Memphis

April 5th we hit the road headed to Memphis, TN!  A good friend of mine from college was getting married, and since I hadn't returned to work yet after my surgery, we were free to make the trip.  It was a beautiful day, and we were having an great drive until... car trouble struck =(  We were just over 100 miles from Memphis, in the middle of nowhere, when we were forced to spend some quality time on the side of I-40... because...

Blown upper radiator hose (didn't realize what had happened for a some time)

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overheated engine

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engine damage (not always, but def did this time...)

=

No. Good.

The gash in the radiator hose =/

Thankfully, we do have roadside assistance, and they came to tow our car to the nearest town, about 10 miles away.  While sitting on the side of the road, we realized that we had entered the Central Time Zone, therefore gaining and extra hour (which proved rather important when needing a mechanic on a Friday afternoon!)

Loading onto the tow truck

We were towed to an auto parts store, Andrew replaced the radiator hose, etc, and we drove to an auto shop just a few miles away.  By this point it was almost 5pm.  They were able to quickly determine that we definitely had further engine damage (coolant was in the cylinders)... one of the managers there was incredibly kind, offered to take us to the closest car rental location near where he lived, so that we could hopefully make it to Memphis.  He called the rental place ahead, we threw our bags in his truck, left my car in the parking lot, and off we went.  We just made it to Enterprise before 6pm when they close, to find lots of people and us waiting for cars... that they potentially weren't going to have available for us... =/  Long story short, we did finally get a vehicle... a pick-up truck, and by that point most any vehicle was acceptable!  The auto shop guy stayed with us the whole time until we were set with the truck... talk about customer service!   We weren't too sure what we were going to do about my car, but headed on to Memphis...  So thankful for the Lord's protection and working out all the details... so many things that could have been much, much worse!

Despite the car issues, we had a great weekend!  While there is plenty to do and see in Memphis, we had a relaxed and enjoyable time wandering downtown, seeing a lot of the sights, and meanwhile not overdoing it with my knee...

The fountain with the Marching Ducks at the Peabody Hotel...
we didn't get there in time to see the marching of the ducks...

Beale Street

The Memphis-Arkansas Bridge

A barge pushing what appears to be a load of coal up the Mississippi River.

The Memphis Pyramid

Trolley Car

Enjoying the Beautiful weather!

After working up an appetite, we had a late lunch of delicious (world famous) ribs at Charles Vergos' Rendevous =)  It's in the basement of this building, the entrance tucked away in an alley...

We had a little more time after lunch to ramble downtown Memphis before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding... It was a beautiful service, but this is the only pic I managed to sneak that turned out at all =)

Mr. & Mrs. John Michael Leppert =)

First Dance

Fun table centerpieces... and a great idea using the paper lanterns!

John Michael and I were the same class, major, and sport in college... we spent A Lot of time together, and it was super great to see him and meet his beautiful bride!  He had also never met Andrew, so it was about time that happened as well =)

Yay! A picture of all 4 of us =)

After a Wonderful Saturday, we had some time to kill on Sunday before meeting my brother David and his wife Brittany who made the long trip out to pick up us and our car.  We are SO thankful they were available and willing to come get us!  Andrew realized we could feasibly travel through 3 states within an hour and decided we really needed to take advantage of the opportunity, lol.  So... we left Memphis and entered Mississippi (somehow missed the sign =/), then from Mississippi, crossed into Arkansas...

This bridge was paralleled by 2 other bridges...

Can sort of see all 3 bridges

If you look closely, you can see a train on the 3rd bridge.

Memphis Bridge again

Memphis from the Arkansas side of the river

Crossing the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge back into Tennessee!

And a close-up of the pyramid... it is being renovated currently...

After our 3-state excursion, a bite to eat, and a few minutes of walking downtown, we were on our way to meet David and Brittany.

Ready to load!

My car fit perfectly on the trailer, which meant
the doors couldn't be opened once it was loaded...
so Andrew climbed out the trunk =)

We drove several hours, stopped for the night, and then got up the next morning and finished the trip... quite the weekend, and we were all glad to make it home!