Memphis - Saint Louis

After having breakfast, we went to Memphis downtown to see the city. At first, we saw the peabody ducks, a group of ducks that march every day 11 and 17 o'clock to a fountain inside the hotel. They had been doing this more than 80 years, with only 5 duck-masters yet! Also, they had a piano that played itself without any musician.

After that, we saw the street full of restaurants playing blues at night, but it were silent at that moment. Then, we saw the "pyramid", a huge mall with living alligators and many types of fish. We bought a couple of things there and went back to the hotel. After picking up our things, we saw inside the car Graceland, the place where Elvis Presley lived.

We continued driving, entering Arkansas. We ate there at an Hardee's and eventually reaching Saint Louis, Missouri. Desadortunately, we had confused the date of reservarion, booking the 30th of Agust! We booked then another hotel, near the one we took at first. Finally, we swam a bit in the swimming pool of the hotel and then relaxed in the room.

Memphis

Today, we woke up and ate breakfast, so we could go to our next destination; Memphis, Tenessee. That means that we are going straight up north, back to Chicago. While in the road, we stopped in a city called Vicksburg, in Mississippi, that had a very important role in the civil war, from 1861 to 1865.

It lays in a very strathegic position; in in a bank where the Mississippi river bends, so it controls that part of it. It was controlled by the Confederate states, so if The Union could take city, they could split in two the Confederates. Therefore, they could make it difficult to their enemy to get supplies for the war; and so they did. They surrendered in July 4th, so for many years the city has not celebrared that day due to their defeat in the Civil War.

We saw the visitor's center where they were projecting a short movie so we could inderstand it better. The citizens of the town had to live in caves under it to protect themselves of the war.

Later, we took the car and drove around the battelfield that was full of hills, making it very difficult to conquer. We saw the only house from that time that remains in our days.

We ate in a restaurant called Chestnut Hills, named after the place it was. It comes from the anglisation of the spanish word "nogales", given by the spanish when they first discovered this part of America. We took then the car again to drive to our hotel in Memphis, and it took us in all 7 hours trip. Tonavoidbtraffic, we drove in a smaller road where we could see many nice houses and towns, and eventually deers. It began also to rain, this time with thunder and lightning.

When we came to the hotel, we relaxed after the long day in the car and planned what to do tomorrow morning in Memphis.