One for the money, two were no go’s.
Tupelo, Meridian, Mobile. There was little to see in the latter 2 cities and only 1 place of note in Tupelo so this should be a short post.
That one place of note? Tupelo is the hometown town of one Elvis Aaron Presley who I believe could sing a bit. So as we needed a place to stop and rest Tupelo was our first stop post Nashville. Before I move on to the birth place of Elvis I will tell you that we travelled down another of America’s great drives to get here. The Natchez Trace Parkway is a track thousands of years old. Scientists tell us it was used as migration trails from the great Wooly Mammoth thousands of years ago through ancient Indian Tribes to today’s travellers. We still have the lower section to go so I am saving the photos of the parkway until we’ve completed it all and then I will present it as a blog post of it’s own. It IS that good.
So, on to Elvis’ house. It really is a fairy tale beginning right down to the ‘outhouse’. They have moved his church onsite and have borrowed an old Plymouth similar to the one his parents owned and the walls are plastered with personal stories from obscure people who knew Elvis intimately (or passed him in the street) telling what a great guy he was and how they just knew he was destined for greatness. Sorry about my cynicism but while I acknowledge the greatness of the man and what he achieved I am not an Elvis fan. The way they have exploited every little thing they can to extract every dollar they can from his fans is painful. (It will be interesting when we get to Graceland in Memphis in a fortnight.)
The other thing that Tupelo had was a very nice and respectful Veterans Park. Because of one of those damn tropical downpours that seem to happen whenever Shane and I want to go somewhere we couldn’t get an in depth look at it but covering several acres it was a very nice tribute. These types of veteran memorials are common in the USA. Australia could learn heaps from the way that the people here are grateful to the sacrifice of vets and their families. I personally have had my hand shaken in thanks for my contribution to an Allied Country. I will wrap us this short blog with a few pics of Shane driving down the Parkway, our BBQ and our lovely site at Tupelo’s Barnes Crossing RV Park. This is in stark contrast to Meridian’s Bonita Lakes RV Park. At least at Mobile we got to have a pleasant drive around the bay including a car ferry ride from one side to the other.
Hold the presses! You didn’t think you’d get off that easy did you? I just found the missing Mobile photos so here’s another 30 for the Tupelo gallery. It’s fairly easy to pick the barren Bonita Lakes RV camp photo. Well following that we had already settled into Mobile so the next day we had a nice drive around Mobile. This area is all part of the mighty Mississippi delta so bridges and beach houses are the norm. We loaded ourselves onto a car ferry to cross the bay and then circumnavigated the city to get back home. Apart from the beach houses on stilts and the occasional beach house mansions of the local rich mob there isn’t a lot to Mobile. As we approached the city we passed the battleship, USS Alabama (Mobile is in Alabama) and could see it and a B52 bomber that made up yet another Naval attraction. We kept driving.
Told you it would be a short post. Cheers for now.
Garry and Shane