2/9/2011 - 5/9/2011
Last weekend five of us went on a road trip to Nashville and Memphis, it was Labour Day on monday so we took the opportunity to get away for a few days! We ended up driving a massive minivan which had electric doors and an electric boot and all you had to do to drive it was move the stick from 'park' to 'drive', literally the laziest car i have ever been in! I got mega bored driving because all the roads were just straight wide roads which went on for hundreds of miles and all i had to do was keep my foot on the pedal and wiggle my foot around every so often to stop it seizing up from cramp!
Nashville was amazing, such a cool atmosphere at night. Every bar on the main street had country bands playing and everyone was out to have a good time. The girls all wore cowboy boots with dresses and the guys all had their cowboy hats on.
On the Sunday we got up early and drove to Memphis which was about a three hour drive. A storm had hit the south that day so we were driving in the pooring rain which wasnt so fun. We headed for Graceland, Elvis' home and paid $10 to park our car in the car park. After stepping into the lobby area we all realized it was about $35 to actually get in to the place so we decided that was a no no, a bit to expensive for a group of girls who are not huge fans of Elvis like some of the people were there. Nearly everyone had Elvis tshirts on! I did make sure i got an Elvis Graceland key ring before getting back in the car though, just to say i had at least seen the place!
Graceland being to expensive was a bit of a blessing in disguise really because it gave us enough time to head to the national civil rights museum in Memphis. The museum is inside the motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. It was such an amazing experience and we spent the whole afternoon there looking around. Quite a lot of the written information i had previously learned over the last few years but some of the original photographs and news tapes were really interesting. They had also opened up the room where martin luther king stayed the day he was shot and on the balcony of the motel is a wreath in memory of him at the point on the balcony where he was shot. These sorts of places are pretty much the reason why i came to the south!
On our way back on monday we drove to Jackson Mississippi to stop for some lunch before heading back to Tuscalloosa. We stopped at a diner to get some lunch (there is another rant about the food coming) I thought i would be healthy and get a salad and i specifically asked for the dressing on the side but no this didnt happen. Most of the other girls had burgers and sandwiches and when i got my salad i felt like they had the healthier option. My salad was drenched in about a liter of think yellow salad dressing, i could barely see the green of the salad leaves!! Seriouslyyyyy you literally cant buy anything healthy here if you eat out. I ended up sending it back because it made me feel sick just looking at it haha.
But all in all it was an amazing memorable first road trip!
