We've left Jackson behind and travelled 190 miles to Tupelo, Mississippi. The RV Resort is quite quaint, this is the office/storm shelter. Not too sure about this.
As we checked in, the manager told us that the weather is looking nasty for tomorrow night; possible tornados. Oh great! The resort is built on a hill and because I expressed concerns, he made sure to put us on the highest site in the park, no kidding.
This is the bottom, that's the top. Anyway, that's not till tomorrow night.
After a good nights sleep, we're off to check out more of the Trace. Although the Trace was not used much by the time of the civil war, a lot of battles happened and a lot of armies travelled along it. These are Confederate grave stones along the Trace.
Good forest husbandry requires occasional burns to keep the area clear of fire hazards and promote new growth. The Trace didn't need burning I guess.
We try to learn about things in the areas we travel. For example what does a dogwood tree look like? You can tell by it's bark; get it? Anyhoo, I can now identify what it looks like. It looks like I'm afraid of its bite as well.
Remember the storm in Vidalia? Apparently it got to here as well. Lots of trees down along the road.
There are dozens of Indian mounds along the Trace. Used as burial and ceremonial sites, some are from 1 AD to 1000 AD, now that's old.
This is Cave Springs where the local Chickasaw Indians spent their weekends spelunking and barbecuing, I guess. A great spot to avoid bad weather.
I found a wood nymph at Buzzard Roost Springs, a wayside station along the Trace.
Just up the road is the crossing at the Tennessee River. Back in the Trace days, there was a ferry here to take the travelers across. When the Confederate Army needed to cross, the operator charged them $75,000 to ferry them across. Now there's a smart business man. I'm surprised they didn't shoot him.
A babbling brook and underground spring keeps this creek at 57F and running year round. Very soothing. It went downhill from here. Remember that cute RV Resort office/shelter? Well, the tornado siren went off at 3:30 AM so we grabbed our emergency bag of stuff and headed down to the shelter. Do you remember the 3 pigs? If our RV is the straw house, then the Shelter must be the twig house and didn't feel too safe if the big bad wolf came huffing and puffing. Fortunately the bad weather passed us by and we got back to bed about 5 AM. The Eye missed us!
Not to be put off by near disaster, and being in Tupelo, we must go to see where the life of the King started. So after sleeping in a bit after our night of terror, we headed over to the birthplace of Elvis. This is where he was born, in a shotgun shack built by his dad, uncle and grandfather. Shotgun shacks were built so that the front door, a hall way, and the back door were all aligned so that a shotgun fired through the front door would go out the back. I'm not sure why that was important.
The shack where Elvis grew up had 2 rooms. This is the kitchen and dining room. The shotgun pellets would pass to Grammies left.
This is the other room, both living and bed room. The pellets would also pass to my left. That's it, the whole home. Although Grammie says it's still bigger than our RV.
But we do have an indoor privy!
The church where Elvis went as a child was going to be demolished to make room for a bigger church so it was moved onto land beside his boyhood home.
It was here that he was exposed to hymns and the music that would shape his future.
On the museum grounds is a statue of Elvis at 13, the year that he and his family moved to Memphis. By then he had started singing in public and better opportunities were coming in Memphis.
When he was 11, his mom took him to this hardware store to buy his birthday gift. He wanted a .22 gun but his mom was scared about it so the store clerk showed him a guitar which he and Elvis' mom convinced him to take instead. Just think, he might have become a world class sniper instead!
After our museum visit, which honestly, got us thinking about Elvis, his career, and how we enjoyed his music, we stopped at a local drive inn for lunch. Called Johnnies, it was a spot where Elvis hung out. We didn't know that until we found ourselves sitting in Elvis' booth. The picture above us shows the King sitting in the same booth and the same spot as I am. What a cool connection. Well, now they're calling for severe weather again tonight. Hopefully we'll be blogging again soon. TTFN
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