6:30 am. Way too early to wake up on day 50 of this amazing road trip. Emily had already left for school at that point, having gone to bed when we did. What a trooper. We got up, cleaned up our filthy boy mess and left Chicago at 7:15 am, according to plan. We had to get gas pretty quickly, so after struggling through commuter / accident related traffic going into downtown Chicago and crossing over to Indiana, we got gas (AND dunkin donuts for the first time since camp in August!). The drive after went smoothly, and was filled with the all too familiar landscape of farms, corn, and wheat. Oh yeah, we changed time zone back to eastern time at some point during our drive in Indiana.

We got to Butler University right outside Indianapolis around 11:45 eastern time. We drove through the beautiful campus and parked at Hinkle Fieldhouse. We waited a little before Kendall Shmendall got out of class to meet us, so we explored the field house and learned all about its history and significance. Fun fact – the basketball team that inspired the movie Hoosiers won the championship there back in the 50’s. Who knew?! Kendall, who is an angel descended from the heavens above, finally met us shortly after noon. She gave us a brief walking tour of that side of campus and we stopped to take pics by some fountain near some tower (she didn’t really know what they were, what a dummy).

Naturally, the next stop was the bookstore to get my obligatory random college t-shirt. TRIP THE BULLDOG WAS THERE!!! Apparently he’s a rare sight to see, but because of all our saved up good karma from mule deer, elephant seals, sea lions, etc, we ran into him in the bookstore and got to pet him. He’s an absolutely legend. After he made his grand exit and asking some employees for help, Kendall helped me pick out a Butler Volleyball shirt. I believe that’s my 21st shirt in the collection!

The bookstore was a short walk from the dining hall, so Kendall treated us to lunch, using up 2 of her 5 guest passes (dim, but lovely). I continued to embarrass her in front of total strangers, consistent with my conduct throughout our tour of the university and in life. It was a classic college dining hall, but the employees were actually super friendly and enthusiastic. A nice change from Danforth. We ate like kings, stuffing our faces with lobster risotto and filet mignon (or cheese fries and general tsos chicken – my memory’s a little hazy…). After lunch we got to check out Shmendall’s dorm, which was fairly vacant due to the start of fall break. Kendall walked us back to our car at Hinkle, where we took a few more photos and said our tearful goodbyes (or sarcastic yet heartfelt, one of the two…once again – the hazy memory). It was genuinely so good to see Kendall at college – she’s an all-star!

We left Butler at 1:30 eastern, but on the drive southwest to Memphis we changed back to our original time zone shortly into our drive. We got caught in stand still traffic around 3:00 central but after that it was smooth sailing, though a long drive. We stopped for gas somewhere in Illinois (oh yeah, we switched back to driving through Illinois) around 4:15. I set the high score for Ms. Pac Man at the game zone in the rest stop!! We switched drivers for the last leg of the trip so I could lead us to the promised land.

The drive was full of standard midwestern scenery thereafter. The main highlight was a gorgeous sunset over the Mississippi River driving through Missouri – 2nd time in that state this trip. We didn’t expect o drive through Arkansas, but we did for about an hour. We got gas at the Arkansas / Tennessee border for $1.99!!!! So good to back in the south. We rolled into Memphis around 10:15 pm. Guess what our first stop was?

You got it – food! Charles Vergos Rendezvous BBQ lived up to its reputation for amazing ribs. Because we got in so late, and on a Wednesday night, there were very few customers there. The guys who worked there – and there were plenty of them – all had awesome accents and joked around with each other. We each ordered a ribs plate, mine with pulled chicken and Alex’s with pork shoulder, and baked beans a cole slaw. Those were the best dry rub ribs I’ve ever had. The ribs weren’t super meaty, but the flavor was AMAZING. The food came out quickly so that was a plus.

After dinner we walked across to the Peabody Hotel to scout out the duck march we were supposed to see. The hotel lobby was full of guests, a piano player, and an awesome dessert cart. We confirmed duck march times and asked the woman at the desk about some sights to see on our visit to Memphis. We left downtown and drove the 10 minutes to our Super 8 hotel, conveniently located in the middle of nowhere right next to where the loud train passed by. Because of some nonsense with Hotwire, we had to pay an extra $10 a night for a 2nd bed. Ridiculous. The lobby and outside were a bit scuzzy, but we were locked into this reservation. We got to our room…and it was actually pretty nice! Well furnished, spacious, 2 beds. Good deal. We hung out for a bit, relaxed, and were in bed around 1:15 am (Alex stayed up later to work on his phone, eventually passing out with both the TV and his tablet still on). Lots to look forward to in Memphis!!

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