[NatsyNoo]

Day 3
This morning, we will be leaving Chicago bright and early to hit Route 66.

I’ve found some iconic sights that we will see/stop by on our way to St Louis, including the Gemini Giant, Funk’s Grove Maple Syrup Farm, Tall Paul and the Cozy Dog Drive Inn.

When we arrive at St Louis, our first stop will be lunch, and I think we’re going to get our Hooters fix.

We’re hoping to have our Gateway Arch tour booked for 2pm, so we’ll explore the couple of other things that we want to either before or after, depending on time. We’ll be seeing the Old Courthouse, where the famous Dred Scott civil rights case was heard; the City Garden and possibly the Busch Stadium.

Once back on Route 66, we’ll make a brief pit stop at Ted Drew’s Frozen Custard, before finishing our journey to Memphis.

We are hoping to arrive in time to sample Central BBQ’s famous nachos, but otherwise, it’ll be straight to our hotel and most likely, straight to bed.

Memphis is our only unfinalized hotel. I have a Holiday Inn Express near Graceland booked, but we might change this nearer the time to see if we can get a better deal than currently advertised for one of the Downtown-based hotels.

Day 4
This day is jam packed, but it’s what we needed to do for the trip to include everything we wanted it to (and the problem with trips like this is that the more you read and research, the more you want to do!).

We’ll start by taking the Main Street Trolley down to the National Civil Rights Museum (and the sight of Martin Luther King’s assassination), followed by a wander to some of the sights and monuments of Downtown.

We’ll pop by Beale Street but we’ll be back later to experience the soul and blues vibes at night.

After lunch, we’ll head to Sun Studio and Stax Museum (I couldn’t pick, so we’re doing both!), before heading back to the hotel to freshen up for our night on the town.

I think we’ll most likely eat at BB King’s (the original) but we might see something else that takes our fancy!

Day 5
No trip to Memphis is complete without a trip to Graceland, so that’s exactly what we’ll do. We plan to get here for opening so we can explore this morning before our next trip.

We’ll be purchasing the Elvis Experience Package including Airplanes, so we will see the King’s grave, his private jets, automobiles (including his pink Cadillac), many of his personal belongings, the Jungle Room, and of course, those Blue Suede Shoes!

Once we’re finished up at Graceland, we’ll be starting our journey down to Dallas, but will be stopping at Little Rock, Arkansas, en route, so we can stop by the Bill Clinton Presidential Library, which I’m really looking forward to.

We also plan to stop at the Texarkana Post Office so we can see the Post Office which straddles the State Lines.

We thought these two stops would break up the otherwise long journey down to Dallas, where we don’t expect to arrive until late, so we’ll probably just grab something quick and easy for dinner. We’re staying at the Doubletree by Hilton near the Galleria, and there is a Chick-fil-a nearby, which seems like an obvious option!