“Thank you very much,” Tupelo!

Trace State Park - Site 8

This past week, we camped at Trace State Park, 14 miles outside of Tupelo, MS.  This park sits on Old Natchez Trace Lake and is a stunning park!  We had a waterside campsite which made this among our top ten sites we’ve stayed at.  The park has what is considered the best competition level Frisbee golf course in the state.  Although we are certainly not competition level Frisbee (or golf for that matter) players, we had to break out the Frisbees and give it a go.  It was super windy and with all of the water features (that darn lake is everywhere!) we didn’t last too long!

Give me enough tries and I may make it in!

Dick makes it look easy!

Tupelo is the birthplace of Elvis Presley and it is obvious Tupelo is pretty proud of it!  The historic area of town includes the home in which Elvis and his stillborn twin brother were born.  Elvis’s father borrowed $180 to build the two-room, shot gun home only to be evicted three years later when they couldn’t make payments.  

Pretty sure our 31' camper is bigger!

I am in love with the azaleas!

It's a bit bigger than a tiny home - maybe!

Also located there is the church Elvis attended as a child, which was a big influence on Elvis developing his unique genre of music.  Scattered throughout the historic downtown area of Tupelo are painted guitars celebrating Elvis’s mark on Tupelo!  Historic markers of Elvis’s “hangouts” for the 13 years he lived in Tupelo, are also scattered around town.  This includes the “Shake Rag” area, which in itself is super interesting.  This was historically an African American community where Elvis was influenced by the rhythm and blues and gospel music.  The fairgrounds where Elvis sang both as a child and as the King of Rock and Roll has a statue of Elvis reaching into the crowds during the 1956 Homecoming Concert.  I think I most enjoyed going to the hardware store where Elvis’s mother took Elvis, planning for him to pick out a bicycle for his birthday only for Elvis to reject the bike in want of a gun.  To help settle the argument, a sales clerk suggested a guitar. They still sell guitars!  Young Elvis would also enjoy musicians on the porch of Mayhorn's Grocery during impromptu jam sessions.  Several other interesting locations are included on the list, all of which are fun to go to and imagine a young Elvis developing into the King he grew to be.  The visitor’s center advertised it as a “driving tour”; however, it was really a very nice walking tour!  

The King returns to the fairgrounds.

The site of Mayhorn's Grocery

Looks like a good spot to buy a guitar!

Another great walk we did in Tupelo was the “Off the Wall” tour.  It took us to a baker’s dozen (maybe a few more) murals painted around the historic area of town.  The Elvis mural was painted by nationally recognized graffiti mural artist Ryan “ARCY” Christensen.  ARCY leaves a hidden Mickey Mouse in all of his works as a nod to children.  Can you find it?  It’s a nice change to be looking for Mickey rather than Waldo!

Where's Mickey?

Going out to eat is always fun as long as there is outdoor dining!  We have found if we eat around 4:00, we avoid any crowds and feel pretty safe.  We couldn’t resist going out for BBQ a couple of times!  One of them, CHOP (Clay’s House of Pig), doubles as a bait shop, so sounds like a strange place to go for BBQ; however, it has become quite the lunch spot!  At first, it was solely a bait shop.  But as big box businesses came to town, Clay’s bait shop was struggling.  Apparently, Clay had funds to cover three more months before having to declare bankruptcy,  which he really did not want to do.  He decided to go all in and put all of his funds into expanding the bait shop to include BBQ, thinking this might encourage his customers to return.  It was a huge hit!  It’s a strange experience to see bait for sale on one side of the counter and buy BBQ on the other!  It was REALLY, REALLY GOOD BBQ!!  Sadly, Clay (age 49) died of COVID in January.  A sign posted at the outdoor order window says “Still CHOPing for Clay”.  This is a strong reminder to get vaccinated and continue to stay safe.  So tragic Clay, along with so many others, didn’t have access to the vaccine at the time they contracted COVID.  

One restaurant we didn't get to was Johnnie's Drive-In, famous for their dough burger.  Elvis would frequent the joint often, although he preferred the cheeseburger and an RC Cola.  I guess it's only wise to leave something on the plate for our next visit!

Trust me, the BBQ Tacos are delicious!

Huge servings and good BBQ!

Speaking of which, I was able to receive my 2nd dose of Pfizer at the CVS in the small town of Pontotoc, MS!  Now, I just need to marinate for a couple of weeks!  We have been wondering how in the world we were going to be able to find the vaccine while we are on the road and certainly feel very blessed to have been able to schedule appointments and receive the vaccine.Pontotoc is located only 12 miles from Trace State Park.  We thought we may have to drive back to either Pensacola or Tallahassee to be able find the vaccine.  God is so good!

  

We took advantage of being in Pontotoc for my appointment and enjoyed riding 25 miles on the Tanglefoot Trail.  It is a 43 mile, paved rails-to-trails project that goes from New Albany to Houston, MS.  No mud, no ticks, no hills, only a little saddle sore after not having ridden our bikes for a while!

We also found nice hiking trails around the area.  One of our favorites was the Natchez Trace trail.  The original Natchez Trace trail was a trail the Chickasaws used as a trading trail.  It originates in Nashville, Tennessee and extends to Natchez, Mississippi (440 miles).  Today it is a beautiful parkway that would make for a lovely trip in itself!  We drove only a small section of it, but found ourselves yearning to drive more of it!  Along the parkway are many historical markers that would make for such an interesting adventure.  We had to settle for hiking a small section of trail that follows the parkway, mostly in the surrounding woods.  Unfortunately, our timing for hiking the trail was only a few days after it had rained, leaving several sections of the trail a bit muddy.  Oh, well!  What are showers for if not to wash that mud off and find...ticks!!  Yep, we brought several of the little guys back to the camper with us!  

We did have quite the storm pass through the area one night.  This is still considered part of Tornado Alley. so we stayed pretty tuned in to the news coverage and were ready to take shelter if need be.  Fortunately for us, one front passed slightly to our south, leaving damage from its 90 mph straight line winds and another front passed slightly to our north, leaving damage from the baseball sized hail stones it dropped.  Good grief!  One of these days we are going to get caught in one of these, but for now we are safe!  We are heading to Arkansas from here – planning to check out Hot Springs National Park.  But before leaving, we went to St. James Catholic Church for mass.  Behind the church was a smaller scale of Our Lady of Lourdes.  Such a peaceful and serene setting to reflect on the joys Tupelo.  As Elvis would say, "Thank you very much," Tupelo!