SOME FUN STOPS

Today was another day of driving (all day). There have been lots of accidents along the way (other people -- not us) slowing the progress. We ended up in Saint Louis, MO around lunch time. We stopped at a mall that Deanna and I had been to several times before with intentions of visiting the food court that had previously had a large selection of restaurants and food. This time, when we got there, the "mall" was hardly a mall anymore. None of the stores were open and only one food place was still operating. Thankfully, it was my favorite place, serving teriyaki chicken. Yay! Otherwise, it was like a ghost-town up there. We found out that the mall was being demolished and being replaced by condos and a multi-level parking garage. Go figure.

After lunch we went over and toured the Gateway Arch museum and visitor’s center. We were probably there hanging out for about an hour.

We kept on driving all day and decided to make our dinner stop in Memphis, TN. We ended up eating at a pizzeria in the mall there – not bad. Afterwards, we took a stroll down Beale Street. There was a security checkpoint that we had to get through, but nobody had their ID except me. I showed them mine and told them we were a “church group”. They let it slide and let us through. What an amazing place! The streets were packed with people and there was live jazz and blues music everywhere you turned. A few of the students shopped in the Hard Rock Café and we turned around and drove the rest of the way to spend the night at our hotel in Clinton, MS.