Wow, what a horrible night. The thunder and rain rumbled all night, as we slowly dehydrated in our little sweat lodge tents. We all slowly melted, unable to cope with the hot sticky night. At one point I heard Katie put a cold bottle of water on Lauras back, Laura screamed her way back into the land of the alert. A few minutes later it hit me.....where did Katie get a cold bottle of anything? "The pop machine, the stuff is super cold! It is only $1" says katie. In communication between tents I talked Katie into bringing me a bottle. Diet coke, dang.....I never drank it, but I did keep it close to my soul until it no longer was cooler than myself. That was the best $2 I have ever speant.

Well, that makes 2 nights in a row without sleep. Good thing we planned for a rest day today (only 20 miles wahoo).

Katie, Laura, and I had a quick breakfast of travelers oatmeal (add water, suck from the package).

Just outside of the park we had a pleasant surprise.....breakfast! We all were dehydrated from the previous day and horrid night. A giant OJ for each of us, and a tiny one for Roger.

After a short ride, we were in Memphis. Their is a great pathway near the river and Mud Island that is great for a casual stroll.

Roger found a turkey feather on his flag, put there by the group of old guys on the porch at the Shelby General Store.

On Mudd Island the 5-block-long scale model of the Mississippi River is really neat. Everyone wadded in.

The concrete was really hot, especially the black sections representing cities. Roger toasted his feet crossing the scale model of Memphis.

The local children were sledding, Memphis style.

I biked down the model. Even at such a small scale, it was a half mile bike ride! The fountain is in mini-Lake Ponchatran in pseudo-New Orleans.

We saw a pyramid in the distance, it was closed. We asked around about it's purpose. One person said it was for government wasteful spending, another said it was simply a weight to hold the city down.

We stopped for Slushis in the heat. Notice the bridges in the background.

We hit a wall when we couldn't figure out how to cross the interstate. We could see our hotel, but could not find a way to get to it. Our guidebook suggest a primative path that simply was not an option. The kudzu and growth and slope were such that it was nearly impossible to hike without a bike.

We searched for an alternate route, and kept hitting dead ends. The locals were not helpful until we finally found someone who knew the way.....2 hours later.

At least we made it to Super 8 alive. Our rest day turned into 30 miles. We then spent 1.5 hours trying to find food that wasn't pizza. No luck, everything closes in this town on Sundays. Pizza, 3 days in a row now.

My goal is to now rehydrate for tomorrow. I will sleep with a water bottle again tonight, but now for a different purpose.

30 miles (1058 miles total)

Google Earth File

Update: In hindsite, it seems easy. It was not easy to see from the ground though. The interstate signs are not at the intersection so we had no idea which lanes went where. http://www.editurl.com/8pw