Walking in Memphis

WE ARE NOW IN MEMPHIS!!! We have gone through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas and are now in the famous Memphis, Tennessee for...a REST day! That's right-a REST day! Tomorrow we are going to be sleeping in, and going to see Graceland, a sight that I've always wanted to check out! Sadly, my mom left us today to go home. :( She has only been gone for a few hours and I already miss her!! Not only because she made our lunches, was our support van, and carried all our stuff, but because she was such an encouragement during her time here. My mother is incredible, and after spending these 10 days with her I am only more convinced that I have the best mom in the world!!! Anyways, she's gone and now it's just me and dad. I'm looking forward to some quality time with him as well. In the last few days, we've had a few mechanical difficulties. AKA 3 flat tires-within two hours of each other. (see pictures). Oh yeah, and it was raining the entire time. Other than that, the bikes have been running very smoothly. It's definitely a lot harder to ride with all of our stuff loaded in the bags. My butt starts hurting a lot earlier in the day, and steering is a bit harder to control, but I made it here in one piece! One thing that HAS become a bit of an issue is the SUN. I never usually burn, but because I'm spending so much time in the sun, my legs and back have become very sunburnt and quite painful. I'm hoping that by staying out of the sun, it will give my skin some time to heal. Speaking of which, I already have CRAZY tanlines!! They are really random because they are on my ankles, my knees, my fingers, and half of my face (because of the shade from the helmet). When we go out for dinner and I put on normal clothes, I get the weirdest looks because my skin just has sections of brown, red, and white. It's actually pretty disgusting, but I'm embracing it! I've included some pictures from the last few days. Special game for you readers: Usually my mom or I tell dad when to take pictures. But sometimes, he will pull over to the side of the road, tell me to keep going because he's going to get a "great picture of something". I'm sure it won't take much time for you to figure out which one is his in this next batch of photos. Hope you enjoy! Miss you all! A