2 GIRLS, 1 AMERICA

Total Mileage: TBD

License Plate Total: 49

This morning we skipped the complementary hotel breakfast and went toThe Arcade Restaurant, Memphis' oldest restaurant. We both had the sweet potato pancakes which are a "Food Network Favorite." After breakfast we went to Hoot & Louise, a little boutique around the corner from the restaurant that sells new and vintage clothing and accessories. Cassie got a pair of earrings and I got a nag and earrings. I feel like I've started a collection of thrift store bags from across the USA.

We then went over to the National Civil Rights Museum in the renovated Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. The museum starts with slave revolts from the 1600s to 1800s and works its way through the movement ending with Memphis 1968. The exhibit included segements on the Emancipation Proclamation, Sit-ins, Brown vs. Board of Education, and the Montgomery Bus Boyvott. There was a showing of a documentary called The Witness which is about the assassination strating from Dr. Kings arrival in Memphis told by Reverend Billy Kyles who was a good friend of Dr. Kings and who was standing beside King on the balcony when he was shot. The motel room that King shared with Reverend Abernathy has been reconstructed to look like it did the night of the assassination. Across the street from the museum, in the building where the shots were fired from, is an exhibit chronicling the days before, after, and the day of the assassination. The bathroom in the corner of the building where the shots were believed to have been fired has been reconstructed along with the room that James Earl Ray rented in the building. It was very similar to The Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas that we visited a few days ago.

After the museum we went to Beale Street. It's lined with restaurants and shops all dedicated to blues and rock and roll. We walked around and went into some shops for find musical souvenirs for our dads.

We left Memphis and headed north along the Mississippi River up to Saint Louis Missouri. We checked in to our hotel, Sheraton City Center, and were shocked at how nice the hotel room was. It was larger than either of our college apartments. It had a living room and a separate bedroom and the bathroom had double sinks! We even had 2 televisions! It was pretty luxurious compared to most of the places we stayed. For dinner we went to Pi Pizzeria. Saint Louis has it's own take on pizza but this place served more gourmet combinations in deep dish or thin crust. Apparently Pi one of Obama's favorite deep dish places, we read about it in Graphic USA.

- Rachel

(The site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death)

( The Lorraine Motel has been converted into the National Civil Rights Museum)

(On the Rosa Parks Bus)

(Civil Right Museum- Lunch Counter Sit-ins)

(The entrance to the other side of the street and museum)

(Beale Street)

(Place with crazy t-storms and clouds aka Missouri)

(When we crossed over to Missouri we were greeted with ominous skies to say the least. We didn't get any cool shots of lighting but it was really intense)