On day 5 (what day of the week is it again? Sunday?), we slept in and had a much needed lazy morning. The main goal of the day was to see Vanderbilt’s campus. Meredyth went years ago but Ashley loves looking at colleges campuses so we both wanted to go again. Declan’s brother Aiden is a freshman there and he showed us around campus and inside of his brand new AWESOME dorm. The campus was beautiful. It was really funny because at one point we kept passing hoards of girls walking by us in the opposite direction. After a while we noticed they were all carrying blue brochures with the word “Recruitment” on them, and Aiden confirmed that it was coming upon rush season, so we were passing the masses of females at Vanderbilt who wanted to join a sorority (the greek scene at Vandy is apparently huge). Vanderbilt has a big lawn with a building that looks kind of like the Rotunda (though Vandy isn’t ranked in Forbes’ top 10 most beautiful college campuses in the world, not to brag or anything…) and we were inspired to take the quintessential UVA jumping picture on the lawn. We got several fabulous ones of the four of us. We received an education as to proper jumping technique from Declan’s friend Ben, who informed us that the key is to twist your hips and bend your legs to the side. Our second attempts at the perfect jumping picture were successful thanks to this wonderful tip.
It is always sad to say goodbye to such great friends and a fun city, but around 3:30 we left to drive the three hours to Memphis to visit our friend Rebekah from UVA who is also doing Teach for America (yes, all our friends are selfless, awesome people).
We arrived in Memphis around dinnertime and were immediately in awe of the adorable sanctuary that is Rebekah’s abode. She lives in a lovely house with Courtney, another TFA teacher who went to Chapel Hill. Their house has a porch (with a ceiling fan!), fireplace, backyard and deck, and is generally just adorable. We decided getting dinner was first on the agenda and that we had to have famous Memphis BBQ. Meredyth has been eating a little chicken here and there so Ashley decided that she would join in forgoing her vegetarian ways for the evening because we figured we never knew when we were ever going to be in Memphis again to experience world renowned BBQ. After all, rules are made to be broken. This turned out to be a FANTASTIC decision.
Probably the most famous BBQ place in Memphis is called Rendezvous but upon Rebekah’s more hme-grown suggestion, we decided to instead eat at Central, a more hole in the wall place that is not only more of a local haunt, but that has been consistently voted Best BBQ in Memphis… we can’t imagine anywhere beating this place. You know you are at the right place for dinner when the line stretches out the door and around the corner. While we were in line, the guys behind us asked if we were tourists and where we were from. It was an older dad and two of his grown sons (the rest of the family was seated outside) and they were all from Memphis. They were very friendly and told us all the best things to do in Memphis, reconfirming that we had picked the best place to eat. Randomly, one of the sons had once taken a cross-country road trip of his own and had met the Saint Bernard dog that had starred in Beethoven (the children’s movie). You never know the stories you’ll hear from the people you meet in a random BBQ joint! Of course we gave them post cards and told them about our adventure.
Later on in the evening we braved going to the Kroger in the endearingly sketchy part of town to stock up on supplies to make cookie crack. We lived to tell the tale! After sitting outside and chatting at a local outdoor bar Rebekah likes for a little while, we headed home and called it a night.
More observations:
1. Drives are NOT good without cookie crack (we introduced it to Declan and finished it when we came back Saturday night).
2. Tennessee has a $1500 fine for littering. We approve.
3. We hit our first 1000 mile turnover on the speedometer!
Miles to go: 2,913
Total Post Cards Given Out: 37
Post Cards Received: 0
States Traveled: VA, MD, WV, PA, OH, KY, TN
do you mean odometer?? doesn't the speedometer measure.....speed? clearly the few months out of batten have taken a toll.
ReplyDeleteGirls - how can you write that you went to the best BBQ place in Memphis.....AND NOT TELL US WHAT YOU ATE?? What is wrong with you? Don't you know anything about blogging? Did you have chicken, pork, beans, mac and cheese? What did you eat?? UGH so frustrating. So jealous of your trip. Keep up the good stories.
Ok Ok, points taken. you are right on all accounts.
ReplyDeleteTo clarify, we did mean odometer. And for dinner Meredyth and Rebekah split a rack of ribs, potato salad and BBQ beans. Ashley had a pulled pork sandwich. Does that clarify enough? too bad you're not here bc then you would keep us straight. we are making you proud and taking pictures of it all though.
wish you were here toooo.