My Spring Break trip to Memphis

So, as Aaron mentioned, I spent my spring “break" – I use the quotes because staff do not get an official vacation just because the students are gone – with a bunch of students on an “Alternative” Spring Break trip. My boss was kind enough to let me have the time off. Now, regular readers can probably guess that my lovely spouse did mock me a bit for signing on to an adventure with ten undergraduates (nine female, one male), including a ten hour van ride and accommodations that required a sleeping bag. But it was definitely a worthwhile trip and a great learning experience.

We left Saturday at 7am and had a smooth ride down to Memphis. I was incredibly lucky in my student leaders for the trip: Jason was the master van driver for the long-hauls and Keeli was the master organizer, so I didn’t have to plan, navigate, or get behind the wheel of our 15 passenger van.

Our first full day was Sunday and we had the day off. We went to the zoo, and unfortunately I didn’t get any zoo pictures because I left my camera in the van, stupidly thinking that the Memphis zoo wouldn’t be as awesome as San Diego’s Wild Animal Park… but, apologies to family in San Diego… it was actually better! Half the price, with Pandas! and Gila Monsters! And penguins swimming! And an acquarium! Rockin, but no pictures, so moving on…

Next up, Graceland.

So of course, I wanted to meet Elvis. He was sweet enough to have his picture taken with me.

Then we made a quick stop at Sun Studios where awesome people like Elvis and Jonny Cash recorded.

That’s one of the ASU students posing with the sign. When Aaron and I go back we are definitely going to take the tour, and get a milk shake. They had awesome shakes.

Here’s Keeli, my student leader, inside with the merch.

On Monday we started our service projects. You see the point of Alternative Spring Break is for students to do service instead of just the normal spring-break type stuff.

This is from a google search of “normal spring break type stuff.”

Instead, we did this:

That’s me in front of the art supply closet that I organized and inventoried. Inventory was fun because they had such super random stuff: 28 red crayons, one Barbie shoe, 2 pipe cleaners, 100 sponge bob stickers, and one rock. This, no joke, was a typical draw in the art closet.

I also gardened:

There were flowers! It was 70 degrees! I got sunburned! I should probably back up and tell you about the organization we were working with. It was called the Church Health Center and their mission was to provide comprehensive health care to people who were working but low-income and uninsured. It was a really inspiring place. For every dollar they spend on care they also spend a dollar on prevention, hence the serenity garden outside the wellness center here, and the child life center where kids can play actively while their parents work out or take nutrition classes. They actually have a full demonstration kitchen (that I cleaned!) that has been on the Food Network.

On our other afternoon off we went to the Civil Rights Museum. It was awesome. If you ever get a chance, go! But leave yourself lots of time. There is lots of history.

The museum is in the Lorraine Hotel where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated.

All and all, Memphis was a really cool city. I definitely want to go back. Before we left we made an evening of Beale Street. First we saw the ducks at the Peabody hotel.

I don’t have any really good pictures of the ducks in the fountain, so here’s the ladies on the roof at the duck palace.

And finally, a carriage ride down Beale Street to end a great week in Memphis.

Here is a picture of the whole group:

Why hello March…

Well, March is here, and the beginning of March has shown us a little nicer weather. It’s nice that the “madnus” of the snow has stopped for now, but it seems to have been replaced by rain, at least for now.

Josh and I spent the first nice weekend cleaning up our bikes and doing a little maintenance…

For me, that meant pulling off my forks (Saturday) and taking them to Georgia to Traxxion Dynamics for a major service. I got the seals and bushings replaced, and got the AK-20 Cartridges to replace the stock units… So, I should be sitting in a good spot come riding season this year.

The day after pulling the forks (Sunday), Josh and I went on a nice little drive around the area, and saw some interesting things… Including a row of Toyota cars that were all the same exact model and color… That was kind of neat to see… And of course, Wild Woody’s. Unfortunately, they were closed, so Josh and I didn’t get a chance to see what was so wild… but, the road was rather fun, so we may have to go that way again once the weather is nice and the roads are clear.

Afterwards, we went back to Josh’s house for some lovely chicken on the grill.

Tuesday, I was on the highway heading to GA by about 10AM. The forks were in the back seat, and the drive was uneventful. Probably the most fun of the trip was before-hand when I finally got around to updating the GPS. On our GPS, you have several choices when it comes to the voice telling you where to go, and you can actually add more voices through the wonders of the internet. So, I changed the voice on the GPS to George W. Bush. Occasionally, the GPS likes to get you lost, but when G-Dub is telling you where to go, you really can’t be surprised when it happens.

But, I made it to Woodstock, GA and was greeted by mid-70’s temperatures. Coming from Boone, it was like going to the tropics. I checked into the hotel, and had a good laugh at their passive aggressive sign.

Let that sink in for a bit.  I will say though… I almost took the alarm clock. The thing played my iPod and everything. $25 was totally a deal for that.

Wednesday, I got the forks all fixed up, and came back to Boone. I spent the night in Boone, played with the cat, then Thursday morning it was off to VA by 7am. At noon, I met up with mom, dad, Rachel, and Grandmom and Grandpop VanDewater… We tried out the new Chinese Buffet in Lexington. It wasn’t bad, but the Sesame Chicken and General Tso’s had way too much tomato paste in them.

Rachel was in fine form… She just moved from Charlotte, NC to Charlottesville, VA, so now she’s not far from mom and dad. But, mom and dad’s house is back to being the destination in the “middle” again, so I suppose there won’t be any more family gatherings in Boone.

I came back to Boone Friday evening, got a nice night of sleep, then got up Saturday to do a little shopping. I finally got a coffee grinder, and some good coffee beans… I’ll never go back to buying pre-ground coffee. Grinding it yourself makes it sooooooooo much better. I made a lovely pancetta and Saga Blue stuffed chicken breast last night, which you can read about on the food blog, and I picked up Virginia from her “Alternative Spring Break” at about 8PM last night. It’s great to have Virginia back home, but it’ll be interesting heading back to school/work for both of us this week.  Funny enough, driving home with Virginia last night, after a week of 50+ degree days, it started snowing. Nothing really stuck around and I hope we’re done with this whole snow thing for a while. Hopefully we’ll have some new pictures and stories up soon, Virginia might do a write-up about her spring break trip.