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?

Casino Hopping

It was a windy night and a bit of rain, but nothing serious.  It's still windy this morning so we decided to stay put for one more day.  After a while the clouds went away and the sun came out.  There are five casinos in Vicksburg and we decided to do a little casino hopping just for something to do.  We had lunch at one casino and just looked around the other ones.  We're not big gamblers and only gambled away $2.  We took a few pictures and went back to the RV to watch TV.

Alligator!

This barge was parked near one of the casinos.

Heavy Metal Band

More Vicksburg, MS

Ugh... 83 degrees and windy, I think a storm is brewing.  It may be a bumpy night.

Old Court House (1858-1860)

We hung around the RV park today and visited with some of our fellow RVers.  Then we decided to pop in to town and see the Old Court House Museum.  There were two floors of pieces of history to see as well as the old courtroom.  Much of it was Civil War artifacts and lots of other antiques.  Then back to the RV and try to keep cool.

Return to Vicksburg

Natchez Trace Parkway again

We left Natchez and started driving up the Natchez Trace Parkway.  There was about 50 miles of it that we had not completed last month.  We won't take it all the way north this time as it will take us too far east.

Sunken Trace

 One stop we made along the Trace was to see a portion of the original old path.

This spot was named Sunken Trace.  This is a deeply eroded section of the 250 year old trail.

We spent the night at Rock Springs campground.  This was a nice wooded park, but we were unable to get any cell phone service, which we were not happy about.

Catfish Sculpture

So we left early this morning.  We left the Natchez Trace Parkway and went west to Vicksburg again.  We liked the RV park we had stayed at last month so we returned to that. 

Vicksburg has a lot to see, so we drove around for the afternoon and looked for things we missed last month.  We found this lovely city park down by the river.  We have seen a few fish statues around the city, there was one here at the park. 

This park also included a levee wall that an artist had pained several murals.  Next to that was an area with steamboat style light fixtures. 

Folk Art Structure

We drove out to see Margaret's Grocery.  Margaret's husband promised her years ago, "If you marry me, I'll turn your store into a palace."  It was listed as an attraction in the visitor's guide.  I think it has seen better days, as it was closed and falling apart.  Interesting anyway.

As we were driving we passed this little road side stand and stopped for a snack and a picture.



The Vine That Ate the South



Kudzu.  This climbing, coiling, trailing vine was introduced from Japan in 1876 and is now common along roadsides and other areas throughout most of the southeastern United States. Kudzu has been spreading at the rate of 150,000 acres annually

Natchez Misc Pictures from Today



Pretty Flowers



Camellia

Tiffany



Pig Out Inn BBQ where we ate lunch today.

 

Kinda small for a duplex in my opinion.

Art House?  There was no sign of it being a shop.

 

Natchez Under The Hill--what remains of where the gaming halls and dens of vice where the lawless villainy gathered, as well as bustling wharves, cluttered warehouses, shops and boisterous saloons used to be in early 1900's. "The Most Notorious Spot on the Mississippi River"



Longwood, the largest octagonal house in America.  This mansion was designed in 1859 for wealthy cotton planter Haller Nutt.  A great octagonal rotunda is open to the entire 6 stories.  When the civil war began in 1861 the craftsmen dropped their tools and fled North.  The basement level was finished as living quarters, but the rest of the inside of the mansion remains unfinished.

Floor plan of Longwood

Unfinished rotunda looking up to the top.

Melrose

Inside Melrose

Gas is going up!

Barge going under the Mississippi River Bridge.