Day 7: Memphis, Tennessee

Happy birthday to me, I'm in Memphis, Tennessee, I'm no longer a teenager, I am freaking twenty

Guess twenty doesn't make me any more creative or less cheesy. Oh well. SOOOOOOOOOOO

Last night was even worse than I thought. I could not sleep for the life of me. Through headphones and earplugs, and television, I could still hear my parents snoring. AHHH!!! I FINALLY fell asleep, after I asked my mom if I could sleep in the lobby or the car. She then stayed awake and poked my dad long enough until I fell asleep. I think my dad was bothered by that, because apparently after one time, he said, "I'm just breathing!" We had to get up earlier today, which kinda sucked. My mom got me a waffle in the shape of Texas. See unlike Michigan, the people that live in Texas actually like their state. They even make waffles shaped out of their state. Imagine that. Well we left around 10:30 or 11:00. Needless to say, I slept for a bit of the stretch, considering winkin and blinkin made it hard for me to nod off last night. That was cheesy. I apologize.

We drove through the rest of Texas, and came to Arkansas. The city at the border is called Texarkana. Kinda weird. Arkansas is where Angie should live cuz they're kinda corny. One of their other cities is called Arkadelphia, Hope, and Friendship. Weird city names. We stopped at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. They only managed to confirm my stereotype that Arkansas is kinda weird. We drove past Little Rock. That was about as exciting as it got. Otherwise, it was mostly grass and trees. Which was pretty I guess. But they are hicks out there. I asked my parents if Kennedy was a liked president, and my dad proceeded to tell me everything he knew about Kennedy, including his similarities to Obama, for like, 10 minutes. He also lectured me later about the health care plan. Oh father. About 100 miles west of Memphis, I switched with my momma and drove the rest of the way to Memphis. I was kind of scared after the whole Houston experience, but Memphis was much easier to navigate than friggen Houston. So that was good. However, I didn't know where my sunglasses were, so I spent the whole time trying to balance my parents "sunglasses" on my nose. They both have glasses, so they have these sunglasses that slide behind their glasses, but they have no ear things. So that was pretty cool...

Memphis is the shiz. I liked the city quite a bit. It was kind of like a mix of Old Town in Lansing during JazzFest, and Times Square. They had lots of neon lights and stuff, and they had a bunch of jazz musicians just on the street. Although I'm getting ahead of myself here. First we stopped at the welcome center. It was really quite pretty. It was on the Mississippi River, which is the border of Arkansas and Tennessee. They had some cool displays and a statue of BB King and Elvis. But the river was really pretty looking with the big bridge from I-40, and they also had the most beautiful tulip trees. We hopped back in the car, and headed to Beal street, which is what reminded me of Old Town and Times Square. I got a couple keychains, one that said Memphis on it and such, and then a guitar shaped one. There were a ton of people there tonight. I guess it was a Friday night, but there was also a John Mayer concert going on. We went in another store, which was one part sketchy but another part cool. It was cool because the ceiling was lined with drumheads from different bands and their signatures, and there were also a bunch of guitars on the walls signed by famous guitarists, including Justin Timberlake : ) It was sketchy cuz it smelled like pot. We kind of just walked down and saw what there was to see. We also discovered the headquarters of Gibson. Kelsey drooled. For those of you who don't know, Gibson is a brand of really nice guitars. Unfortunately, they were closed so I couldn't go in, but I looked in the windows : ) It was pretty cool.

We walked down to the end of the exciting part of the street, and there were two jazz bands just playing outside. Full band, just on the sidewalk. They were good too. We walked back up, and there was a band inside by a pavillion. They were amazing. They sounded really good together, and were really enjoyable. We stayed and listened to them for a bit. There were also these kids doing like, 10 straight backflips down the street. It was CRAZY!!! I got a video. We explored around Memphis for probably about two hours, and then headed back to the car and attempted to find our motel. We followed where the parking guy told us to go, but screwed it up somehow. We whipped out the phone gps, which, as my mother described it, led us halfway across the country before we finally found the highway we were looking for. It was hilarious. I thought maybe it was like the time when I was trying to find Good Will, and ended up at someone's house who apparently had their own private business called Good Will Printing. We went all over the place. We did, however, finally find our motel. Memphis is a little ghetto though. We got to our room, which was literally the farthest room from the front desk (which is a little scary in and of itself,) and then discovered a parole notice on the door. Needless to say, this freaked my mom out a little bit, so we got a different room. It's still a ways from the front desk, but at least there's no ex-con, parole violators living in it. My parents will just have to drive to get breakfast tomorrow.

We got in our room in time to let the Spartans scare us half to death, but pull off a win. That was about 9:00, and then we went to find a place to eat. We ended up at Perkins. I got birthday steak, which was very good, as well as a piece of peanut butter cream pie, which was delicious as well. We came back to the motel, watched a little more basketball, and then my parents went to sleep and I talked to Livia on the phone. And now I am certainly ready to head to bed, especially considering the day we have tomorrow....

We've got about 12 hours of driving tomorrow, and we lose an hour. It might very well be 11 or 12 by time we get home. That's a crapload of driving. I'm guessing I'll be watching some movies. We won't be sightseeing in any cities, but some of the funnier moments occur in the car anyway, so I'm sure it will still be entertaining.

I overall, had a very good birthday, and this trip was definitely up there in my favorites. Not that I've really had a trip I didn't like, but this one was really pretty cool. Visited lots of cool places, and I wasn't bored to death being alone with my parents like I was afraid I might be. So cool beans : ) I'm a lucky girl. I got some really nice wallposts, texts, and inbox messages from my friends on my birthday, including some from some of those I haven't heard from in awhile, and it reminded me that I am loved and appreciated. And what on earth more could you ask for on your birthday?!? It's good to be reminded of that now and then. That really made my birthday what it was. Memphis being a cool city certainly didn't hurt either : )

-Concensus: Arkansas is pretty hick-ish, and Memphis is a little ghetto, but Memphis really is a pretty neat city. My mom said she'd never want to live here, but I don't think I'd mind it a whole lot. I'm really just a sucker for jazz. There's something beautiful about it. There's really something beautiful about live music anyway, but seeing some blues in it's "birthplace" is something special.

-Movies Watched: none, but I'll have plenty of time tomorrow

-States Covered: add Arkansas to the mix. And the final states list will read: Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas. That's 10 freaking states. Holy cow. And add Little Rock and Memphis to the list of cities. Maybe I'll cover that sucker of a list tomorrow.

And that concludes my 20th birthday. What a day.