7-7-09 Tuesday (The Pessimist's Son)

Elvis has left the building!  We were into Mississippi within minutes.  As a matter of fact, while exploring Memphis the other day, we “accidently” crossed the state line into MS.  Meanwhile, AR could be seen from downtown Memphis.  We hadn’t realized we were at all 3 states.  Anyway, onward to Jackson, MS we went. 

Here we are.  The campground is fairly simple but the lake with the proverbial ducks makes it pretty.  We could have paid a little more to be lakeside but we don’t sit outside.  Look out a window?  Well, Jim gets an awful glare on his laptop so the scenery we’d see while our fat asses veg, is blocked by privacy shades.  If we smoked, we’d be outside enjoying the view.  Oh well, give up smoking, give up beauty.  See how that is?

Above: Clea and Dasher get ready for the journey.

 

Above/Below: Dasher lays between us against the “doghouse” which covers the RV’s engine.

 

Above/Below: Home for the evening here in Jackson, Mississippi.  The campground is named “Wendy Oak’s RV Park”.

 

Above: in the campground, on the edge of the road sits this vendor selling flags.  Gay pride, Confederate, POW-MIA, American.  He’s got it all.  He doesn’t care who or what you are, just buy a flag.

 

Above: The description is below.  Wake me up when you’re finished.

 

Above: This church found it necessary to create a vehicle corral, complete with barbed wire.  Scary. 

We drove around the downtown area for a while and then came back to the RV for dinner.  We’ve decided to go to New Orleans a day earlier than planned.  We’ll leave a day earlier and see if we can spend a couple of extra days in Unadilla, GA.  We really like it there. 

We finished out our thrilling day with a Walmart shopping trip.

7-6-09 Monday (Just One of the Herd)

It’s 12:30pm and the day hasn’t went very well.  While in San Diego several months ago, we met up with fellow RVer Scott, and his 2 Italian Greyhounds, Meg & Molly.  Scott recently moved to a different RV park and was fearful of 2 pitbulls there.  The RV park says the owner “smuggled them” into the park.  Just days after blogging about how mean these dogs are, Scott and his 2 girls are attacked by them.  Molly didn’t make it.  I’m so sick over it.

 

Above: Molly, Dasher, Meg

Yesterday the Jeep was having extended crank issues.  Today we went to Walmart and bought a battery.

As I was taking a shower today, I noticed the ceiling around the skylight was wet.  It rained yesterday.  We resealed.

Jim went to an RV parts store to get sealer.  His Discover card was declined.  After an alternative payment method Discover called him to verify that his card wasn’t stolen.  They were being cautious because charges were in other states lately.  Lately?  Hello, we’ve been to 23 or so states within a year and you’re just now calling?  Duh.  Good work Discover, we now feel safe.

The wittle, itty bitty compressor we had to fill the tires has stopped working.  That’s probably a good thing since it took a millennia to fill them.  We have an RV tire low.  It’s a pain in the rump to take this beast to a gas station because of space constrictions and 90% of the time, their air doesn’t work either.

Jim and I have been noticing the decline in “nice” service lately.  Maybe it’s a state by state thing, maybe it’s something else.  People, we live in a country where MANY are unemployed.  If you have a job, be the best at it.  Be friendly, outgoing, and kind.  Otherwise, step aside and let someone else have a shot at it.  I’m absolutely stunned by the lack of enthusiasm, and kindness people have.  Employers, watch, and if necessary replace!  These people don’t want to work, and your business will suffer.  Make sure the wage is sufficient for their job.  There’s 100’s of people who will stand in line wanting their job, even if it’s flipping burgers.  Can anyone else relate to the puss-on-the-face service providers? 

But what about Elvis?  What about him?  Yes, we went to Graceland.  Overall, lots to see and hear.  Our platinum tickets WERE $33.00 each but thanks to Entertainment.com, we had a 2-fer.

Graceland Platinum Tour
Great way to see the full Graceland experience. The Graceland Platinum tour includes:

• an audio-guided tour of Graceland Mansion and grounds
• a self-guided tour of Elvis' two custom airplanes
• a self-guided tour of Elvis' Automobile Museum
• a self-guided tour of Elvis in Hollywood Exhibit
• a self-guided tour of Elvis Lives: The King and Pop Culture Exhibit
• a self-guided tour of Private Presley Exhibit
• a self-guided tour of '68 Special Exhibit

This all took over 3 hours.  I will say that the exhibits and audio guided tour were done very well.   I will also tell you that this was way more Elvis information than I really needed.  Elvis fans, you need to come here!

I took a lot of photos but no flash was permitted.  This made for many blurry photos.  They looked nice on a 3X2 screen but not so much on bigger scale.  So once I whittled down the photos, here’s what’s left that I thought was worthy enough for your eyes to see:

Above: 2 airplane tours were included.

 

Above: Honestly, we thought it was going to be a grander scale.  We thought it to be kinda small.

 

Above: Elvis’ parent’s room on the 1st floor.  The upstairs was sealed off from tours because “it was a private space and Elvis would have liked it to have stayed that way.”

 

Above: Right in the front door, I got a feeling of over crowded herding.  Moo.

  

Above: The basement as a TV room.

 

Above: Very colorful fabric EVERYWHERE.  OK, too colorful.

 

Above/Below: Jungle Room.

  

Above: Trophy room.  This building was huge!

 

Above: Racketball building now displaying more awards and such.

 

Above/Below: Elvis and family buried on the property.

 

The $60 compressor we bought didn’t work.  After many curse words, and slamming things about, we set off to Walmart again.  We purchased a $52.00 compressor that managed to burn out our 12V extension cord.  Oh, I hope the fun stops soon!

It’s now 8:15 pm and we’ve called the limo service for Marlowe’s.  It’s free, it’s only up the block but it’s a pink Cadillac limo.  We just had to do it.  Marlowe’s is a BBQ joint.  I hope it’s limo service worthy.

We’re back.  If you were thinking to hop on a plane, fly to Memphis and eat at Marlowe’s, don’t bother.  The limo picked us up. It was possibly older than many of you.  We arrived.  We decided to be daring and order fried pickles.  I ordered ribs, Jim ordered a combo plate.  While we awaited the pickles, the server, we’ll call her Sue Server, rushes over to me with menu in hand and states “we’re out of ribs, pick something else.”  I was kinda flabbergasted.  I think I blinked an SOS to Jim for his assistance.  Jim said “Wow, a BBQ place outta ribs.”  Sue told us of how busy blah blah busy they were today.  I reselected.  Pickles arrive.  How were they… well, I’m not sure yet, at this point in the story.  Sue rushes over to me, plops down a plate of ribs, pats herself on the back about how they were the last ones.  I blink as if to delicately say “What the fuck, where’s Jim’s meal, we haven’t even bit into the appetizer and my food is here.”  I’m pretty sure that was understood by my speechless blink.  Sue indicated the computers aren’t working and everything is a mess back there and Jim’s will be out shortly.  Wow, she must read blinks.  She walks away.  As I bite into a pickle, she rushes back to the table grabs the plate of ribs away from me.  It’s such a blur that Jim and I can’t remember what she blurted as she did this.  Something like they weren’t mine.  Pickle bite #2 was still being chewed.  I paused chewing.  Blinking took over.  Bite #3, she brings me the ribs back with something about them being mine afterall.  I believe she wanted me to sing “How Great Thou Art” in recognition of her fine server skills.  So, as I tried to sing, there we’re no sounds, just blinks.  It’s not like I could complain about the timing.  These were the last ribs; surely they’d get stuck under a heat lamp if I sent them back. 

We finished our meals, both feeling like it was all just OK.  I was surprised that this restaurant was the top in anything.  I came away thinking that only the tourists eat here.  Ugh.  I thought about Pearl, and our Lucky Chengs experience.  I laughed outloud. 

We took a limo back.  Picture us, in a pink stretch limo (older than you), cruising through the RV park (or for some of you rude people – trailer park).  Ain’t that a sight?

7-5-09 Sunday (Nailed on Beale Street)

First, I mentioned that we rented a movie from Redbox. “Haunting of Molly Hartley” to be more precise. We thought it was pretty damn lame. I’ve later discovered that most reviews also thought it lame.

It wasn’t the acting that was bad. It really wasn’t even the plot so much. It was the absence of special effects, horror, gore, or whatever to make it scary. It lacked suspense too. If you decide you might want to see it, do yourself a favor and jab a toothpick in your eye. That ought to snap you out of it.

We went to Mud Island today. It was actually a perfect day for it. The weather was overcast and I suppose many were hung over so for a holiday weekend, this place was pretty empty. It’s a public park, but I’m not sure who owns it. It’s free to get to. There’s a small fee to ride the monorail or tour the museum. The Mississippi River Museum was presented very well. The Monorail gave some great views. The park has a Mississippi river miniature that spans the park. We walked along this model and then took a paddle boat out for a cruise.

Above: On the monorail to Mud Island (we walked back).

Above: We later took a trolley. Photographed from in the monorail above.

Above: The Mississippi River model complete with water.

Above: We brought a picnic lunch with us. Salads. Really.

Above: Another shot of the river model and part of the museum building.

Above/Below: These concrete floor tiles were all buckled. Strange.

Above: More info on the River model.

Above: Mud Island in miniature.

Above: Graceland. The RV park is somewhere around there.

Above: In the background is the real Mississippi River.

Above: $2.00 each for a paddle boat ride.

Above/Below: Downtown Memphis.

Above: Quack!

Above: Video – “Swan Cam”.

We took the trolley just for the hell of it. Once we got to an interesting section, we hopped off and walked the 10 blocks or so back to the Jeep over at Mud River parking. Lots of walking today!

Above/Below: We hopped off here at the old Lorraine Motel, the location of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr‘s assassination and is now home to the National Civil Rights Museum. It was late in the day to tour this facility so we just looked around the exterior.

Above: It’s a clump of hair OR hopefully part of a weave or something. It’s nasty. It was on the sidewalk. I wondered if I should have stomped on it to be sure it was dead.

Above: An unbelievable amount of buildings are empty or have been changed into loft condos/apartments.

Above/Below: We stopped into a Walgreens for beverages and to pee. I took a couple of photos of there enormous wall of Elvis shit. There, I said it. Shit.

Above: Click on the photo to open another page and enlarge the photo. Go ahead, check out the crap.

Above: In front of the Fire Museum. It was closed today.

Above: In front of a building sat many variations of panels like these. They were used to conceal generators for the county building. We took a closer look and it turns out they are parts of street signs. Look close.

We came home, walked the dog, decided to eat out. Drove to a Friday’s downtown, saw a sign in the window that their location did not accept coupons, we turned around, said screw ‘em and ate at Alfred’s instead. The food was OK. I had buffalo style chicken tenders and Jim had barbeque. The best part was the Memphis Jazz Orchestra, a 17 piece big band which is featured every Sunday night. We then walked the famous Beale Street. It rained briefly which made my photos of the lights look awesome!

Above: Cool car, giant nail.