I will remember this trip for the rest of my life. The experiences that we had down in the South were once in a life time, and definitely life changing. It all started in Atlanta, which we learned more about that we expected. When we first got there I thought to myself “this is the south?” I was not expecting a huge city with luscious greenery surrounding it. It looked more like sunny Seattle then a place in Georgia. Nevertheless what I expected it was still an amazing city. I thought it was really interesting to see the house that Martin Luther King grew up in, and it was pretty funny hearing what he got up to when he was young. I also loved the Georgia aquarium. I have always wanted to see a whale shark in real life and because of that massive tank I was able to. It was cool seeing CNN headquarters and seeing how realistic a show that I watch called The Newsroom actually is. On the last day ( or supposedly last day ) I was actually feeling kinda sad. I still wanted to see the rest of the south but I had really enjoyed Atlanta. Well, we did get more time there but not in the way we expected. I didn’t actually see the accident but I did Segway by the aftermath. Speaking of Segway’s other than the accident the tour was awesome. Seeing all the movie spots and the different subsections of the city’s culture. By the end of it, I was sad to give up my Segway

 

The time at the second Atlanta hotel was nice. We had experienced a small taste of what the busy schedule would be like so we needed a calm before the storm of learning. Most of the time we just relaxed and played games. It got exiting at some times and bizarre at other but it all worked out. One thing that was really fun at that time was getting to know Tim. To this day I still don’t understand how he could just drop everything and come. I mean, the man had just proposed! But, however he did it it was fun having him there with us along to ride.

The day we were able to drive places again had a few of the life changing events that I talked about earlier. The first one was the Baptist Street Church. In that church we got to see where Martin Luther King Jr stood, what he wore, and where he wrote some of his breathtaking speeches. At the end of all of this we got to sing in the main hall and the lady who was showing us the church said I have a wonderful voice. The other LCE was meeting Ms. Bland. Even though she was very intimidating she was also very nice and insightful. Having dinner with them and hearing their story’s was just a amazing experience. The first time I thought “wow, these people were actually their was when they were talking about their experiences on Bloody Sunday. I had heard that same story in a documentary that we watched. The only differences was seeing the pictures of them in the documentary.
After a long drive into the night we finally made it to Birmingham. We went to the hotel and strait to bed. The next day we didn’t do much in Birmingham because most of it had to be cut out due to Mr. Hughes ascendent. But we still got to see the park where Bull Conners hosed down child protesters and sent German Shepherd to attack them. The funnest part of that day was probably the boys and girls club. We were all pretty bad at tennis but it was still fun. The end of the day was cool because right before we got to the hotel in Tupelo we saw were Elvis was born. It was a good parallel for Graceland which we saw later. It was interesting seeing Tupelo Hardware because you wouldn’t expect it to be were Elvis bought his first guitar. It just seemed like a regular hardware store but under that it had a lot of history. We made various stops through the Mississippi delta but it was just nice to look around. I was thinking ” swamps and cotton fields. This is the real south.” But, our day had to end and it ended in a casino.

Memphis was one of our most packed days, and one of are most awesome. We started with tours of Graceland and Sun Studios with were both amazing. After lunch and the Gibson Guitar factory we headed to the hotel. We had the choice to either stay there for a few hours or go to the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum. I chose the Museum. We didn’t look at the exhibits as much as we jammed out to the classic music which, was a lot of fun. It was also fun at dinner with the spicy fried chicken. The next day started off more somber than others because we went to the Lorraine Motel. We actually saw up close the spot were MLK was lying dead. It was so powerful.
After a three and a half hour drive to Nashville we got to go to the Grand Old Opry. It is the oldest running radio show in history at 90 years. But the funnest part of Nashville wasn’t the Grand Old Opry. It was the dinner after. If you want to learn more about that night go to Chris’s LBS ( insert link ). The last day was just a chill day. Hanging out at the Opryland hotel and the mall next to it before flying home and having to process our best school trip ever.