going to make the article. We all paid and hit the road and that was when Cheryl realized that she committed a major offense when she clicked that she forgot to pay for her dessert. She felt so bad, and I told her that Betty was going to have her first NADOA Ethics complaint because I was going to turn her in. She called them right away (because there was no turning back) and apologized and offered to pay them over the phone, but they forgave her and said it was on the house. DARN! I guess I wouldn’t be turning in my ethics complaint after all. We eventually made it to Memphis, where we locked the doors. We ended up meeting Lisa’s daughter for dinner at Marlowe’s Ribs & Restaurant. Now let me just say that Memphis BBQ has nothing on Texas BBQ, there may be a little bias in that opinion, but I am sure the ladies would agree. We’ve had better, way better, but it did hit the spot. Finally, we would get to our hotel and call it a night because we had plans for the next day. Day 2: Memphis to Louisville. We started our morning by going to breakfast. We went to a place called Bryant’s Breakfast. We heard great reviews and how sometimes people lined up out the door. Breakfast was just okay, but I think the best part of breakfast was Lisa trying to setup her daughter with one of the guys that worked there. She had heard that one of the employees used to work at the place her daughter currently works. I told her not to do it, but Lisa being Lisa, played match maker. It was hilarious to see this in action. The guy eventually came over and gave Lisa his card. First thing that popped in my head was that I am a single guy, what is she going to do to me? Thankfully, on this trip, nothing. Next stop? GRACELAND!
You cannot stop by Memphis without seeing the home of Elvis. We had this extravagant outing planned to a tee, or so we thought. Keep in mind during this time, we are in contact with Norma Dooley, current NADOA President. She reminded us that the Riverboat trip we had purchased tickets to was at 7:00 pm and we had to be there by 6:30 pm. No problem! We would cruise Graceland and be on the road with an hour to spare. We just forgot about one thing, which someone was gracious enough to remind us, TIME ZONE CHANGE! We would be going from Central Time Zone to Eastern Time Zone. Well, that dog just don’t hunt. So, a nice relaxing tour of Graceland turned into a “Get out of my way” tour. We zoomed through the mansion like a speeding bullet. We pushed our way through the exhibits, made a pit stop to see the pink Cadillac, and then stopped at the gift shop. It was then that we decided that another road trip would be necessary in the future. So, we hit the road right away. Now, I like to think of myself as a safe driver, but when you are on a time limit, we got to go, and that I did. I think I cruised between Memphis and Nashville going about 80-95 mph. All with Betty in the passenger’s seat, Cheryl in the back sleeping, and Lisa in the back doing something on her phone. Now I don’t know if you know this, but Cheryl had her Institute in Nashville, TN, and for good reason, she loves Nashville and loves Country Music. I wanted to wake her up by riding the side of the road and hitting the “wake-up bumps”. But she woke up on her own. Darn! Now I am only bringing up this next part because it will come into play on our trip back home. While driving in Nashville, we came across a tall building, and it had Dollar General on the building. I asked the ladies, “I wonder if that is the Dollar General Headquarters?” We didn’t know and didn’t think anything about it… yet. We drove passed Nashville and headed to Kentucky. While driving through Kentucky we saw the Smokey Mountains. Well, we thought it was the Smokey Mountains but apparently, we all failed Geography because the haze was something coming from Canada, so it was just a haze, but we did see something on fire and I
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G rowth T hrough E ducat i on - S pe c i al I ns t i tut e E d i t i on 2023
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