October 27 - November 1, 2001
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So when you think of Halloween, the first thing that pops
into your mind is probably not Memphis. If it does, then you therapy more than I do.
Then again, most people do not think of Memphis on a regular basis, and that's perfectly
normal. So why a trip to Memphis?
Well, in short, friends. Well, a friend. Jeff! I've known Jeff since I started kicking his ass at Virginia Tech. Somehow I became adopted by his family and he started kicking my ass. He graduated in 2001 and started working at his fraterniy's headquarters (Pi Kappa Alpha) which is located near Memphis in a little town called BLAH. He only works there for a total of a few months out of the year where the rest of the time is spent travelling to various parts of the country working with 30+ universities to get their chapter running smoothly. You can chech out his page for more details of his travel. This is my first trip to Memphis. It is located at the opposite end of the state from Kingsport, my home town. If you look it up on mapblast, they say it is about 10 hours away and a time zone change to boot. Well, I stayed in Kingsport for the night on Saturday and then took off on Sunday to head west. I made it to Jeff's place in just over 7 hours. Since I was there from Monday through Thursday, it was a work week for both of us. I ended up chained to conference calls during the day and for lunch and dinner, Jeff and I ended up driving around to all sorts of places. Memphis is known for it's barbecque and I got my fill of it while I was there. It's awesome stuff! I did not take many pictures while I was there. It was pretty dark most of the times that Jeff and I were out and about. He and I hit downtown Memphis on Tuesday night, Halloween Eve, so I got the lay of the land then and then I went out myself the next morning to hit the Peabody Hotel and a few other things. Downtown Memphis is located less than a mile from the Mississippi River and that puts it on the border of Missouri and BLAH. Like San Francisco, Memphis has a trolley system, this one on electicity rather than cables. The Peabody Hotel is famous for its ducks. Every morning at 11, they have the March of the Ducks, who are escorted down from the penthouse on an elevator and led across the red carpet into the fountain. Then at 4 or 5 PM they are escorted from the fountain, across the carpet, and back up to the penthouse for the night. This tradition has been going on for decades and I'm not completely sure of the origin, but I think it involves Mr. Peabody being a hunter and catching ducks and as a joke, releasing them into the fountain. When business increased due to the tourist attraction, he kept it going and it still happens today.
Quack:
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After bouncing around downtown and grabbing some pictures, I headed
over to the fraternity headquarters for some good chili and other food and to hang around
with the guys for a little while. I got a few pictures of the guys. Jeff gave me a tour
of the place on Sunday night. It was pretty damn awesome. Jeff works in a cube because he's only
there for a small part of the year, but the rest of the administration has some pretty
awesome rooms. The building is located right on the edge of a country club, so you can actually walk out
the back door onto a fairway.
Being Halloween, the guys dressed up for the occasion. Dean put on the Tigger outfit, Jeff went in full Hockey gear. Korey went for the cowboy look and Beau... well, Beau got nailed. He did a pretty good job with the wound. I got the guys outside for a group photo and then did some around the inside of the place. That night, we hit downtown Memphis. Dean and Beau backed out, so it was Jeff, Korey, BLAH and I. We went out to BLAH for some damn good ribs and some awesome service and then walked around some clubs, drank some drinks, played some pool and even did a little dancing at Have a Nice Day. It was not as crowded as I would have liked, being a Wednesday and also due to people being scared by the recent terrorism. It was an awesome time hanging out with Jeff and they guys... We'll see where Jeff ends up next. Hopefully it'll be somewhere else that I haven't been!
Halloween:
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Costumes... Always a tough decision for Halloween. Jeff changed
up before going downtown. Going on ice skates would not have been good for playing pool. We
did a little shopping and found some fake wounds which were easy to apply and didn't leave
a lot of stuff to have to deal with while being out on the town. Korey stayed as-is which seemed
awfully natural for him. Then we drove over to pick up BLAH who was also going country-style
and I was then talked into joining them for a trio of cowboys. I hope to get some pictures from
one of their cameras of the three of us downtown. Here's the ones of me taken after the night on the
town.
The next day was a long drive back through Kingsport, where I then took Mike and Lauren out for some pool and fun at Bailey's in Johnson City. After that,I left to go back ot North Carolina and then on to the next destination... The Outer Banks! (I know Jeff was jealous.)
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