Cape Girardeau, Missouri



birds



We have been seeing flocks of birds.  I think they're just waiting for Minnesota to warm up so they can fly home.

We drove 85 miles north and are in a nice private RV park in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  We may stay here a few days.

Rush Limbaugh was born and raised in this town.  There is a self-driving tour that will take you past the hospital where he was born and his childhood home, his school, and more.  We passed on that.



Painted Sea Wall



We did stop to see the old main street which is well kept up.  One block off Main Street is the Mississippi River.  There is a long sea wall protecting the town from the river flooding.  Along the wall are many murals.  There are many more murals throughout the rest of the town as well.  One section of the sea wall is a historical time line with plaques narrating each mural.



Trail of Tears



 Near by here is a Trail of Tears State Park.  We drove out to see it.  There is a wonderful visitor center there explaining much about the history of the Trail of Tears.

In 1838  the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act which led to the forced removal of eastern tribes to "Indian Territory" west of the Mississippi (later the state of Oklahoma).  There were actually several trails, one of them came thru this area. 



Caruthersville, Missouri

Lady Luck Casino

North we go, another 30 miles.  This time we are in Caruthersville, Missouri, a small town on the Mississippi River.  There is a small casino here and we had planned to stay in their RV park, but when we got there we found their park was closed because they are in the middle of building a new sea wall to protect the casino from the river and the construction equipment is in the way.  So..we're dry camping in the back of their parking lot.  Will only be one night here, as we don't get any TV signal and, well, we want that.  The building in the picture is actually the restaurant and administration, the actual casino is in an old river boat on the river behind this building.

I put one dollar in a 1 cent slot machine and it was gone in 60 seconds.

Roundhouse Restaurant

We didn't eat here for lunch, we decided on a place in town.  The Roundhouse Restaurant.  It really was in a round building.  It's been there for 40 years.  It's old inside, but the food was good, home made and fresh and hot and not expensive. 

Lighthouse Water Tower

After eating we explored the town a bit.  One focal point is this old lighthouse water tower from 1909, no longer in use, but kept up.

Oh, and finally a nice warm sunny day!! woo!

Blytheville, Arkansas

Goodbye Memphis.  There are more things to see and do in Memphis, but maybe next year.  This morning we headed 30 miles north to a small town named Blytheville.  We chose this town because it has an RV park that is in the Passport America program and we can stay here for half price.

The RV park isn't fancy, but it will do for the next two nights.  It was a windy ride over here, so I'm glad we didn't drive very far.

We need to slow down or we're going to be in the northern winter cold.  The high here was 51 and it's cloudy and windy.  Hopefully the next few days will improve.  We did drive by a few farm fields that were flooded.   But we're not worried about the spring floods here just yet.

This is a small town we're in and not much to see or do.  We got here around noon and decided to go find a restaurant for lunch.  On the internet we found a place called the Dixie Pig.  It had several good reviews from people who have eaten there so that's where we went.  I think it could have been better.  On the way out of the restaurant I noticed a historical plaque on the ground by the flag pole so went to see what it was about.

Memphis 2

We had to be out of the RV park by 11am so we moved it to a Walmart parking lot and took the car back into the city, returning to Beale Street.  There is a dry goods shop there that we were told was a "must see".  We saw it, but were a little disappointed in it.  This time we had our lunch at Blues City Cafe, which is across the street from B. B. King's restaurant.

Peabody Place



A few blocks up the street is the historic Peabody Hotel.  Attached to the hotel is Peabody Place, which is a shopping mall.  So sad, nearly all the shops inside are out of business.  We saw only one clothing store inside, that's it, and the second level was roped off so we couldn't even walk it.

Ducks entering the fountain

The Peabody Hotel is famous for it's ducks.  Every day at 11am five ducks are escorted from their "duck palace" on the roof, down the elevator, and down a red carpet as music plays, to the fountain in the center of the lobby. Then at 5pm they are escorted back.  They are cared for and escorted by the "duckmaster ". 



In the fountain for 6 hours



View from the top of the Peabody

 After the duck attraction we went up to the roof to see the duck palace and to overlook the city of Memphis and the Mississippi River.



Where Dr. Martin Luther King was killed.

Then we hopped on the city trolley and took that to the Lorraine Hotel, the location where Dr. Martin Luther King was killed.  A wreath hangs on the railing by his hotel room.  The hotel is now a part of a big civil rights museum there.

When we got back to the RV we called the Tom Sawyer RV Park on the shore of the Mississippi River in West Memphis, Arkansas, that we had heard was a very nice place.  We got a recording that said they had lots of sites available and to come see them, so we headed across the big bridge over into Arkansas and found the park.. oops... a sign at the entrance said it was closed because of high water.  It was getting late so we found the nearest Walmart Supercenter and we are spending the night there.   Right now there are 6 other RV parked by us, there may be more later.



Memphis

Sun Studio

Time to move on.  North to Memphis.  It was only about 30 miles, but it was time for for a change.  One of the first things we saw when we got into Memphis was Sun Studio, the studio that launched Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, B. B. King, and many more.

Beale Street

Very close to Sun Studio is the famous Beale Street, the home of the blues and the birthplace of rock and roll.  These few blocks were filled with restaurants and shops.  We enjoyed a walk up and down the street, but didn't stay long as it was quite cold and rainy.

Silky O'Sullivan's

One establishment on Beale Street, Silky O'Sullivans, had gone to great strides to preserve the front of the historic old buildings, that's why the steel beams, to hold the wall up.. the rest of the building was missing.  However, they did find a way to turn the space behind the front walls into a great eating establishment and nightclub.



B. B. King's Restaurant and Blues Club



We had our lunch today at B. B. King's Restaurant & Blues Club.  Very good food.



B. B. King



After walking Beale Street and enjoying our lunch we headed over to the Visitor's Center.  This was one of the nicest visitor's centers we've ever been in.  We got loads of information on what to see and do in Memphis while we are here.  It's raining now, so I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow.



Elvis Presley



Inside the Visitor's Center were big statues of B. B. King and Elvis Presley. 



Tunica

We are still in Tunica, staying another few more days.  It's nice here and we're not ready to go to Minnesota yet.

We haven't been doing much the last few days.  It rained some, and it's been cold. 

The river is rising.  We returned to the Mississippi River Museum to see how much the water level has changed since a few days ago.  We could tell it was up a few feet.  The road to the museum is very close to being under water.  We could only walk a portion of the nature trail there as it was closed for being under water.  The tour boat was not giving tours today, but we watched for a while as a new driver was being trained.  He was practicing launching and docking over and over again.

After that we went to another casino and walked around inside.  I lost $1 in about 20 seconds in a 1 cent slot machine.  Maybe next time.

Tunica

We have decided to stay in this area for another two days. 
This morning we went in to town for breakfast at a restaurant we had heard has high ratings, The historic Blue & White Restaurant.  We like to check out the local places when we travel.  Originally this was a Pure Oil gas station built in 1937.  Sorry, no picture.


Downtown Tunica Park

 After that we drove around the old downtown area of Tunica.  They had put a nice two-blocks long park in the center of the business area, with a military memorial and a blues marker.  those white blooming trees in the picture are pear trees.  The Mississippi Blues Trail begins on Highway 61 (The great Mississippi River Road).  The blues trail has markers honoring people and places.  We are only 28 miles from Graceland but we won't be going to visit Elvis as we saw him last year.

One thing we have been aware of the whole time we have been in the state of Mississippi is that they are very very bad at marking street names.  So many times we don't even know what street we are driving on and have missed turns because of the lack of signs or signs so small and poorly placed.   We just figured it was because this is a very poor state and they probably don't have the budget for it.  But apparently they do have enough in their budget for a squirrel crossing sign.  It just struck me funny.


How high will the gas prices go??

As I said before, there are 9 casinos along the river here.  We went into another one today just to have a look around.  I did put $1 in a 1-cent machine and it vanished in 30 seconds.   Ok, maybe I didn't give it a fair chance, so I put a $5 into a nickle machine and it vanished in about 15 seconds.  I just know the big win is just around the corner!  ya right.

After our little outing this morning we returned to the RV park just in time for the rain to begin.  It is forecast 2-3 inches and thunderstorms.  fun fun

River Museum

That would be a very big tractor!

We have to be careful not to go north too fast.  We figure if we go north 30 miles every day we might be home by April 1.   Where we are now is nice, so we may stay here a few days.  There is not a lot to do other than the casinos so my blogs might be brief or I may skip a day or two if there's nothing to blog about.

One of the casinos here has Paula Dean's Buffet, so we thought we should check that out for lunch.  We expected great things because of her reputation.  The decor was very nice, as was expected, but the food wasn't really any better than any other casino buffet we have had.  There were some southern style items there that were interesting such as seafood gumbo, fried green tomatoes, hush puppies, catfish, grits and hoe cakes.



Can you see all the jet trails?



Then we went to visit a very well done Mississippi River Museum that is here on the shore of the river (of course).  They have an observation deck on the third floor that was nice for taking pictures.  They do also offer a riverboat tour, however that won't be until Saturday.  This time of year they just don't have enough people to run it every day.  They have air boat tours too, but they won't begin until May. There is also a self guided nature trail but that was closed because of being under water.  The river is beginning to rise and there are flood advisories around.  This was a record breaking year for snowfall up north, and the spring flooding is going to be nasty this year.



Watching a barge go upstream

The Miss. River is a major source of transportation for barge traffic.  We must have seen a hundred barges since we left the Gulf of Mexico area.  While we were at the museum we did see one barge make its way slowly up stream.

Good News

For any relatives reading this....We received a phone call from Bernie's brother.  His wife, Ruth, finally got her kidney transplant yesterday afternoon.  She's doing ok, will know more in the next few days.

Now back to the blog:  No pictures today.  We left the park we were in and drove north to Tunica, Mississippi.  There are about nine casinos along the Mississippi River here.  We are staying in one of the casino RV parks for dirt cheap!!  Tomorrow we will do some exploring and check out the casinos.

There are flood advisories out for this area.  We will keep an eye on the weather reports, but we feel pretty safe where we are.  There is a really big levee here too.

Mississippi Great River Road, US 61

Purple Fields

We will be taking the Mississippi Great River Road  Scenic Byway from where we are now all the way to Minnesota for the rest of our trip. 

Tonight we are in Greenville, Mississippi.  On the way up here we noticed several farmer's fields filled with purple.  It was beautiful, but in reality it is a weed.  It is one of the first signs of spring.

Another sign of spring for us is to see motorcycles.  Today we were passed by a heard of bikers. 

We stopped at a little town of Leland, MS, for lunch and just happened to park by a Jim Henson, (the creator of Kirmit the Frog and the Muppets) small museum so we had to go inside and check it out. it was free.  Jim Henson was born in Leland and lived there until he was 12 years old.  It was a fun and informative little stop.

The River Road Queen

Our next stop was at the welcome center.  This was originally named "The River Road Queen," and is considered one of the 10 most unique welcome centers in the United States.  It was originally built for the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans, then relocated to Greenville. 

We are staying at a nice county park in Greenfield.  it's very nice, lots of trees and about 60 campsites.  There was only one other RV here when we arrived, so we very carefully picked out just the right spot that gave us a nice view of the Mississippi River.  Soon after we got all hooked up and comfortable another RV arrived and...why did he have to pick the one spot directly in our view??  We watched while he backed in and (oops!) hit the water connection and broke it.  Water ran all over.  We watched while he went for help and it got repaired.  Is this Karma?