It is fun being on the Mississippi, but the river is very low right now – the first sign we have seen of the midwest’s severe drought this summer. The river would have to rise 20 t0 30 feet to overflow its banks and another 30 feet to get to the flood level experienced last spring (the office people showed Jett the high-water mark still etched on the barn).
We had a beautiful sunrise yesterday. The dogs and I saw it while Jett slumbered on.
The sunset was almost as nice as the sunset. And Jett saw it, too.
Pre-dawn, looking toward Memphis
Pre-dawn, flood plain
Almost dawn
Sunrise
Dawn breaking
First light
This morning we were treated(?) to the opposite: a violent, windy thunderstorm before dawn. Gusts of over 40 mph rocked Patience and woke us at 5am. I had to scramble to close the windows (it was a warm night) against the horizontal rain that was pelting the RV. And during a short lull I had to go out and retrieve the extra sewer hose that I had left, unattached, under the RV – it had blown to the adjacent site.
Our site for this hop is one of the riverside pull-throughs at Tom Sawyer’s RV Park. Tom Sawyer’s turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to us on this hop. We saw the Graceland RV Park yesterday and, while nice, did not come close to the ambiance of Tom Sawyer’s.
We simply love being on the Mississippi. It has been fun watching the river traffic. I thought that with the river being so low that barges might not be able to navigate the river. Our neighbor, who was here a couple of years ago, confirmed that traffic is much lighter now, but there are still large barges that chug by pretty regularly. I should note that we can see only half the river – the land that you see on the other side of the river in my photos is an island and another large channel lies on the opposite side. Our side of the island seems to attract mostly upstream traffic – we have seen just one barge go downstream.
I will note, however, that the throb of the tug’s powerful diesel engines is less charming at 3am than it is during the day.
Sunset dog walk
Sunset at Tom Sawyer’s
River traffic at dawn
Our main tourist event yesterday, of course, was Graceland. While neither Jett nor I are huge Elvis fans, we do appreciate his music and visiting Graceland was on both of our bucket lists. We didn’t know quite what to expect – I don’t recall having ever seen a photo of it – but we weren’t disappointed. It isn’t cheap – we paid $27 each for just the mansion tour (we skipped the extended tour that includes his airplanes, his automobile collection and a bunch of other optional attractions that a true devotee would not view as optional). The ticket office, the parking lot, the RV park, Heartbreak Hotel and all of the miscellaneous attractions are located on the west side of US 51, leaving the 13 acres of Graceland itself unencumbered on the east side of the road. Shuttle buses take tourists to/from the mansion, which probably significantly reduces the carnage that would result from people taking pictures while strolling across a busy highway.
The tour is self-guided, with digital headphones that explain each stop along the way. Elvis’ private rooms upstairs are off limits, but the rest of the house is open, including the famous “Jungle Room.” There is a long hall that contains his gold records and the racquetball court contains even more. We were also unaware that Elvis is buried on the grounds so we were surprised when we happened upon his grave at the end of the tour.
We were admonished repeatedly before and during the tour that video recording and flash photography were prohibited. I suspect that many people took video anyway (how can you tell, with today’s digital cameras?), but I didn’t. I didn’t use the flash, either, but my camera takes nice photos without it. Here are a few. I have more, if you want them.
Graceland
Graceland’s front paddock
The sitting room
The dining room
The billiards room
The jungle room
Elvis’ practice piano
The hall of records
The racquetball court
One of Elvis’ outfits
The grave
We topped off the afternoon by visiting some random BBQ place so that I could taste some authentic Memphis ribs. I chose the “rib tips” with no clue what I was ordering (and the counter person was at a loss to describe the dish). What I got was small cubes of ribs that were too small to either hold or cut with knife and fork. I have no clue as to how one is supposed to eat them – maybe suck on them until they dissolve? In any case, if offered rib tips… DECLINE.
The bits that I managed to eat were tasty, but a big pile of them went into the trash. A culinary mistake on my part.
On the way back to Tom Sawyer’s we stopped at a grocery store to get some items we needed. I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised as West Memphis is not only on the wrong side of the river, it is on the wrong side of the tracks, as they say. We have never seen so many off brands in our lives. They stocked exactly one brand of spaghetti sauce – Mantia’s. We took it. The big success was the 56-cent can of dog food that ChaCha and Grace finished off in about 9 seconds. I don’t know what was in it, but the dogs liked it.
We didn’t buy any “bologna snacks.” Don’t know what they are. Didn’t want to find out.
Today we head to Hot Springs, AR. If we can hitch up in the driving rain.
