Journal #28

It is amazing how diverse the Unites States is. Being diverse allows for the country to be filled with tons of differing cultures and social statuses. A couple if years ago my family and I decided to drive to Florida for a family vacation. The place we wanted to go to was 14 hours away so we did not want to drive it all at once. Instead, we made plans to drive to Memphis, Tennessee and stay there for the night. That was the first time my siblings and I had ever been to Memphis. Right away I could tell it was nothing like Springfield because of the people, smells, and the layout. The first thing we did was check into our hotel and that was around five o clock, so we were starting to work up an appetite. Down in the hotel lobby, my dad asked the receptionist for recommendations on places to eat. The receptionist recommended this one barbecue rib place. Then we set off to find this restaurant. What was cool was that we could just walk to the place instead of driving. While we were in Memphis, we only walked to the places we wanted to go instead of driving. Everything was in close range of each other and packed close.  Once we got to the place where we were going to eat dinner, a waitress escorted up to our table. I took a look around at all the people around me and what I saw, I was not used to. I saw mangy, smelly, scruffy men dressed in ripped clothing. This sight is not usually seen in Springfield. The food we ate was DELICIOUS and was totally worth being in an unusual place. After dinner, we walked around and at one point, a homeless man walked up to us. He begged my dad for money and he even gave my sister and I a flower that he had picked off of a bush. It was a really nice gesture so my dad gave the homeless man a couple of dollars, which did not make my mom very happy.