GRACELAND!

In yesterday’s blog I never mention where we are so I want to get that out. We are in West Memphis located in Arkansas just over the border from Memphis Tennessee.

The rain quit last night and became very foggy in the morning reaching 7C but warming up to 18C with lots of sun through the day.

The fog is clearing.

While letting the sun warm up in the morning Cathy and I took a bicycle ride around the campground and to check out the roadways throughout to see which one won’t muck up the Wing too badly. While touring around the site we came across a building indicating the water level from the flood here in 2011.

Talking to one of the guys who work here, he says they have a good warning prior to the actual flooding and they have time to get the buildings moved (that is why they are wheels) and hydro turned off at the sites, etc.

As John Cash would sing "How high is the water momma".

Just hook on and haul away.

After lunch the fog had cleared and we jumped on the Wing, crossed the border and headed to Graceland even though Cathy says she wasn’t a real Elvis fan. It was a short 15 minute drive. Graceland is located in the city but went Elvis bought the property it was in the outskirts. Elvis bought this house and 13 acres from a Doctor and his wife for $100,000.00. The house was gift to the Dr. and his wife, from the wife’s aunt called “Grace”. They called the property Graceland.

Front

Back

We took the tour through the house (can’t go upstairs), the racquetball building, trophy room, office building, the two airplanes and several buildings with his outfits, record awards and vehicles he owned and of course the cemetery where Elvis, his parents and grandmother are buried.    

Front gate - if you look closely at the bricks you can see the names and dates people have put on them.

The whole wall was covered.

A constant supply of flowers are dropped off daily and are removed when they are spent.

I have more pictures which I will post later.

We then came back to the campground and sat on the bank of the river and watched the flatboats go by pushing the barges. They go by every 10 minutes or so.

Till tomorrow....

“HI Y’ALL” FROM ARKANSAS

It continued drizzling on and off all day in our travels today with a cooler 8C for a high. We noticed some differences as we ventured north, the greenness of the grass was turning browner and the trees have not started to leaf out yet.

We took a section of the Natchez Trace Parkway.

It was really weird at one point as we crossed over a bridge; I felt the urge to jump off of it when Cathy said we were going over the Tallahatchie River (hint - Ode to Billy Joe). Just after our lunch Cathy started having problems with both gps devices. One completely froze up and the other was indicating a weak signal. Cathy was worried not having her support there to help her but she managed fine. She did however make a call to tech. support after we got settled in and found out one of the satellites was down for service or repositioning by the government. They did start working later on.

Tallahatchie River

We journeyed north through Mississippi, across the south-west corner of Tennessee and ended up just inside the Arkansas border. We are in “Tom Sawyer’s” RV Park located right on the Mississippi and I mean right on the river. We are parked about 90 feet from the bank. As we look out the front of the coach we can see the barges going by. I am not sure if I will be able to sleep with all of this rain, as the river level could go up (yikes)!

The view

Cathy checking things out.

 http://goo.gl/maps/w6MJe

All for now - I have to mark the water level on the river bank.

RAIN!

It was a high of 12C today and the rain started at about 3 o’clock this morning. It continued on and off all day.

The campground was quite full last night and by 11 this morning was pretty empty, with only a few rolling in this afternoon. I had some online banking to do and we relaxed the rest of the day watching TV and the new visitors coming in. This can be very entertaining watching the husbands and wives working together trying to get their units positioned just right. The communication between them can at times be comical. Today I watched the wife standing outside in the rain signaling for the husband to back up more but he instead drove forward. She threw her hands up in the air with disgust.  The same thing happened a couple of days ago but the wife banged on the side of the coach. She wasn’t too happy.

We are on the road tomorrow, heading north.

   

Sorry no pictures today.

Till tomorrow...

DOWNTOWN VICKSBURG

Today was nice with a high of 25C, with a slight breeze and a little humidity, we decided to go down town early and check out the stores and some museums. We also had a little welding job to do on the bicycle rack I made. I have to say at this point it was not done on any welds Dale did back in Mercedes.  Due to the rough roads and bouncing a section starting it to crack so I wanted to get it touched up before moving on.

The next stop we made was at the Biedenharn Coca Cola museum which is located in the restored 1890 original building on Washington Street. This was the location were Coca Cola was first bottled.

 

Continuing along Washington Street, Cathy wanted to check out the variety of stores which included a Drug Store with many herbal remedies and old medications in a wide selection of containers. Walking through these old structures and see the large beams, columns and doors showed how heavy duty everything was built back then.

Check out this door it was at least 3 inches thick and thedoor handle is even with Cathy's eyes.

Cathy did find the purse to die for in one store and it had to be bought since it was also reduced to $20.00. (Shoes and purses!!!!)

After lunch we crossed the street and entered the Lower Mississippi River Museum which included Motor Vessel Mississippi  IV. This museum showed the history of the river and the work done on it by the Corps of Engineers.

Mississippi IV

Cathy at the controls of the Mississippi IV.

With Cathy at the controls I am just hanging on.

Afterwards we decided to go back to the coach and load up the bike and bicycles since it sounds like rain for the next two days. Oh well we are happy with our exploring of the area and are just going to sit out the rain here until Thursday instead of moving on. The temperature will still be warm.

Till tomorrow...