Day Two - Memphis

Day Two – Memphis

I awoke even before my alarm for race day.  Sleeping-in in a hotel doesn’t seem to work well.  I got ready, said my goodbyes, and walked along the Mississippi at dawn, not a bad way to start the morning.  So pretty and peaceful.  My race started at 7am.  It was actually a really fun and enjoyable race.  The first few miles were through the downtown area that we had walked the night before, so that was pretty cool.  Next we headed north to a slightly more residential area.  And then we came back south along the river which was really cool.  I stopped a couple of times for water and a cold towel.  However, I did not stop at the beer station at mile ten!  And the fact that it was at the bottom of a tall bridge made it even less appealing!  The race ended at the river park area where it started, and I got a burst of energy at the finish line seeing my hubby and three favorite little fans waiting with high fives!  My pace was actually a little slower than my first half, but I felt so much better.  It was an awesome run.  We wandered for a few minutes collecting water and bananas and snacks and even a hot coffee from a food truck for me, how cool is that?!  A short sit on the curb, a few Kodak moments, and we headed back to the hotel.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to my awesome hubby for getting the kids ready, and fed, and to the finish line!

Back at the hotel, we changed into bathing suits, and headed off to find the pool.  Sadly, it was outside, and thus rather frigid.  The kids hung out on the steps forever, but eventually Ryan and Abby got in and swam.  Luckily for me, Chloe never got past the steps, which means I didn’t have to get in either!  She’s been doing really well with her swim lessons, which means no more puddle jumper, which means a summer full of swimming for Mommy!  But I did sit on the edge and stick my feet and calves in the pool, I felt just like a real athlete icing after competition.  Back upstairs for a much-needed shower for me and packing up real quick.  We checked out and got our car back from the valet, yay!

We found a parking deck, and it was off to Mud Island River Park for us.  We rode a monorail over the water, which the kids all loved.  The park was awesome!  It’s a replica of the Mississippi River that you can play and splash in [if you read the above paragraph closely, you might have noticed that only I showered, not the kids.  They just stayed in bathing suits.]  You’ll have to check out my pictures, it’s kind of hard to explain.  There’s bridges and dams and cities and everything, and then it dumps out into this pool area, aka the Gulf of Mexico.  The kids walked and walked it, but a special shout-out goes to Ryan who walked every twist and turn and was very proud to have walked the whole Mississippi river.  Which is pretty impressive, Coleson read somewhere that it’s about half a mile long.  We munched on various snacks we’ve accumulated here and there over the trip, mostly from my race, while sitting on the banks of the ‘Gulf of Mexico.’  We also walked the grassy areas of Mud Island itself and looked across to the race/ park area that we were at earlier in the day.  Certainly a fun place to go if you’re ever in the Memphis area!

In my race packet was a wrist band for free entry to a festival later in the day.  The festival itself wasn’t overly appealing, it didn’t appear to be family-friendly [beer, music, etc] and tickets for the rest of our crew would have added up quickly.  But we did see that the festival included an airshow!  So we changed the kids into dry clothes, parked for free at the Memphis welcome center area, and walked to an open, grassy spot along the water.  While we waited on the show, we explored the riverbank a little, checking out beautiful flowers and Abby rode a ‘horse’ made out of driftwood.  Our seats were pretty much perfect.  Close enough to have great views, but not too crazy loud.  Chloe did cover her ears a few times, but she did great!  No crying at all.  The last plane was the best by far.  He was totally crazy, flying up and down and around and upside down.  All while leaving a smoke trail, so we could see exactly what he was doing.  He would get so close to the water and then shoot up by Mud Island, and then go straight up to the sky.  And twist and turn and do it all again.  So fun!  Well, actually, he wasn’t the last plane.  There was a huge FedEx jet guy that came by real slow and close, we were pretty confused by him – too big to be part of the show, but definitely not in a normal flight path.  And then we decided he was the sponsor plane and it was a marketing fly-by!  FedEx seems to have a large presence in Memphis, I had run by the FedEx Forum, some sort of sports center.  I’m really glad we heard about the air show and stuck around, so cool!!

And of course a day of sun and fun left us thirsty and hungry again.  We crossed the bridge – the kids’ first trip west of the Mississippi!! – and ate dinner at a Cracker Barrel in East Memphis, Arkansas.  We hadn’t really had a good meal that day, combined with burning lots of calories, and boy was some southern comfort food tasty!  I was super proud of Abby for ordering, and eating, chicken and dumplings!  I had a chicken, rice, and gravy special, soo good.  Ryan played the pin jumping game all meal, and even left just one pin two different times, woohoo. 

After dinner, we drove straight north up 55, basically paralleling the Mississippi on the western side.  It was a fun drive, albeit pretty boring for Coleson I’m sure.  Flat, flat, flat.  And straight.  Farms and crops everywhere.  It was neat to see something totally different then we’re used to.  It messes with your depth perception for sure.  And the crop rows will make you dizzy if you try to look down them while driving by at 75mph!  I worked a bit on a new critter for Abby [if you’ll remember our last summer’s roadtrip when Chloe’s went missing and Abby graciously saved the day by sharing hers].  Chloe slept the whole three hours or so that we drove.

And so now, here we are in our small town Days Inn in Perryville, MO.  We’re about an hour south of St. Louis.  Off to the Arch and all sorts of more fun tomorrow!  Nighty night from the flat, farm lands of the Midwest!       

PS - Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!  We love you! :)