Where was I? Ah yes, the excitement of Memphis.

Turns out Saturday was the most interesting day of the weekend, lol. Sunday, Cathy got up early and went into work for a few hours before church to write up all the medical charts she didn't get to on Friday. She wanted to do it before she forgot everything, which I think was a pretty good idea, lol. So I got to sleep in, sort of. I just needed to be ready to go by 9:15, so we could make the 30 minute drive to church in time for 10am service.

She attends a church called Fellowship Memphis, held at a local college. I don't think it's any specific denomination, at least that I could tell. They have a band and some singers up on stage, and that lasts for maybe the first 30 minutes or so. There are three pastors that rotate and take turns with the weekly message. This week, however, they had a guest speaker. He was very good, his message was about "complacency." Part way through, they have everyone say hello and introduce themselves to the people around them. Seated in front of us was a nice looking "young" man (probably mid 20's?) from Little Rock, Arkansas who was a friend of the guest speaker. When I told him I was from Chicago, he started asking me questions about it, lol. He asked me to name one good thing and one bad thing about Chicago. The bad was easy, it was the good thing I had a hard time with, there are so many! LMAO. My answers were...bad was the traffic, good was the food, museums, (didn't want to say nightlife because after all, we WERE in church, lmao). He seemed satisfied with my answers, lol. Then at the end, before we left, as we were shaking hands goodbye, he asked me to name one thing to see in Chicago that most people don't know about. First thing that popped into my mind was a place I didn't even know about until May when Kerry and Michael were here...The Historical Museum of Chicago. I told him it was the perfect place to go to get a complete overview of the entire history of Chicago, and everything that has happened in and influenced the city.

After church it was almost lunchtime, so we stopped at a little deli nearby, bought sandwiches, and headed over to a nearby park to eat outside. The rain had stopped and it hadn't quite gotten super hot yet. Then we headed to borders, just to wander around and look at books. I had no intention of buying any books, and I was successful in walking out without making a purchase. Cathy however, discovered a nice little paperback that she started reading, then decided to buy. It was about Corrie Ten Boom, a young woman who entered the prison camps in Germany to try to help the Jewish prisoners. It sounded like a good book. I tried looking for it at my Borders once I was home, but didn't know exactly where she found it, and after an unsuccesful search in their database, gave up.

The only other thing Cathy thought I might be interested in, was going back downtown so she could show me "mud island." It's an area along the riverfront that have some very nice houses, sort of a private little community, but we were able to drive around in it looking at the houses. We also parked and walked along the river's edge, to a bench that was in the shade so we could sit, relax and just talk for a bit. A very relaxing afternoon.

Another reason to come downtown, was the other bbq restaurant she wanted to take me to was supposed to be downtown. That turned out to be an adventure. Since she's only been in Memphis for about 6 months, Cathy's still learning her way around. She thought she knew what street the restaurant was on, but after driving around for over 30 minutes, she gave up and declared she must not have remembered the address correctly. So we headed to an alternate location, same family chain, further out of the downtown area, more on the way home. Unfortunately, we got the bottom of the barrel ribs, mine didn't have a lot of meat on them, and there was a lot of gristle. But the flavor was good, lol. The restaurant is called Neely's, we went to the first location listed in the link, on Mt. Moriah. We had been driving around trying to find the Jefferson location, and finally gave up.

The interesting part of the story, is that Neely's is owned and run by the nephews of Jim Neely, who owns and runs Jim Neely's Interstate Bar-B-Que. There's a lot of competition in Memphis as to which is better. Cathy has tried both and her opinion is that Neely's has a better tasting sauce, so that's where we went. Too bad I was disappointed with the quality of meat. Would have been interesting to have the two side-by-side and done my own taste test, lol.

After the rib dinner, Cathy and I went back to her place and we very quickly crashed, as it would be an early morning for both of us. She was going to work, and I was packing up and heading home. The drive home was longer than the drive down, I was more tired, for some reason, and had to stop at a rest area just to close my eyes for a few minutes to rest. I also had rain for about an hour as soon as I crossed into Illinois. I was so exhausted when I got home, I had to sit and relax for a bit before I could even think about unpacking, lol.

All in all, a very nice trip! I'm so glad I went. Cathy and I both agreed that 18 years is WAY too long to go between visits. Sorry there aren't more pictures, but there just wasn't anything interesting to take pictures of.