My (sometimes) Perfect Day: Day 1 Friday August 1, 2008 --> Trip to Memphis!

Day 1 of vacation '08 got off to a, um, conspicuous start. About 40 minutes out of St Louie, my

‘Service Engine Soon” light came on. What? I just had everything looked at Thursday before we left. Fortunately, I know people in Southeastern MO. So we pulled into the Perryville Tire Center to get some assistance. Within an hour, my cousin Ben had us all taken care of. Random Misfire was the code comin up on the machine… probably somthin they did the day before just shook loose some engine gunk that messed things up…

At about 1pm, we stopped for lunch, way down in the boot heel of MO. Yum, sammies from the back of the truck!

We hit Arkansas a few short minutes later. Yea, almost there!

In just about another hour, we reached our final destination-à Memphis, Tennessee! There we saw a big mosaic egg. Hmm. Ok.

First thing we did was go and visit Mud Island. Which is right across the river into Memphis. In fact, its actually IN the river, being and island and all. And to top that off, it’s a RIVER on an island IN THE RIVER!

I’ve been to Memphis several times before, but always in the fall or winter. Each time ive been here, Mud Island has been closed, but not this time. So we went to see it. First off, you have to ride over on this cool hanging tram vehicle. The tram goes out over the river then lands on Mud Island where there is a scale model of the Lower Mississippi River (from about St Louis to the Gulf)

Pretty interesting stuff, it shows all the elevations in the river and flood plain, as well as most major cities and towns on the river. We followed the river on a short tour all the way down past New Orleans and to the Gulf of Mexico. One of the cool things about this trip was, you could actually walk in the river, and it was a hot day, almost 100 degrees.

There was also an awesome Mississippi River Museum there, and we spent quite a bit of time in there. It covered 10,000 years of Mississippi River history, from the native tribal people and their misfortunes through the Civil War and into modern times. Very fun and entertaining stuff.

Next we hit up the hotel. We checked in, got our stuff unpacked and then took showers. The drive and visit to Mud Island left us a bit sweaty. After freshening up, it was time to PARTY! Next destination: Beale Street!

Ive been several times to Beale, but its always an adventure. Amanda had never been here before, and she was not disappointed. We spent many hours strolling up and down the street, partaking in the wonderful beverages, lookin at all the pretty lights, listening to the awesome music and eating the great food!