Savanna Studio: Judgement Day

Now that we're back from our trip, there's a lot of preparation to be done for the upcoming Final Review Day. Luckily, before that we all get a chance to show off everything we've done to our family and friends. We've decided to announce it to the world through a series of colorful invites.

Day NINETEEN | The Freaks Come Out at Night

After awaking from a nearly sleepless night due to the raucous activity of the native island wildlife (bloodhounds, foxes, barracudas, heat-seeking missiles) some of the students ventured out early to explore and watch the sunrise. One student in particular had a wonderful night's sleep after confiscating a sleeping bag from another unsuspecting student...who tried to sleep in multiple pairs of shorts and a hotel towel. But who can complain, all the students were happy to be camping on an island in the Gulf of Mexico for school, and during a cold Iowa November nonetheless.

After a highly nutritious breakfast of poptarts and sauteed stingrays, the students quickly set to sculpting immaculate castles made of sand. After several continuous hours of nonstop sculpting the teachers had the students, many of whom had bloody fingers by now, abandon their construction sites to move 10 feet down the beach and resume construction to very strict specifications. Some of the students used trash in their designs, while others relied on the natural elements of the beach. The task was to build their dream Landscape Architecture firms, complete with rivers, roads, bridges, studios, lakes, airports, jungle gyms, nuclear weapons testing facilities, petting zoos, volcanoes, ski resorts, amusement parks, sweatshops, furniture stores, and Lebanese food courts. Some of those may not have actually been in the design requirements, but we'll leave it up to you to ponder. After the students finished their masterpieces, they retired for a brief lunch of crunchy sand-wiches and seawater and began mapping the topography of their creations. Some of the students fell asleep in the sun, and while some of them went for the flaming hot cheetoh appearance, others turned a heavenly bronze that would rival most Greek gods.

Unfortunately the sand mites had other plans. Burnt, bitten, and rested, the students were split up into two groups, one to gather firewood and the other to pick up trash along the shoreline. After wiping out several acres of island forest, and gathering many tons of washed up tar and oil, the students had enough fuel to roast maybe two or three marshmallows and one hot dog to divide amongst themselves. They all pitched in and helped Michael Martin dig the most awesome sand bench ever created around the furious fire. As the little kiddies roasted marshmallows and listened to Gary's ghosts stories, wild boars began ravaging the campsite and flying jellyfish invaded the beach. Everyone ran into their tents because the children knew that "if you wanna live a nice quiet life do yourself a favor, don't come out at night, 'cause the freaks come out at night, the freaks come out at night."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRzSc8Mkr8c

Kasper and Jordan

Day EIGHTEEN | As the Sun Goes Down

The Skipper

"WE'RE ROLLING OUT!" Gary says from the parking lot of our hotel. We jump in the vans and hit the ground running. Cruising down the highway for miles and miles, we soon stop to grab some groceries for our island getaway. After eating lunch outside the vans in the nice warm weather, we pack up once again and take off towards Biloxi, MS. 

Arriving in Biloxi, we park the vans right next to the harbor and unload our tents and sleeping bags. While half the studio loads their things in the boat called the Skipper, the other half sits and waits for their turn. Sitting there bored out of our minds, some of us decided to go and do something. Some walked down the sidewalk towards the beach, some played with tree themed cards, and some went to a nearby store to occupy their time.

Flipping like a dolphin

Finally when the Skipper returned after two hours, we grabbed our luggage and loaded it onto the boat. Taking off from the harbor we started our adventure in the Gulf of Mexico. Gliding through the water many of us went to the front of the boat to get a better view of the water. Making our way through the deep waters we see pelicans and seagulls fly over our heads. Following behind our boat we see dolphins off in the distance jumping out of the water. Soon they catch up to us and from the wake of our boat the dolphins begin to leap out of the water.

The dolphins soon disappear and the sun soon begins to fall. Watching the beautiful sunset, the water begins to turn a red. Off in the distance now we see Horn Island and the tents sprouting up from the sandy beach. We then arrive about three hundred feet from the island and anchor. The crew then explains to us how we will be getting to the island in small groups of about six. Group after group we arrive on the island. Looking for our tent mates we set up our tents as the sun seems to fall faster.

Watching the sun go down

After pitching out tents we all went to look for sticks so that we could cook our hot dogs over the soon to be made fire. Whittling our sticks, our stomachs are ready for the group meal. We are sitting in a circle around the warm fire holding our hot dogs on sticks, and eagerly waiting for our hot dogs to cook over the fire. Even though many people’s hot dogs kept falling into the fire, we kept on going and didn’t give up. We were too hungry to give up. Right after hot dogs, we moved on to cooking marshmallows, either really burnt or golden brown. The S’mores were delicious.

When everyone was done cooking their hot dogs and S’mores, many tried to make seats for themselves by digging in the sand to make comfortable chairs. Everyone sat in a circle around the fire and chatted with people nearby as the sun completely vanished. Talking away into the night, people began to go on their way one after another to get some rest for the next day. The group around the fire got smaller and smaller, as some went to sit nearby the water and watch the stars above.

As the fire simmers down

The fire simmered down, the crowd was gone, and the only thing left was the sounds of the water hitting the shore. What a peaceful night on Horn Island. 

Shane and Qiyi

Day SEVENTEEN | A Country Road A Tree Evening

This was the last day in New Orleans.  We staid by our hotel in the French Quarter, then visited the Lower Ninth Ward in the afternoon.

After exploring the French quarter for the last couple days, we looked into the quaint cultural French quarter a little closer. For Julie’s class we continued the project from the day before which we were separated into teams to look at the facade of the apartments and businesses on certain streets. We went back to the same street and focused on the materials and details of the streetscape.  We chose 3 blocks in a row and mapped out where outlets for water, sewage, drainage, electrical, and other street covers were. 
 I passed a small house on the street where there was a man putting on new gutters. After talking to him for a while about where we were from and what we were doing with our sketch books. He gave me a old nail, that he said was close to 100 years old from the house. It was a great souvenir and ‘found object’ (which is another project for Studio). The mapping of the streetscape is a project that will be continued when back in Ames. Many of us went out to lunch, some ate leftovers from the night before to save money; then connecting all back at the hotel to leave for the Lower Ninth Ward for the afternoon.

We all packed up into the vans and made our way to the Lower 9th Ward, as many of you know the 9^th Ward the area most heavily affected by hurricane Katrina, just 5 short years ago. Upon arrival we were greeted by Robert Green Sr., a Hurricane Katrina survivor. Robert Green shared his story of the heart ache and the experience for him during Katrina. Hearing just his story alone made many of us realize how many other stories there were from those dreadful times. Although Green had to deal with the loss of a granddaughter and his mother, and a whole structured community, he gladly shared his story. He not only shared his story but the story the community. Even 5 years later there is a lot of work still to be done in the Lower 9^th Ward. Houses that survived Katrina and the levy break, still stand in the area but few are livable. 

 What Mr. Green really wanted us to understand was the hope that the community has for the future of the Lower 9^th Ward. People that moved away from the area after the tragedy are starting to return. Green explained to us that there are many foundations that have helped many people back on their feet. Such as the “Make It Right Foundation" that have substantially helped those who lived in the Lower 9^th Ward before Katrina, fund the building of a new home.

The well known actor Brad Pitt has been an advocate for the "Make It Right Foundation". The Construction crews are busy all over this area, building multiple new homes, and demolishing the remnants of others. It stood out to me the most was the sense of community that this place seemed to still maintain after a horrific event.

A Thanks to Mr. Robert Green Sr. for opening his home, and giving us a personal tour of the Lower 9^th Ward.

-Morgan and Kaci

Day SIXTEEN | I Didn't Know Nicholas Cage Was Dead

On the sixteenth day of the fabled “Savanna Studio”, the students awoke to that ever-annoying sound that is hotel wake-up calls. Trying to make the most of it, we showered and headed downstairs to engage in what would end up being an incredibly disappointing breakfast. Not to go off on a tangent, but that breakfast sucked. There was absolutely no hot food, and the garbage cans were WAY too small. Anyway, we headed out the door into the bustling city of New Orleans towards the oddly-named St. Louis Cemetery Number One. Upon arrival, we took notice that the cemetery did not open for another hour. We therefore decided that it was time for a makeshift lecture, one that ended up being quite interesting. We eventually entered the cemetery, which took us by surprise as a very unusual-looking place. We wandered around the labyrinth for a while doing sketches, and we saw the tomb of the still-living Nicholas Cage! Such a wonderful actor!

Later, we were split into groups, and assigned a new project. As groups, we were required to draw sections cuts and elevations of specific streets, while analyzing their social and cultural aspects. We spent a few hours drawing, and eventually we decided to break for lunch. Personally, I wanted to eat some of the local cuisine, so Jordan and I headed to a small deli where I ordered an alligator po-boy. My analysis: not bad. Eventually, the whole group met up in the middle of the French Quarter, in a small park called Jackson Square. We barely had time to look around there, as we swiftly (Michael Martin’s pace) departed towards the Piazza d’Italia. This plaza, which was built by a postmodern landscape architect in 1978, was the source of much intrigue by the Savanna students. After exploring its many fountains and inspecting the colorful columns that held it together, Michael decided it was time for another lecture. He talked about the plaza and its many criticisms, and so we all took notes like good students. By this point, it was about 3 PM, and the professors told us that we had the rest of the day to work on our street assignment.

Hearing this, we all departed in different directions. Some people even decided to pick up tickets to a Hornets vs. Clippers NBA game that night. The majority of the students spent the evening working on the Homochitto plots that had been assigned to us several days earlier. It wasn’t a hard assignment, but it was definitely time-consuming. Several others attended the game, and the consensus was that it was very boring. They paid for their poor decision by working on their plots late into the night. Eventually, everyone decided that it was time to go to sleep, in order to prepare for another day in the amazing/dirty/cultured/dangerous/European city of New Orleans.

Batman and Robin (Otherwise known as Sam and Tony)

Day FIFTEEN | "The Big Easy"

For those of us who are too proud to wear the same clothes twice, the day began bright and early at the laundromat. Sadly enough, I found that it still holds to be the one inevitable law of civilization that one lone sock must be lost in every load of laundry (frown face). Just before noon we headed into the French Quarter to explore, smelling spring-time fresh of course.

A little prior knowledge and research the night before led us through the bustling French Quarter to Café du Monde, a famous café located in the French Market area. The café is best known for its café au lait and French-style beignets (doughnuts), and we understood why. The coffee was perfectly blended with chicory, a New Orleans tradition, and the deep-fried beignets doused in powdered sugar were enough to satisfy any sweet tooth. After the sweet start to the day, it was time to venture deeper into what the French Market had to offer.

   

For a group of yahoos from the upper Midwest, the French Market held wonders beyond compare. Cajun and Creole food stands stretched from the entrance as far as the eye could see (assuming the eye belonged to a person with at least moderate near-sightedness). Inside the heart of the market lay even more precious jewels to behold. A massive jumble of stalls sold very similar wares, with just a few vendor-specific items to be found if one were willing to look. These items were all hidden in a mass of others, generally consisting of what one would expect to see in New Orleans if they had never actually visited the city. Hundreds of alligator heads and Mardi Gras masks were piled high on stall tables. Almost every vendor offered some sort of voodoo souvenir. Despite all of these things being common and cliché, I had absolutely no objection to them. They may have been made and sold solely for the purpose of tourism, but New Orleans thrives on it. As a result, many of the residents of the area, unlike those in other big cities, have acquired a friendly demeanor towards outsiders. In my mind, there’s nothing wrong with generic in the right dosage.

In sharp contrast to the somewhat generic dosage of New Orleans that we received at the French Market, our nighttime experience was anything but generic. Due to the fact that New Orleans is known as the “birthplace of jazz,” it is not uncommon to see restaurants and bars along Bourbon Street, and throughout the French Quarter for that matter, to be host to live music which is usually of the jazz variety. This so-called “stereotypical music scene” is all that many tourists experience or care to experience, but for those who wish to capture the essence of the true historical roots of jazz in New Orleans, Preservation Hall in the heart of the French Quarter offers just the opportunity as we discovered. At eight o’clock sharp each evening the smooth sound of collective improvisation drifts from historic Preservation Hall through St. Peter Street. Due to the fame of the establishment, we anticipated a lengthy wait for admittance and planned accordingly, arriving an hour prior to the opening of the gates. I think I speak for everyone in attendance when I say that the hour wait and mere twelve dollar cover were time and money well spent. After all, experiencing the roots of jazz in such a historic establishment as Preservation Hall in the company of some of the best jazz players in the world was simply priceless. Needless to say the experience was a fitting conclusion to a day of cultural exploration.

Matt and Michael

Day FOURTEEN | N'awlins Bound

After another rough morning in the frigid temperatures, we finally got to pack up our frosty tents and head to New Orleans. It was hard to tell what Savanna Students were more excited about, visiting New Orleans or finally sleeping in a room with heat and a warm bed. Our agenda for the day was to drive towards New Orleans and stop at Evergreen Plantation to tour the grounds of the largest, most in tact plantations in the south. Afterwards we were to continue heading south to our hotel in the French Quarter.

Upon arriving at Evergreen Plantation we ate lunch with whatever we could find in the vans; fruit cups, bread, and water seemed to be the popular find. After a short bathroom break and getting all the bees out of the vans we drove up the driveway to the Plantation. The 200-year-old Live Oak trees made quite an impressive statement as you entered and made you feel as if you were in a movie. We talked with Renee about the history of the Creole-style house and of the land. We also learned about the various owners of the property and the slaves that lived and worked there. Renee also shared with us the Creole culture and some history about the native New Orleans people. To be Creole, one must be born in the New Orleans area.

After a quick laydown of our sketchbooks and some more conversation with Renee, we loaded up and rolled out. The view from out of our windows was definitely different from what we were used to; it was all water. We were driving on a causeway. Once into New Orleans, our task was to find our hotel. As simple as that sounds, it was not. As it turns out the road and trolley system is a little tricky and very particular in terms of when you can and cannot turn. Four of the five vans made it through the illegal left hand turn across the trolley tracks, the fifth van, however, was not as lucky. One of the several dozen police officers on that corner thought that we shouldn’t be turning and he let us know. So after driving several blocks we were finally allowed to cross the tracks (legally) and had to make our way back through the traffic to get to our hotel where we were greeted by Gary waving at us from the middle of the road. Once we were parked and all of the vans were unloaded, the night was ours to explore and find some awesome New Orleans cuisine.

Xinan and Alex

Day THIRTEEN | The Experience of the Palimpsest

Awakening to once again frigid weather, we hardy savanna students crawled from the warmth of our oversized sleeping bags to ready our breakfast and stand in line to use the restroom. Trying to enjoy our oatmeal and cold pop-tart meals we listened to Gary announce what we were doing for the day. We were heading off to travel back in time along the Natchez trail where we would draw where thousands have traveled before us. We packed into our mobile homes (also known as the vans) like clowns at the circus and hit the road.

We drove down the Natchez Trace. A road built in the 1930’s that was meant to be driven for enjoyment only. No commercial vehicles were allowed and Gary was forced to drive the speed limit of 55 mph so as to enjoy the view of the area instead of the blur of trees like on the highway. We stopped at an old part of the trace were the original pathway was and there we practiced our skills in color pencil sketching. Of course many of us found this style of sketching difficult, the end effect came out to be very strong and held emotional ties to the area.

From there we traveled to the ruins of an old pre-civil war home where all that stood today were tall pillars. There, standing high in the sky like lone soldiers of the grounds guarding the property below, the pillars became our inspiration and we laid their images down on our paper in thick black lines of graphite.  

  By now of course every student’s stomachs began to rumble with anticipation for their group meal that night. The promise of BBQ, pop, and ice cream danced in their heads as we again packed all of our art supplies goodies and packed into the vans like sardines with very large backpacks. But Gary still had one stop for the group to make that day for our stomachs would have to wait as we continued our path to the great Mound by the local Native Americans.

 The emerald mould is one of the largest ceremonial mounds in the country, is a flat-top earthen structure that rises about 35 feet high on around eight acres along the Natchez Trace Parkway. It’s super huge that it can hold several football games between our school and Nebraska! It was almost 4:30 when we arrived there. The sunshine was warm and gentle. Many people climbed on the top earth, and several guys were sliding down on the railing. That was really fun and hilarious. The only problem was that they probably felt the butt burning.  A bunch of people lied down on the lower sunshine area to have a short relaxing time. It must be fun if rolling down from the mound, while I just choose to sit on the grassland.

Finally, after the visit of the mound, we went the Pig out which is famous for its pulled pork homburg.   Pretty much everybody has the pulled pork. I had salads and the toast corn as the side dishes which were so small. The pork was chewy and dry. But it tasted good after putting some BBQ sauce.

 Anyway, the long was over and everyone was beat, pretty much. What will happen in the next stop, the colorful city? We will see.

Jessica and Hong

Day TWELVE | A Day Of Great Adventures

We woke up in the morning to freezing cold temperatures.  Breakfast was tough to eat because our hands were frozen. After drinking mugs of hot chocolate we were able to eat our food easier and we finished eating. We all ate breakfast and gathered in the pavilion where Gary told us about one of his favorite things to do, a plant transect.  He separated us into transect groups and soon after we were venturing through the woods identifying trees and shrubs.  Gary got very excited after seeing a few rare plants in some of our plots. Nothing makes Gary happier than a fine specimen!  Not only did we find a lot of neat plants, we also found a lot of neat insects.  We saw the biggest spider ever and also a lizard, which was a cool find. Luigi decided it would be a good idea to put the lizard on its arm, but the lizard ended up crawling up his arm to his head and was just chillin’ there. It wouldn’t move!  After doing our plant transect in the morning we moved on to the great city of Natchez, Mississippi.
When we arrived to Natchez we went to the visitors center where many activities were done. This was probably one of the greatest visitor centers of the trip so far, because they provided free beverages! Also, they had a mighty fine collection of Junior Ranger badges. Many of us are aspiring Junior Rangers, so seeing that badge collection was definitely a treat.  After the visitors center we went to the Melrose Plantation in the city which was very interesting.  Many of us did the activity booklet to become a Natchez junior ranger. The activity book was pretty difficult to complete. We had to do difficult activities like word finds, making a family tree, and creating our own war flag! It was most definitely a challenge. I think I speak for everyone when I say I felt extremely proud to complete the booklet. Once we completed the booklet, the ranger hooked us up with some pretty sweet things. Not only did we get a badge, we got a patch AND a paper hat! 
After becoming rangers we walked around the plantation and there was a lot of giant live oak trees, which were a site to see.  The grounds were covered in anthills, which were fun to stomp on because the ants would scurry out of their homes.  After terrorizing the ants, we decided that it was time to get down to business and actually sketch and watercolor. While sketching we stumbled upon a hickory tree, which was loaded with pecans.  We gathered many bags of them and took them back to camp with us.
When we were finished at the plantation, we drove back to camp to cook a delicious dinner.  After eating dinner, we were all dreading a large project we had to work on in the cold.  We had to design a connection from Beale Street to the Mississippi river in Memphis. We were all up very late into the night working on our projects, which led us into the next day…
Mason and Kat

Day ELEVEN | CEMETERIES AND SHRINES




No more walking in Memphis, time to camp again!  Our next destination was Homochitto National Forest located in Natchez, MS.  But before arriving, we had to make a few stops along the way.  We stopped in Vicksburg at a cemetery called "Vicksburg National Cemetery" that held many fallen US Confederate soldiers.  It was a very large grave site, containing over 18,000 headstones.  When we were leaving the cemetery we saw this green vine that was covering huge areas of land and even climbing trees and telephone poles.  This intrigued many of us so we asked our professors what it was.  Turns out that the vine we were seeing everywhere was called Kudzu.  It was brought over from Asia to help control erosion along the railroad lines.  But the vine liked the climate in the south too much, and became very invasive.  It became known as "The vine that ate the South".  It can grow up to a foot per night and will grow over anything, houses, cars, anything in its path.

Kudzu

On our way out of Vicksburg, we stopped along the road at what looked like someone's front yard.  Turns out, Gary knew the guy that used to live there (sadly he passed away recently).  His name was Rev. Dennis, and he was a very religious man.  He built this shrine to God and Jesus Christ in his front yard.  It was built out of lots of everyday materials, such as brick, stone, and even a school bus.  He put them together to create these very interesting pillars and walls that has signs with scripture writing on them.  The blocks and bricks were painted very bright colors, orange, yellow, red, and blue being the most used.  We did a watercolor here and talked a little about the place.  Many of us wished we could have met Rev. Dennis and heard his story and the message he wanted the place to convey.

Finally we reached our campsite.  It was already dark when we arrived, so we had a bit of a hard time trying to pitch our tents.  Our campsite in Homochitto was one of the least primitive sites that we stayed at on either trip.  It had a large pavilion that had wooden benches, a fire pit, and a kitchen area with sinks.  The roof above the benches even had ceiling fans!  Some of us pondered the existence of ghosts and aliens while walking down to the shower house area.  There were some very large spiders in the area as well.  They spun webs from high trees all the way down to the ground.  For any of you that were jealous of us being down south in the warm weather, don't be.  There was a cold front that chilled us to the bone that night.  But after waking up with frost on our tents a few nights before in Missouri, we were used to it.  All in all, this travel day turned out to be pretty interesting and eventful. 

Over and out,
David and Nate

Day TEN | Walkin in Memphis in the Middle of the Pouring Rain

We awoke today in Memphis with a rude realization that the past two days of canoeing, exploration, and free time were behind us. Once again we all had to face living in the real world of research, interventions, and most of all, rain. (Fortunately we were also welcomed into the day with a continental breakfast in the hotel lobby.)

After the usual hotel breakfast of bagels and coffee, we trekked out to the predominating symbol of Memphitian history and culture that is Beale Street. The class day began with the usual lecture stop in the most conveniently located park. There we learned about the establishment of Memphis and why its location on a bluff on the Mississippi River is significant. We were also informed of our charge for the day, the design of a landing that would connect Beale Street to the River. From there we were released to explore and seek inspiration that will be incorporated into our designs. All of this in the constant drizzle rain we've been experiencing during our stay in Memphis.

The rest of the day plays out to how we want to manage our time on the intervention. We leave to set up camp in the wild once again bright and early tomorrow morning, so ideal working time would have to be tonight. Our studio, like any other hotel we have stayed at, took form as we inhabited the lobby and breakfast area for work space. Tonight is our last dinner in the 'City on the River', so we made sure to ink in some break time from our city intervention.

Today marks the halfway point on our journey. Let the second half begin. I bid you adieu from Memphis, TN. Our next stop is Natchez Trace State Park, until then, stay tuned for our next blog!

Ryan Andersen and Ryan Anderson

Day NINE |

Nick:

The morning of Tuesday November 2^nd was fairly slow for most who chose to sleep in a bit on our first free day in Memphis, TN. Unable to sleep in I found myself eating breakfast at 6:45 in the morning.  After eating a few breakfast pastries I hurried back to my room to retrieve my laundry hoping to beat anyone else to the laundry room next door. The early morning drizzle chilled me as I crossed the parking lot to the Marriot hotel. The lady at the front desk greeted me as I entered, handing me a room key to the laundry room she informed me another person had just gone up to start their laundry. Slightly discouraged I took the elevator to the 5^th floor, and discovered Julie had arrived just minutes before me at the laundry room, which due to break downs left only one working washer and dryer. Instead of going back to my room I sat down outside in the hallway, put in my Ipod, and proceeded to read my reader.  Two articles and two loads later Julie poked her head out of the laundry room and told me the machine was open. Forty-five minutes later my washer was finished and Julie had given up trying to dry her clothes in the seemingly faulty dryers. Hoping to get my laundry somewhat dry and waited nearly and hour while the dryer ran on high heat only to pull out clothes, which were still very damp. Frustrated I returned to my room and promptly began hanging my clothes about the room.

Nick:

My morning was fairly low because I like a lot of people decided to sleep in for a bit and woke up at the insanely late hour of 8am. Refreshed by my wonderful sleep I went down and had a breakfast of pastries and cereal, which made me ready to encounter the day. So I went back up stairs and went to bed. Around 11 I headed out to do laundry and stayed there laundering until about 1 PM. It would have been a very uninteresting time, but luckily there was a Piggly Wigglies right across the street where I found cheese, crackers, and 25 cent grape soda! The perfect lunch before I went back to the hotel.

Nick:

Just before returning to my room a large group left the hotel in search of a Laundromat. So I flipped on the tube as I lay my clothes about the room.  Over the course of the rest of the afternoon I saw many episodes of Law and Order SVU while ironing my pants and shirts.

Nick:

After returning to the hotel I was approached by some classmates about going to Sun Studios, the studio that discovered Elvis and multiple other blues favorites.

It was an interesting walk to the studio, but the end result was definitely worth it! We got a live tour by a man with possibly the greatest sideburns on the planet. He gave a great performance explaining the history of the songwriters and recorders associated with sun while at the same time playing songs for us. At the end of the tour we even got to hold a mike that Elvis used!

Nick:

As dinner time approached I was invited by Morgan, Jeff, and Alex to attend Kaci’s birthday party dinner at the Hard Rock Café on Beale St. Our group left the hotel and made our way a few blocks over to Beale St. walking under the flashing neon lights and past the live bands playing inside the bars and restaurants. The amount of music on the street is incredible and excites the night air. Dinner was very good, we had the restaurant mostly to ourselves, and most of the group got on stage to pose for pictures with the instruments. At the end of the night we all were happy with the festivities and hurried back to the hotel as the rain fell.

Nick:

After a great afternoon in Sun Studios, we headed back to our hotel room to prepare for a evening of encountering great Memphinian food and music. So we headed back over to B.B. Kings. The music at B.B. Kings was wonderful and we were right next to the performers so that only enhanced the atmosphere and experience of the place. I ended up going with the sampler platter of traditional Memphis food such as catfish nuggets, dry ribs, fried pickles and Memphis hot wings. It was delicious! So, overly full, I headed back to the hotel ready to sleep and experience another day in the south.

Day EIGHT | Once Upon A Time....

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, two girls set off on a day of travels, not knowing what adventures lay ahead. They depart from their campsite tucked in the hills of Missouri and take an unknown winding road heading east to the city of blues. After feeling as if they were in their own world for four whole days the young girls are excited to hear from family and friends again. It is not long before the two girls are fast asleep in the back of the van. After making a stop for gas, bathrooms and more bathrooms they continue until they come upon the small town of Sedgewickville. This town is home to one of four covered bridges in Missouri and a working mill. The class meets a lovely lady and her photo shy kitty who show them around the mill and share some history. They are then directed to the opposite side of the river where they complete exquisite colored pencil drawings. It is here that they will also present their vegetation transects that they spent many hours laboring over the night before. Its not long before they are back on the road and in desperate need of some food. It was a high-speed chase into the nearest fast food joint. The girls enjoy a much-needed greasy burger and fries and then they are back on the road with only a few more hours left to travel. They fall asleep only to wake up with the view of the city of blues, Memphis!  They arrive in style cruising beneath a sea of bright lights and listening to ‘Walking in Memphis’. They take a tour of parking garages before finally reaching their destination. Finding a quick dinner becomes priority for the girls so they can get a good night’s sleep before their free day!

Amber and Brittany