Road Trip

My cousin who recently graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy was stationed in San Diego CA. So instead of shipping his car and flying, he decides to drive cross country from VA to San Diego. And of course, like a fool I said I'd ride with him. I must admit, I've always wanted to drive cross country and this was the best chance to do it. So armed with a car full of his clothes, a laptop that wanted to work after the trip was over, and 2 4GB Ipods we left for San Diego.

We were supposed to leave Monday morning, but the going away cookout lasted well into Sunday night and early Monday morning. So after we woke up and got ready we left Hopewell VA at noon on Monday.

Day 1:

The first leg of the trip was pretty much lack luster for most of the day. We drove through western VA and into Tennessee. Tennessee doesn't look that big on the map, but damnit it seemed like it took forever to through Tennessee. We stopped in Knoxville and rode around the University of Tennessee but since it is the summer, nothing was really going on. We decided that we'd drive to Memphis and stop there for the night.

We pulled into Memphis at about 1:30 am tired, but ready to ride around Memphis to see if any Strip Clubs were open. As we rode around downtown and past Beale Street, we see the sign for the Civil Rights Museum and decide to ride by it. We both knew what the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis was luckily because if we didn't we'd have thought what was the point of going to a museum at 1:30 am when it would probably be closed. So as we were following the signs and riding towards it I looked down the street and saw it, "The Lorraine Hotel".

Other than the lights from the hotel, it was pretty dark but we decided to get out and take pictures (I will post pics later). Now, I watch First 48 and I know Memphis aint a place where you want to get out the car and walk around at 1:30 am. But, we had to do it. Plus, you would have to be as low as whale shit to rob someone where Martin Luther King died. So we walked up and took pictures of the hotel and the room he was shot outside of. I've been to a lot of memorials, but something about this one was different. I really can't even explain the feeling I had looking at the hotel and the room that they had roped off. After about 10 minutes we left. Needless to say, after being at the hotel where MLK died, we decided that we shouldn't go to the strip club and we went in search of a hotel.

We decided that downtown Memphis would be too expensive for a room so we headed across the Mississippi river and into West Memphis to rest for the night. As we got into the room I didn't feel tired (my cousin drove the entire day) so I decided to work on this blog. I tried to fire up the laptop but it wouldn't turn on for some reason, so I said forget it and went to sleep......... To be continued.