The Adventures of Jim & Rhonda

I know, I know, quoting another song! We left Shawnee, Ok (88 degrees at 7:30am thank you) and hit the road for Little Rock. In Little Rock it was also really warm but we didn’t care too much. We had a cabin w/ A/C at the KOA and just spent a couple of hours in the pool, had dinner and hit the sack.

The next day it was a short drive to Memphis where we had a cabin reserved at the Graceland RV Park, thats right folks, we slept right next door to Elvis! Woo hoo. Everyone is SO friendly. I’ve got to say, I have no desire to live there but they sure are friendlier than the average Portlander. After we got in our cabin we headed right to Graceland. It’s a spendy entrance fee at $36pp but included the mansion tour and grounds as well as the car museum, plane museum and an exhibit on his army days. The house was hysterical, totally 70’s style but very flamboyantly done (no big shock there, have you seen his outfits???), turquoise drapes with an 11ft white couch and stained glass windows with 6ft tall peacocks! The jungle room was outfitted in crazy furniture and dark green shag carpet on the floor AND the ceiling and the bar downstairs was all yellow vinyl…just great stuff. It’s all exactly as Elvis had it when he died in 1977 and I must say they’ve kept it in beautiful condition. The cars and plane and military exhibits were also interesting but I was actually a bit shocked by all the cheesy stuff you can buy. I expected memorabilia..but truly, who buys fudge called “Elvis fudge”???? The replica outfits were tempting but at $1200 just way over budget, ha ha, so I settled for an overpriced, albeit cute, black tank with Elvis in sequins on the front.

That night we went to a restaurant recommended by Billy, the manager at the RV Park called Marlowes. If you call they come and pick you up for free in their pink limo, so cheesy! We shared a rib platter with coleslaw and the best baked beans we’ve ever had served by Vee, perhaps the friendliest waitress in the world! It was a good day.

Next day we drove to downtown Memphis which could only be described as bizarre. At 9:30am there was just NO ONE on the streets…we realize not as many people are traveling this year but in Portland the streets are crammed at almost every hour with employees of the mall, people going to Starbucks, whatever..it was almost like a ghost town. We had breakfast at Denny’s across from the Peabody hotel and then headed inside for the “duck march”. It’s a tradition that has been going on for 75yrs where the ducks come down the elevator, walk across the red carpet and jump into the center fountain in the lobby to spend the day. At 5pm they go back up to the elevator to their duck park. Crazy. It started as a practical joke by some friends of the hotel owners at the time and guests loved it so much they made it a daily thing and now “train” the ducks to do the walk.

After the duck viewing we walked over to the Civil Rights Museum based at the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr was killed. It’s nice that they kept the front of the hotel looking exactly as it did and built the fascinating museum off the back. We did the audiotour which was really fascinating but with that and the thousands of pictures and text it took about 2 1/2 hrs to go through the history of equal rights up until 1968 and by then were too wiped to go across the street to the 1968-present day stuff. Really well done though.

We stopped by the Gibson Guitar factory and tried to take a tour but they were all sold out so instead had a great BBQ pulled pork sandwich while listening to some blues on Beale St. Then, a highlight when we went out to Sun Studio. Some of you may know they discovered Elvis but they also discovered Howlin Wolf, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, BB King, etc etc. Really cool studio tour and we had a great time talking to “Mizz Lisa” while she made up our chocolate malts. I do love the people down here!

We headed to Nashville the next day and spent the afternoon at the Grand Ole Oprey, taking the backstage tour and meeting Bill Anderson who was there rehearsing. WE have no idea who he is (other than the slight info gleaned at the museum) but the tour guide and others in the group were way overcome that he was there and met with us…opps, guess we’re not up on our Nashville history! We would have been more excited to see Carrie Underwood who was performing the next night.

We then had a beautiful 7hr drive through Knoxville, Asheville NC and the Great Smoky mountains on our way to York SC to get to Vicki & Darin’s house. Their new neighborhood and house is gorgeous and they and they’re two adorable kids, Logan & Samantha are all settling in and doing great. I was thrilled to have a kitchen at my disposal and cooked breakfast and dinner all weekend for everyone and we saw some Civil war battlefields & museum and spent a day at Carowinds amusement/ water park. It was a wonderful, although too short, weekend and we’re certainly going to miss them again when we get back to Portland.

This morning we headed 3hrs southeast to Charleston. I have been wanting to visit this city as long as I can remember and it’s absolutely gorgeous! We first headed to the Notso Hostel listed in Lonely Planet in an attempt to keep costs down but found the place locked up with a note that said if you hadn’t booked ahead you needed to wait until 5pm until the staff arrived for the evening??? What? I think not! So, we headed down to the Holiday Inn Downtown. It’s a nice room, friendly staff and walking distance to everything so all good. We headed right out for lunch at Sticky Fingers…really great wings and a good salad and we were good for a long walk. We spent about 3 1/2 hrs wandering downtown, stopping at the Slave Market musuem (on the site of the slave market in Charleston) and took dozens of pictures. We stopped to buy a very cool handwoven grass-reed basket from a lovely woman named Ann along the way and found a wine/cheese bar I think we’ll head back to for dinner. All in all a lovely few days on the road.

Tomorrow we see the USS Yorktown and Ft Sumpter as well as going into a couple of plantation houses and then a long day driving to get to Williamsburg, Va on our way to Wash. DC. Hope everyone is well at home and enjoying the summer as much as we are! Living the Dream in SC – Jim & Rhonda

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