What a beautiful day of riding! I convinced Steve last night to change our route slightly to allow us to drive by the SIU campus and take some pictures. He and Dad were both pretty agreeable so that's how we started our day. I got a picture of my old dorm and one of the Universtiy sign. I remember being back in college and thinking that I wished life came with a soundtrack that followed you around and changed with your moods. At the time I probably wanted one of those uplifting Smith's songs to follow me all the time ;-) Anyway, before we headed out we stopped at the store and I picked up some great little earbud headphones and hooked up my Ipod. I have to tell you, having music along for the ride is amazingly awesome! Someone should have thought of this sooner! (Ok, Steve and probably quite a few other people did).
From SIU, we headed over to hook up with the Great River Road following the Mississippi River, down through Kentucky and Tennessee. (Tennessee is a helmet law state, so Dad and Steve had to pull over at the state line and put their helmets on. You'll see the excitement in their faces when you view the pictures) The terrain varied from rolling farmland to curvy, tree lined roads. The temps were in the mid to high 90's so it was wonderful to go in and out of the shade spots. One thing we did discover is that when you follow a scenic route through the country side on a Sunday, there aren't many places open for food. Around 2pm we decided we needed to stray from our route a little to find some sort of chain restaurant that would be open. After a couple of missed turns and u-turns to get back on track, we finally made it in to Union City. We all needed a break, we were hungry and hot and we were soooo close to McDonalds, when Steve announced at the stop light that he lost his flash card out of his camera. Dang! Another u-turn to head back to where he lost it. Now, Steve is the person to have around if you ever lose anything on the road. So far I've seen him find his highway peg, Mike's license plate and now, his camera card. We were slowly rolling along the side of the road and he was just getting ready to park and check on foot when he looked down and spotted the card. Amazing. And it still worked! So, finally....off to rest in some a/c and get some food and drink in us. What a great break.
After about a 1/2 hour rest, we were off for the second half of our trip. Much of this was 4 lane highway for the 90 or so miles to Memphis. Once we got to Memphis we thought it necessary to stop and take some pictures of Graceland. I mean, who knows if we'll ever get back to this area? So we swung by and took a peek. The stone wall around the property if filled with graffiti from people signing it. Kinda cool. We didn't have a pen on us, but Steve and Dad found a "Kristy" signature and posed with it, with Steve changing it in to an "i" on the end for me. What great guys :)
After that, it was off to Robinsonville, MS to our hotel for the night. By this time it was dark but we found the place okay. Checked in and tried to find some food. We found a Subway opened and grabbed some sandwiches. We didn't make it to the restaurant suggestion made by Mom (thanks Mom) because it was getting too late and Sally (Steve's map/gps unit) was being a little fussy today and had already sent us in the wrong direction several times. I guess she was hot and tired too.
Anyway, that's about it for today. We took more pictures and some video too. The video probably won't get uploaded tonight because it's getting late. But you can click here to see our pics.
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3 comments:
Sounds like another great day. I especially like the picture of all of you in front of the Great River Road sign. (Second fav was Dad and Steve at the Tennesee line!)
All that good riding and Elvis, too! Glad you made it to Graceland while you were in the area. The trip looks like great fun! Now..where are those donut shops that Alton Brown recommended?
Interesting to know.
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