Southern Hospitality

Our adventure south continued from St Louis to Memphis.  Reviews for this famous blues town were mixed. While Dave loved seeing the rich historical roots of the blues and Elvis, I was not so impressed with how rundown this southern city has become. Regardless, we were able to get a nice taste of Memphis with a quick visit to the Pink Palace museum.

The pink palace was originally a mansion built by the inventor of the modern "self serve" grocery store, Piggly Wiggly. The mansion has been converted into a museum with exhibits about the history of Memphis, Elvis, and civil rights. Our favorite exhibit was a replica of the first self-serve grocery store with inventory that replicated its original packaging. Who knew that early cereal marketers touted their cereals as "a natural laxative?!"

Dave wanted a sense of the music scene, so we strolled down Beale street for some afternoon entertainment.

On the way out, we stopped for some Memphis-style BBQ in the city.

As we ventured south from Memphis, we were amazed by how green and beautiful Arkansas, Tennessee, and Alabama were. Birmingham was our kids' favorite stop-off during the trip.  They loved the accents, big trees, and southern hospitality from everyone they met. While eating out for pizza, a 7-year-old girl walked up to us and introduced herself. "Hah, ahm Kailey," she said in her southern drawl. When we asked her what she recommended we could do for fun in Birmingham, without missing a beat, she said, "I would take yer kids to a store and give yer kids a quar-ter...they got machines with toys in dem, and they could get them--selves somethin' re-al nice."  When we asked for any other suggestions, she pointed out that we could go bowling... "On the Wii." We have been chuckling about this interaction ever since.

Despite Kailey's recommendations, we decided to bypass the toy machines at the local market and go to the city's science museum. This was perhaps the coolest science museum we have ever been to. The kids loved this exhibit which tracked your brain activity and moved the ball in the other direction based on brain-wave relaxation.  Crazy Ky did not beat anyone as his little brain is always bouncing all over the place!

From Birmingham, we headed to Nashville and made a stop at the Grand Ole' Opry.

The kids got a kick out of some of the country western characters roaming around.

The kids also loved seeing the "General Jackson" steamboat in Nashville.

As we exited "the south" we made one more stop at Churchill downs in Louisville, Kentucky.  The groundskeepers let us roam around the grandstands and the track area.

I love this pic of the girl's best "fashion pose" at Churchill downs.  Notice the individual "attitude" of Teyah, Aubrie, and Ellie.

Last stop on this leg: West Lafayette, Indiana, for a quick visit with my brother's family. We loved seeing the Purdue campus, sampling a peanut butter hamburger at the local burger joint, and relaxing from a long busy road trip.