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Published: April 26th 2017
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I probably started out the day with a bad attitude, and sure hope it didn’t show to my travelling girlies. We had such a long way to go today, and I was not looking forward to the drive at all. 250+ miles over hill and dale and ‘hood and vale. It took us pretty much 7 hours, with 2 lengthy stops. Some of the roads in MS are wonderful, and others just plain suck. The interstates suck, full of potholes and varying road surfaces. The State and County roads are mostly ok, but their speed limit can range from 45 to 65. I don’t do 65 at all; I would be airborne over the bumps. I was point person, Kim next, Ginnie tail gunner.
I am very surprised how hilly central MS is. Beautiful rolling hills, with corn planted and just starting to grow. The cotton fields hadn’t been plowed under yet. I saw a few cattle farms. We did pass the Nissan Canton assembly plant where Bernie had a large rally in March. This facility was humongous. I never saw a sign, and Kim had to tell me via walkie talkie what we were passing…..Duh…..The exit sign said Nissan
Avenue. Per their website, 6400 employees, 4.7M square feet, 1,038 acres with a capacity for 450,000 vehicles and they have produced over 3M since 2003. Annual payroll over $400M, over $13.6M in total charitable contributions since the 2003 opening. That’s impressive.
We made it to our beautiful Fulton campground, an Army Core of Engineers park east of Tupelo about 4:00 and after shuffling sites to get better ones, we sat down for happy hour. Nice and cool, no flying bugs, but I haven’t checked for ticks or burrs yet. It must have rained here earlier today as the ground is wet, but not muddy. My attitude chirped up as soon as I plugged my electricity in here, and I had a cigarette. Yup, I broke down. 2 a day. I promise, until I get my feet planted back home.
I did hear from our missing Quester, Kathy, and she will be able to join us at the end of our trip when we are in Gettysburg, PA. Yay, Double Yay, Triple Yay! We talk about her a lot. She would love this campground, except there are ticks. Oh yes, and poison ivy in the woods surrounding my campsite.
A fun day in Tupelo; we started the Elvis Trail. Our first stop was the Tupelo Battlefield. We should have known when we read it was a one acre site that they might not have a full ranger station with rest rooms and stamps. Right on! More map and website checking and we headed to the Natchez Trace Visitor Center, on the trace, about 7 miles from the ‘battlefield." We got the stamp for the battlefield, The Natchez Trace, Brices Cross Roads, and the Meriwether Lewis site and saw a wonderful 15 minute movie on the trace. Even though we did not visit Brices or Meriwether, we figured we were owed those stamps as we really tried to visit the battlefield, all one acre of it. (Brices was a small but notable battle, and Meriwether is the place he is buried.)
On to Elvis’ birthplace. I have visited here previously on my RV trip to UT for Kristine’s wedding in 2013, and it still is a good tour. We toured the tiny shotgun house where guide Mary was doling out facts left and right. Although she only met him a few times, she was a wealth of knowledge,
We were in the Elvis booth!
How lucky were we!!! Such tourists!! but, basically, the house was moved from this original site, then bought by Elvis and moved back and the foundation runs the exhibit. On to the church, also moved here, watched the wonderful church service movie where we felt like part of the congregation. On to the museum, a mini Graceland type exhibit, and, of course, the gift shop. We are all singing Elvis songs now, getting ready for Memphis and Graceland tomorrow. I am going to download an Elvis ringtone, just can't decide which one.
We overheard some folks talking about Johnnie’s Drive In, around the corner from the Tupelo house, and a known Elvis hangout. Had to do it!! It has an eat in part, a take out station, and a few tables to sit at. We were fortunate enough to sit at THE ELVIS BOOTH and were ridiculous tourists taking every picture we possibly could. Make sure you look at the pictures!! Especially of the menu. Total cost for hamburger lunch for 3, $18.
Heading back to the campground, we crossed the Tenn-Tom Waterway, and had to google to see what we were following, and then I discovered the water we can see from our
campsites is indeed the Tenn-Tom Waterway.
It really has a fascinating history which can be read here:
http://history.tenntom.org/ If you don’t want to read that lengthy history, briefly:
It is a 234 mile project connecting the Tennessee River in northeast MS to the Tombigbee River, middle western side of AL . When completed the Tenn-Tom waterway’s total cost was $1.992 billion, which led some political and economic commentators to ridicule the waterway as "pork-barrel politics at its worst.” For the first few years after its creation these criticisms appeared valid. The Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway had opened during an economic recession in the barge business which resulted in initially disappointingly low use of the waterway.
The 1988 drought however, closed the Mississippi River and shifted traffic to the Tenn-Tom canal. This coincided with an economic turnaround on the Tennessee-Tombigbee corridor, wherein trade tonnage and commercial investment have increased steadily over several years.
The two primary commodities shipped via the Tenn-Tom are coal and timber products, together comprising about 70 percent of total commercial shipping on the waterway. The Tenn-Tom also provides access to over 34 million acres of commercial forests and approximately two-thirds of all recoverable
coal reserves in the nation. Industries that utilize these natural resources have found the Waterway to be their most cost-efficient mode of transportation.Other popular Tenn-Tom trade products include grain, gravel, sand, and iron.
According to a 2009 Troy University study, since 1996 the United States has realized a direct, indirect, and induced economic impact of nearly $43 billion due to the existence and usage of the Tenn-Tom Waterway, and it has directly created more than 29,000 jobs. Without the Waterway as a viable source of transportation, an average of 284,000 additional truckloads per year would be required to handle the materials currently being shipped.
We noticed a sign for the Fulton Lock on our way out of the campground this morning, and we stopped on the way back, then we put it all together – can’t fool us long, for sure – the water behind us is the Tenn-Tom and the campground, also built by the Army Corp of Engineers, might be where the workers lived while building this section….that’s only speculation on my part.
All quiet back at the campground. Winston is pretty mellow this trip, not a lot of time to run around, so he
gets lots of walks when my knee and other aching parts can deal with it. Going to do that right now. I am also going to close myself in as I am downwind of a neighbor’s campfire and can feel the smoke already in my eyes. Ought to be a name of a song.
Memphis up the road tomorrow, Graceland, The Peabody ducks, Central BBQ.
Kat Out
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