great to spend time with Daters and we chatted most of the way. My friend Stacey had also introduced me to the license plate game where you try to spot as many as possible while you are on a car journey. We got 24 between Memphis and Little Rock, it’s a great game but does encourage people to speed so you can see the next car, rather addictive! Just as we were getting close to Little Rock we hit huge amounts of traffic and turned off to another road which also was very busy. We sat for about half an hour and barely moved. That evening we heard that an 18-wheeler lorry had caught on fire and that was why the roads were closed. We finally got around and arrived at Daters’ house, it was great to be home and to meet her boyfriend, Jeff, whom I had heard SO much about when she was in the UK. I also got to meet their dogs; Emma and Scruff. They are very nosy dogs and seem to think that every time you enter or exit a room you’re going to suddenly be exciting. We were running pretty late and were supposed to be going to a Christmas party for Daters’ supper club so we left pretty soon afterwards. When we got there I was introduced but they were all catching up so I felt pretty awkward and in the way. That did not last long because they were all such lovely people. We had amazing food and then headed outside to play beer pong and flip cup. What more could a girl from England ask for? It was great fun but pretty cold outside so we headed back into the house and exchanged Christmas gifts. They were doing dirty santa (I think that was the name) where each person has a gift and then takes a number and you open presents in that order but people can either open a new present or steal one that has already been opened. To finish the evening we played Taboo, girls vs. boys (I was an honorary boy for the evening). It was pretty close but we lost by a couple of points sadly. We had to get up the next morning early to go and see Daters’ grandparents so we went back and slept.

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Photos

Me at Graceland
...just for Mum and Aunty Di

And again.
...and again