Tupelo, Mississippi - 2

On this day we went back downtown to look at the hardware store where Elvis's mother purchased him a guitar instead of the 22 rifle Elvis wanted. This store was built in 1914 and still serves the people of Tupelo. In 1948 the place beside the hardware store was purchased and again in the 1970's another store was purchased. The original building has the hardware store in it, the second building has a mixture of Elvis stuff (lots of guitars for sale), the last building has some toys displayed in the front and yard items. The same family has owned this store since it was built in 1914 and there were a couple of them still working there that remembered Elvis.

 
 

After leaving the Hardware store we decided to go and visit the Car Museum that one of the employees from told us about. This building is about the size of a Walmart. In it they have approximately 200 cars and trucks. Some of these are on loan to the museum from individuals. I enjoyed walking up and down the aisles looking at the exhibits. I believe that Charlotte even liked it especially when she spied a car that Elvis had purchased and given away. Also in the museum on loan from an individual is the original #43 race car that Richard Petty won his 200th race in at Daytona Beach in front of president Ronald Reagan.

After the Car Museum we headed back to the RV to feed Mysti and take her for a ride in the car. We had decided to ride up the Natchez Trace Parkway for a little ways and them come back. This road is like the Blue Ridge Parkway in that its a part of the National Park system. The Trace starts in SW Mississippi and goes all the way to Nashville, Tennessee about 447 miles. Just like on the Parkway there are sites to see and trails for hiking, but the trace goes through the bottom lands and valleys instead of mountain tops. This road follows the original trail that was carved into the land by pioneers traveling by foot, horseback and wagon. In certain areas you can hike out on a trail to see the original trace trail. We stopped at one pull off and hiked up a trail for about 5 minutes to see the graves of 13 unknown Confederate soldiers buried besides the original trail. No one knows who they were, how they died or where they came from.

We drove up the Trace for about 50 miles and then decided to come back a different way instead of driving back down it. On the way back we went through a little town named Belmont in the NE corner of Mississippi. As we were driving through we saw a big warehouse with RVs all around it and found out that this is where Tiffin Motorhomes does the painting of all their motorhomes. In case you're not aware, Tiffin is one of the best builders of Motorhomes and tops in customer service.

We got back, fed Mysti and decided to go out to eat. We ended up eating at a restaurant called Harvey's. The food was delicious and we left stuffed. When we got back to the RV Charlotte checked the weather for the rest of the night and the next day. It didn't look good, weather was calling for severe thunderstorms in the morning. Charlotte suggested that we get up early and leave before the storms hit. When I got up off the floor from the shock of her saying that, we started getting things ready for early departure the next morning.

More to follow!