A Stay in Arkansas with Side Trip back into Memphis

We had planned to stay at a state park in Arkansas, not far from the Tennessee border. We set the GPS and followed her directions. As we came off the 40 and started driving it seemed it was taking longer than I thought it had shown on google maps. Well, there turned out to be a reason for that. Gracie had directed us to an entirely different state park, Lake Poinsett State Park, in Harrisburg, Arkansas.It is a smaller park and it looked nice with very few people. Besides it was late in the day and we didn't want to do any further driving.

The sites are close together but since there wasn't anyone around us it was fine and actually very peaceful. We didn't originally plan to be driving west during the normally hot weather of August but we are. It is in the 90's and looks like it will be that way most of the way back to Calif. The air conditioner will be getting a lot more use than we have ever used in the past.  It was nice in the later afternoon sitting out in the shade with a nice cold drink and my kindle.
We are only about an hour from Memphis and so decided to drive there to go to Graceland, Graceland, Memphis Tennessee(always makes me think of the Paul Simon song). We arrived at Graceland and it was mobbed. Lots of cars in the large parking lot, lots of people in line for tickets and even more people in line for the shuttle. Yikes, as Joe said it looks like a busy day at Disneyland. The thought of being hurdled like cattle through Elvis's house didn't really appeal to either of us and so below is the only picture I took before we left.

We decided to check out Sun Records and we were glad we did. Sun Records is an independent record label that opened in 1952. The owner, Sam Philips, and his wife and one other person took the gutted building and created a place where up and coming artists could record their music.

The first music recorded there, according to the enthusiastic tour guide, was mostly Blues and R&B, with artists like Howlin' Wolf, BB King and James Cotton.
However, Sun Record's claim to fame is that it was the birthplace of Rock and Roll. We hear about the story of a young man who kept bugging Sam Philips to let him record. At first Sam didn't think he was that good. Then one day, this young ma and a few other musicians were recording a song Sam thought he might be right for him. It wasn't working and it was late at night when he started fooling around when Sam was in the other room. He started wigging his hips and tapping his foot and he  started playing a blue tune, That's Alright,they hadn't played before. Sam ran in and said something like that is more like it. You have something there. Yes, this was Elvis Presley and you know the rest of his story. Other great rock and rollers, like Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison also recorded here. In the later days after a move to a larger location and a period of around 20 years of being closed, it was reopened and artists such as U2 recorded some of their songs. Bono and his group recorded some of the songs from Rattle and Hum, one of my favorite albums,

 Our guide told an interesting story of some guys in prison who started a group, which they of course mamed the Prisonaires. They were an African American doo wop group who had a hit called Walking in the Rain. They became so popular they were allowed out on day passes to play throughout Tennessee and even played for the governor a number of times.

 There  were lots of instruments used by some of the many recording artists and even a radio station.

It was a very intereting tour and we glad we decided on it. Beale Street is a popular street with lots of restaurants and bars, but we decided to head to a restaurant, called appropriately South of Beale, which it is. It was another good restaurant. We planned on just having appetizers. We first ordered chicken and waffle sliders and ruben fries. I always wanted to try chicken and waffles and with the side of maple syrup they are really very good. We were going to try some other dishes, such as fried green tomatoes but were already full.

We had a nice time in the short time we were in this area. Unfortunately we have another encounter with mosquitos. Not at our campsite but we took a short walk on a trail near the lake and I got more bites than I can ever remember having before. More than when we had them in our MH in Michigan.
Anyway, we are only driving a few hours to another spot in Arkansas, near Little Rock. Stay tuned.

A Top 10 Site in Tennessee

Poole Knobs Campground is a Corp of Engineer Park on the Percy Priest Lake, not far from Nashille. When we got to the campground, the host said that someone had just left a day

early from the best site in the park. So we took that already paid for site and another couple days. We would later, as predicted by the host, go and sign up for one more day. If we could have stayed longer, we would have. This is a site I would get advanced reservations for two weeks. It is a pull through facing the lake with a cement patio in front of the MH and a few steps and a ramp down to another big patio area. Then you have a small grass area and the water.

There area a number of other sites on the water but only two have these nice patio areas and are this close to the water. Oh and this is a corp of engineer campground and so we pay half price, which comes to 12 dollars a night for electric and water. Can't bet the COE campgrounds. As I mentioned in the title of this post, This was a top favorite of ours in all our travels and we have been to a lot of nice parks.

We went into East Nashville one day to go to Trader Joe's.  Very busy. TJ's was packed and this was in the middle of a weekday afternoon! Then we stopped at an outdoor farmer market for some fruit and veggies. I couldn't resist some interesting looking peas, which are called purple hull peas and I think are only grown in the south, especially in Arkansas. I later made a dish using these fresh peas cooked with bacon, onions and garlic and served it over some brown rice. Very tasty. I also got some fruit which I think is a type of grape but with a slightly harder outer skin and a green jelly like center. They were also good. We were going to spend some time in the more historic part of Nashville but really wanted to just enjoy our lake front view. We have been pretty busy in the last weeks, especially in DC and Maine and wanted some downtime in a great setting. We did finally get our Sea Eagle boat out and did some kayaking.  After some kayaking we added the sail equipment and Joe did some sailing. Savannah and I were content to just sit and check out the views and I did some reading.

We got more beautiful sunsets. Thursday came and no one cancelled their reservation for this spot(darn) and so we are off to another Tennessee campground near Memphis.

An Afternoon in Asheville

We had rain including one day where it rained ALL DAY. As we weren't planning on staying in this area much longer, as we still have a long way to go in the next few weeks, we didn't get to explore this area like we would have liked to. The Great Smokey National Park will have to wait for a future trip. We did go into Asheville for lunch our last day. We went to the Grove Arcade area of Asheville and walked around checking out some of the stores. We walked in one store filled with beautiful rocks, fossils, vases,etc. I could have bought a ton of stuff but our limited space in the MH saved us from spending a lot of money. Well actually any money. It was fun to look though. There are a number of restaurants with outdoor seating and so on this lovely rain free day, we decided on Chorizo. Chorizo is a Latin style restaurant.with food and drinks from Spain to Argentina.  We had ceviche to start.  I had the cuban crepes which had coffee smoked  pork and pickles which gave it an interesting taste. It came with beans and plantains.  Joe had what was called a double taco. It was a crispy taco inside of a soft taco with talipia.  I had a yummy pineapple mimosa and Joe had a beer.  The flavors were great. We have been on a roll with good restaurants lately.
We then drove over to the Grove Park Inn, which is an one hundred year old historic hotel. We passed some nice houses on the way there.

The Inn faces the Sunset Mountains, which is part of the Blue Ridge Mountains. What a lovely setting.

The architecture is of the Arts and Craft style. Many famous peple, including a number of presidents have stayed here.

There was an interesting story about the Supreme Court and this hotel  There was a plan to relocate the Supreme Court members in case of a nuclear attack. The agreement was in the 50's but is still valid to this day.

Would have been a nice place to have lunch on the Terrace with the great mountain views if we hadn't already eaten.

We are onto a new state tomorrow, Tennessee. Stay tuned.

North Carolina and Blue Ridge Parkway

We had planned to stop at Lake Powhatan at a forest service campground. However, when we came to a fork in the road, it had a sign to the Lake(didn't say campground) but Gracie, our GPS, said the other way. We followed the GPS and it came to a place where it said we were there but no campground. Sometimes in some of the campgrounds,it is off a little but we drove awhile and only saw signs for hiking trails and the road was narrow. When we came to a place where you could turn around we did so. It was late in the day and so we decided to go to another campground, Riverhouse Acres in Canton, NC, that was in the Escapees book we had. It didn't look that great when we first saw it, just about 6 or so rv's on the other side of a small farm with what looked like tomato plants. When we got our spot we saw that we were right on the river. Very nice after all.

The campground is on the banks of the forks of the East and West Pigeon River and at the base of Cold Mountain in the Smoky Mountains. The book and movie Cold Mountain is based on the events and people in this area.
Blue Ridge Parkway, at 469 miles long, is one of the great drives to take in the US. It is a relaxing drive with stunning views of the rugged mountains and landscape of the Appalachian Highlands. Of course we didn't drive the whole distance but got a good taste of this wonderful area.

 We stopped at several overlooks and at the south entrance visitor center. Savannah met a cute chocolate colored Cocker Spaniel puppy while we talked with the puppy's humans. Forgot to take a picture of the sweet puppy. The couple also had two Cavaliers that they didn't bring along on the drive.Forgot to take any pictures, darn.

We stopped at one overlook and had some nuts and fruit and enjoyed the views. Got some pictures of some of the butterflies that were checking out the flowers in the bushes in front of us.

We continued to enjoy the views on this parkway where speeds are generally not more than 45 miles per hour.

A Trip to Monticello

Monticello was the plantation of Thomas Jefferson. 2,500 of the 5,000 acres are owned by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation and they maintain the property which as been open to the public for 90 years. It is located near Charlottesville, Virginia

We first took a tour of the house that he designed and had built after inheriting the land from his father. He also inherited his fathers salves and he was only able to afford to built it by selling some of the slaves. The house is around 11,000 square feet and has 43 rooms. There are also 13 skylights which was something new in that day. In the 40 years he lived there he was constantly designing and redesigning the house. There is also a library which has some of the thousands of books he owned. He was a voracious reader.He sold many of the books to the Library of Congress in DC after a large fire burned most of the Library's books during the war of 1812. There was another fire later and two thirds of the over 6,000 books they received from Jefferson were burned. The Library of Congress, through a generous grant, are attempting to replace the books they got from Jefferson. We couldn't take pictures of the inside of the house but took some of his gardens which are quite extensive. There were 100's of types of vegetables and fruits planned n his gardens and many from different countries.

We also took a tour on slavery and the plantation. It is hard to believe that the person who wrote the Declaration of Independence with its freedom and liberty for all, would own slaves. At any time there were around 130 slaves working on his estate. He was said to abhor slavery and would have worked to abolish it if a piratical solution could be found. However, when he died he still had slaves. It shows that even some of our greatest heroes can be flawed. It was an interesting and enlightening visit.

On our way back to the campground we saw several deer. Our last night in Virginia gave us another beautiful sunset. We are next headed to North Carolina.

Stay tuned ya all.