On the way to Graceland

We left our cozy spot at my sister's farm and drove straight into a stiff headwind that did horrible things to our gas mileage. And rattled our extended mirrors, too! But we made it to CanAm RV Center without losing any pieces, and settled in for 2 days of trailer repair, and three nights of free overnight hookups. Bonus!

We crossed over the border to the states on Wednesday at noon. A much easier crossing than we had anticipated - we had cleaned out any fruits, and most food, from our trailer. But he only asked 3 questions: where we were going, when we were coming back, and was our trailer 16' long? He gave a whistle when we told him it was 34 feet, and waved us on.

We still seemed to be fighting a nasty headwind. In fact, that became a theme to our travels over the next few days. We went through sunny spots, and one very cold spot, but always a stiff wind coming from the southwest whenever we were on the road.

We made an overnight stop at the Airstream production plant in Jackson Center, Ohio.

It was interesting taking the tour of the plant and actually watching them put together a new Airstream trailer. And hubby found a new accessory for our own trailer. Good thing for me it was too heavy to bring along!





We travelled down the state of Indiana and into Illinois, crossed the Mississippi River and into Arkansas. The land was flat, and mostly farming country. Certainly there was nothing to slow down that headwind. We saw fields of cotton ready to be picked just before we crossed the Mississippi River the second time. The river was wide and muddy coloured, and there were tugboats, and riverboats, and barges on it. But this second crossing brought us to our first destination: Memphis! We came in just after dark, and so we missed the entrance to the Graceland RV Park we were aiming for and ended up talking to the security at Graceland Mansion parking instead. He was very kind and accommodating, and escorted us to the "40 acres" we needed to turn our rig around.

It didn't take us long to get set up and hooked up for the night. One of the brochures given out at check-in was for a BBQ restaurant called Marlowe's that had a free shuttle in a pink limo. So just for fun we called them and got our ride.

Everyone here talks like Elvis, "Y'all have a great night, now!"





And yes, we toured Graceland. It was a very interesting place. Even though it is kinda the "off season", it was still busy with tourists. It was well run, and you could move along at your own pace and not have to keep up with a group. There was a lot of history blended in with the amazing collection of memorabilia.

This was a stunning display of awards and of gold and platinum records in the trophy room. The collection was on all the walls and all the way to the ceiling, as well as on the walls of the hall leading into the room.

The most surprising to me was the huge plaque received from the Town of Memphis recognizing Elvis' generosity of donations to many charities, organizations, and even needy individuals in the town.

Of course, as in most tourist spots, there were also the endless souvenir and gift shops. We hurried through those - not enough room to put them!

W