Sunday, August 3, 2014 We woke up and were feeling the effects of driving, driving, and more driving! It was nice to have a little diversion yesterday at Graceland. When we were at the campground yesterday we were told about a BBQ restaurant in town that picks you up at the campground in a pink Cadillac (like Elvis used to own) and brings you to the restaurant. We saw it doing that last night. Even the driver wore a pink shirt.
On our way out of town this morning, we passed the actual restaurant, Marlows. It has been featured twice on a program called Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives for its BBQ. Of course, it was pink and it had a Airstream RV painted pink to look like a pig sitting next to the building. (You are looking at the back end of the pig.)
The Graceland driveway entrance was right across the street from the campground entrance. As we drove by at 8:45 this morning, there were people who had stopped along the brick wall that surrounds Elvis’ house. The fence is very unique, but there is a lot of writing on the bricks from people who left messages or signed their names. I think they wanted to leave a message for Elvis.
After leaving Memphis, we immediately crossed over into Mississippi. The highway would take us across the northeast corner of the state for 116 miles. It was 9:00 and it was already 80 degrees. The highway took us near Tupelo, Elvis’ birthplace. Along the way were many areas of lush greenery…those vines that just cover everything.
Traffic was fairly light for a Sunday morning. I guess everyone was still in church.
We crossed over the Tombigbee Waterway in Mississippi. We had traveled down the river with our boat when we went from Wisconsin to Florida by water. It brought back great memories.
We crossed into Alabama about 11:00.
The countryside consisted of forested, rolling hills and rock outcroppings.
As we neared Birmingham, we had a detour that totally confused us and our GPS. It wasted about a half hour of time while we were somewhat lost and ended up going through downtown Jasper, AL by accident. We drove past the town square where they had this confederate monument.
On each corner of the square, there were donkeys decorated in unusual and interesting ways. This is just one of them.
We did not intend on going through Jasper, but it was interesting just the same. Once we found our way back to the Interstate, it ended in about 10 miles and once again we found ourselves trying to find our way. This time the GPS was more helpful. We finally got to Birmingham and made our way through it without a problem. The roads were still as bad as they were when we had come through the first time and bent our axle. Luckily, we did not suffer any additional problems on this return trip. We arrived at our campground, Peach Queen Camground, at around 2:30.
By now the temp was 91. We set up our campsite and turned on the AC.
We were tired of the ride and wanted to relax and cool off. The campground was nice and quiet, so we could take it easy before dinner. It won’t be long before we are back home. I am sad to have this adventure end, but happy to be going home.
