Tennessee in Review

Friday
Depart Columbia and drive for 9 hours (includes music, good conversations, Peter Kreeft lectures and Kaytlin napping)
Arrive in Memphis at an amazingly nice hostel inside an old church building.
Ask a local where we can find good Mexican food. He rattles off some restaurant in excellent Spanish. We know it will be good.
I order beef tongue tacos-amazing. Tastes like chicken gizzard with the texture of beef.
Kaytlin asks to ‘try my tongue.’ I gladly oblige. Ha.
A short walk and then to bed.

Saturday
Up early and out to a local coffee shop. The shop is interesting with lots of events, unique people and clever decoration. I am a tool and read Aristotle.
Back to the hostel for left-over tacos.
We change quickly and head to the wedding which is about 45 minutes away.
I wrote down the wrong address for the church so we get lost, finally find it, watch the ceremony from the front room, behind stain glass windows.
We slip into the reception line and no one suspects a thing.
We sit with the School of Mines guys who drove 17 hours to come to the wedding and have great conversation.
They mention the spiritual bondage that would come from going to a school that would make you sign a list of extra-Biblical rules to follow while you are a student (like CIU).
Back at the hostel we make dinner and chat with a Kiwi (New Zealander) who is on a world tour.
He tells as about a local musician who plays a homemade guitar constructed of two broom sticks and a cigar box.
Kaytlin taught a Spanish girl how to make popcorn on the stove and we talked with her and her companion about their world travels.
Downtown Memphis! It is five blocks of neon lights, bars, street performers and live music.
Back to bed.

Sunday
Coffee, checkout, drive.
Home.

Additional thoughts
Each time I leave Columbia I find myself dreaming big about life. I hope to continue to dream big even though I am coming back to a confining culture.
In an effort to continue to dream big, Kaytlin and I are going to try to get out of Columbia one weekend a month.
I miss talking with travelers and people who love the world. Perhaps I will befriend some international students in the fall.