With Apologies to “The King”..THANK YOU, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

   The King here would be Elvis Presley…and I was remembering our very first 2 week camping trip with our brand “spankin’ new” Cougar…We headed South to see if we actually were going to like this camping stuff…Turns out we fell in love with it!! Our intended spot was Memphis, TN, to see Graceland…and what a great trip it was…

 

 

 

We stayed at a campground called Best Holiday Travel Park at Marion (West Memphis), Arkansas.  We really didn’t want to camp any closer to the big city of Memphis than this…It was a nice park, but spaces were really close together. We didn’t mind so much, because we were going be gone most of the day doing some sightseeing …

 

We got all set up, cooked our dinner…(the cook was Dennis the Grillmaster, I only prep the food)…and after the long drive we were in the sack by 9PM..The next morning we drove into Memphis and we totally were acting like the tourists we were, cameras and brochures clutched in our little mitts.

We found Graceland easily…It seemed smaller than I had imagined, and there was already a line forming for the tour of the grounds. You could not drive yourself to the home.  You got your tickets,  then they had you board buses across the street from the mansion… and took you over as a group. We were now officially “Elvis Groupies”.

Here is where I began to get giddy…Though smaller than I expected, I was no less impacted by the fact that this was actually where Elvis and his family lived..The minute the tour began, I was channeling history and humming old Elvis tunes in my mind..My favorites were always his ballads.

Left is the dining room…and the photo on right was a huge framed portrait of Priscilla and Lisa Marie…I was now verklempt.

His music room was just fabulous…..Loved the Peacocks on the French Doors.

The famous Eagle Cape was on display in his museum, and I remembered the concert he did in Hawaii where he wore this cape….before he began to put on the weight.

Elvis was a tad older than I, more my sister’s age..I can still remember watching as a family when Elvis appeared on TV,  (Ed Sullivan, I think..), grinding his hips to Blue Suede Shoes.  I watched  my sister (7 years my senior) while she was standing and crying for joy in our living room…(A few years later I was doing the same thing watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.)

….And now OUR kids pay homage, (and big bucks),  to go see a U2 concert and see Bono and The Edge…See?? I DO know who the group U2 is…I’m OLD, not DEAD!..and just trying to keep up!

 

We spent all day touring the grounds and the museum,  and ended up in downtown Memphis for a beer at BB Kings….(NO, REALLY??)

I really enjoyed Memphis Tennessee, and would go back for sure….I think that they had some bad flooding this year, though, even in the downtown area…

So the Cougar spent some time wandering through Arkansas .  Arkansas really does have some of the prettiest state parks ever!! We totally enjoyed  Lake Ouachita State Park….with one small “hitch” in our giddyup…

This park was especially memorable for us….We were pretty “green” at the camping thing, and made the mistake of going to bed while leaving our awning out and NOT tied down…A storm came up in the night, and we realized we were in danger of losing the awning to the Wind God… McGuyver and I went out  in the driving rain and wind, in our jammies, or lack thereof, and finally got the darn thing rolled up….Man, I’ll bet we were a real sight out there, giving each other “hand signals”, bumping into each other, and trying to keep from blowing into the lake…

HARD LESSON LEARNED!!

 

 

OK, can  you tell I am suffering from a bad case of “hitch itch” today?  We had thoughts of taking the Hiker to a state park this week, about 30  miles South of here..but the heat that’s predicted would make the trip NOT so much fun, even with A/C….We love to sit outside and enjoy the scenery and a campfire….I prefer not to fight record breaking heat, like 99 degrees but feels like 107…McGuyver and I are too darned old to be tempting fate in this serious heat wave…you know what I mean???, ..with no one to check on “the elderly” but campground hosts and fishermen…

….and as they say….

“IF YOU CAN’T RUN WITH THE BIG DOGS, STAY ON THE PORCH!”

We,ll be on the porch, thank you…THANK YOU VERY MUCH.