Memphis

Memphis

When I was roughly 9 or 10 years old my dad announced that we were going to take a vacation to Memphis. We didn't take many "normal" vacations in my family. My dad was a pastor of a church and so once a year we went to a large national conference for the organization he was a member of.  A lot of our vacations were these combo vacations traveling to the national conference. Because of this I was able to visit a number of large cities, which was cool. We never flew but rather drove, so I would also get to see several states on our way. As a kid we drove to or thru California, Arizona, New Mexico, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Colorado, Utah, New York, all states that border Arkansas as well as Tijuana, Mexico.

As a kid I was excited to see a Zebra in Tijuana….turns out it was a DONKEY!

So on occasion we would take what I would as a 10 year old call "normal" vacations.

Anytime in my family that we were leaving town it would be announced that we were leaving on a certain date. I always assumed that meant we would get up early that morning, pack the car, drive thru McDonalds for some breakfast, stop for gas and be on our way out of town by 8am, or 10am the latest. But often I would be awake, packed and waiting to depart and my dad would finish his morning coffee and paper and he'd say to my mom "I'm going to go run a couple of errands, when will you be ready to leave town?" and my mom would say something like "As soon as I do the books (aka pay bills, balance check book), wash some clothes and pack then I'll be ready". I was always let down because this would mean a bit of a delay, but thought surely she can get all that done and be ready by 10 or 11am. For some reason it seemed like it was always late in the afternoon before we actually left.

So somewhere leading up to this vacation my dad had put out this idea of going to Memphis to spend a couple of days. He had given some suggestions of what we might do there.

1. Get a hotel room! (which included swimming at the pool and jumping on the beds and watching cartoons! We didn't own a TV.)  
2. Ride Go-carts! 
3. Go to Liberty Land! (Liberty Land is an amusement park in Memphis with rides, ferris wheel, roller coaster etc. Elvis had a favorite ride there called The Zippin Pippin) 

I can't overstate how excited I was!

One small detail is that my grandparents lived just a little over an hour outside of Memphis and we lived in El Dorado which is in south Arkansas. My parents had also mentioned that they might drive over to my grandparents house after a few days in Memphis. ( I could live with a brief visit to the grandparents after a few days in Memphis.)

So in my 10 year old mind this is how this vacation would work. We leave El Dorado around 9am and that would put us in Little Rock just in time to stop at Casa Bonita for lunch. Who doesn't love eating mexican food in a cave with torches blazing, a monkey riding a unicycle on a wire over your head and unlimited hot sopaipilla's with honey. Plus they had a game room that you could win tickets from and the gypsy fortune teller behind the jail bars (who was way creepy) would exchange those tickets for prizes!

Casa Bonita Cave Eating

Casa Bonita Arcade

Then we'd be off to our destination, MEMPHIS!!

Well as usual we didn't leave until sometime late that afternoon. My brother had just started driving and so as we loaded up it was decided that this would be his first vacation that he would sit behind the wheel.

Shortly after we got on the road my dad began a discussion with my mom. The topic was "should we go to Memphis for a couple days and then go over to the grandparents OR just skip Memphis and go straight to the grandparents?!!!!"

I loved my grandparents and have many fond memories of being at their house, but my grandparents house pales in comparison to hotels, go-carts, amusement parks, and eating at new restaurants! I was appalled and immediately verbally objected and insisted such non sense be silenced at once! I was told to put a lid on it.

We hit the city limits of Little Rock too late to eat lunch at Casa Bonita. I had waited patiently for my parents to realize that the absolutely best plan would be to go straight to Memphis. I had only mentioned it as we passed thru Hampton, Arkansas. Oh and also I mentioned it at Fordyce, Sheridan and as we hit the interstate that would lead us into Little Rock. Each time I was told to be quiet. So now as we rolled into Little Rock it was full court press. My window was closing quickly and my parents were not budging. For some strange reason they had been deceived into choosing to go to my grandparents instead of Memphis. My persistence and reason was quickly met with aggressive resistance and because my brother was driving this allowed my dad to back up his verbal resistance with a very accurate threat of his hand coming from the front seat to convince me. Usually on road trips he was driving and when we pushed his buttons and he became, "FRACTIOUS" (as he called it) his hand would come flying into the back seat and like a blind fox in a chicken coop he would swing away as we flipped and twisted in all effort to dodge the blind fox!

So there I sat….brooding….sulking….scheming….

My brother had never driven in heavy traffic, on an interstate, and having to navigate multiple lane changes and follow those large green directional signs. He had a lot of pressure on him to keep the family safe and keep us on the right highways and in the correct lanes.

As we approached the interchange where Interstate 30 merges with Interstate 40 it meant we were just moments away from the next big interchange, the point where the left two lanes veer off towards grandma's and the right two lanes continue on towards Memphis. Now was the time to ask my dad one last time, "could we please go to Memphis?" He replied, "No…we've already decided, we aren't going to Memphis." Then he instructed my brother to merge into the left lane. As the car settled into the left lane and we approached the exit I felt all of my Memphis dreams slipping thru my hands like sand.

And then it was as if time stood still and I had the most desperate and most amazing feeling pulse thru my veins. I could feel the white dotted line sounding out to me like mission control counting down to launch. This was it….this was the defining moment of my life (or at least this vacation). We had already passed under the giant green directional signs and the dotted line was at T-3……2…….1.

Then the dotted line turned into a solid white line, inside my emotions felt like the rockets had ignited and were beginning to shake everything. The solid white line split in two, and in my head it was if I could hear it crack like a whip. And then like a hot geyser I erupted! There had been silence in the car since I had asked about Memphis just a couple of minutes ago. From the back seat and with everything I had in me I screamed,

"MEM……..PHISSSSSSS!!!!!!"

Like blowing an air horn into a room full of sleeping sailors, my voice shook everyone in the car and instantly caused as much panic as my dad swinging his arm from the front seat. My brother startled and already stressed, pulled hard right on the steering wheel and punched the gas, sending our car bolting across the rumble strips that lie between the now far separated white lines. Cars all around us were swerving, my mom and sister in the back seat with me were screaming, and my dad was yelling "NOOOOOO!" But it was too late. My desperate cry from the back seat had changed our course! We were headed for Memphis!


(until the next exit when my dad had my brother turn around and head back towards the grandparents)