Driving in Memphis (Revisited)

I have been informed that I didn't wax poetic enough about the FANTASTIC Memphis driving abilites in a 12 passenger van by one Maria. So let me just say, Maria, you did a FANTASTIC job driving a 12 passenger van in downtown Memphis and on the interstate highways that got us there. I only had to yell at you about 5 times! HOORAY!!!

After our first trip to St. Jude's we parked the big U of M van in downtown Memphis over by the Opheum and trod the street of Beale. We were lusted after by one street vendor (Ha ha ha) before taking our lunch at Rum Boogie where they have fine mac & cheese and not so great corn bread muffins. In the south no less! This is sin. Maria says too much muffin not enough corn...but it is a cool place (with many guitars hanging from the ceiling) and their lunch menu is not to be missed.

After our luncheon, we made the journey back to St. Jude's so that Maria could practice more of her van driving in case she ever decides to take up competitive van racing. The nice man at the gate, obviously knowing that 2 girls in a huge van is just as close to a disaster waiting to happen as you can get, let us park right inside the gate. I ushered us into the gift shop POST HASTE where we touched just about everything in the store before making our final selections...very nice gift shop, people! After this shopping frenzy, we went over to the "Gold Domed Building", saw the tomb of Danny and Rose Marie Thomas, and toured their facilites (being the important scientific people that we are).

Now, no road trip can be complete without the stop for empty calories and our story is no different. Southaven has a Cold Stone Creamery and it was calling our names. I think that it called my name first, as most establishments of that sort seem to know my FULL NAME, but Maria's must be second on the list as she had no qualms about pulling that van into their very small parking lot. (There might be a side story about the Starbucks, but I've been sworn to secrecy.) We had a very tasty concoction and I am happy to report that mine was labeled 'sinless' while being tasty at the same time. Maria had a fine strawberry shortcake ice cream thingy. The ice cream server boy knows how to sell ice cream to two road tripping girls such as ourselves...he talked me into adding strawberries to mine when I am not even sure I wanted strawberries...hmmm.