(37) Memphis Part 3

Thursday, January 29th: In the morning I walked down 3rd Street to the post office. It was a little chilly and on the way back I walked back up Main Street. All of a sudden, I looked down the street and there was the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, which has now become the National Civic Rights Museum. Later that afternoon, Eric, Margo and I walked back to the Museum. On the way there, we stopped at a local deli that had an old blue Ford pickup truck parked out front. Margo though it was the coolest thing in the world and got inside for some pictures. It took us about 2 hours to walk through the National Civic Rights Museum but it could have taken up to 5 hours. There was an unbelievable amount of information written in the displays making it hard to read all of it. The end of the first section, which went from the 1800s up thru the 1970s, puts you on the second level just inside the hotel from the spot that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. We then went across the street to the second half of the museum, which is there they think James Earl Ray shot King from. In that section of the museum, they had more info of the events leading up to King’s assassination as well as some of the evidence used to convict James Earl Ray. By the end of the tour, we were very impressed with all the information and a little burned out from all the reading.
Friday, January 30th: Today we moved into our third hotel in Memphis, the Crowne Plaza. We checked out of the Holiday Inn Select at 11:00am but couldn’t check into the Crowne Plaza until 3:00pm so we were homeless for a couple of hours. Dave, Eric, Margo and I drove out to Germantown to see Slumdog Millionaire, which was amazing and I would suggest that everyone go and see. The sound track was also pretty fantastic and matched the movie very well. Once back at the hotel, I worked out again. I spent the rest of the night in the hotel watching TV and relaxing.
Saturday, January 31st: FINALLY we were leaving Memphis and headed to Cincinnati. I rode in the White Van with Jill and Margo while Eric and Rudy drove the truck. We made the 483 mile(8195 total miles) to Covington, KY, which is just across the river from Cincinnati, in good time even with the time change. Susan and Ross came down and picked me up at the hotel and we went out to dinner at Chez Nora on Mainstrasse. Then we went over to a bar called 701 for some drinks. I had completely forgotten what it was like to drink in a bar where people can smoke. In Ohio you can’t smoke in the bars or restaurants, but in Kentucky you can smoke anywhere. By the time I got home my shirt, pants and jacket all reeked of cigarette smoke and I had to take a shower before going to bed.