Fri. 6/19… (Memphis,
MS ) Today was scheduled for the Graceland Mansion
Tour. We ate in and just walked across
the parking lot to the ticket pavilion. We decided to take the Platinum Tour
($36.45 ea w/senior+AAA discounts) and waited for our tour hr/no to pop
up. It was about an hour wait till we
boarded the bus for the ride across the street to the mansion. They give you Ipads w/headsets and John
Stamos does the audio. We took pictures in front and then went through the
various downstairs rooms (no one is allowed upstairs since the mansion
opened). Everything in the house is
period correct of the day Elvis died. The tour then takes you outside to the
offices, the grounds, the carport, and then back into the racquetball
room. In this room they now have records,
outfits and awards. You end the tour in
the meditation garden where Elvis is buried. The Platinum pkg. included the car
museum, sincerely Elvis museum, the airplanes and the archives. So we boarded
the shuttle and were taken to an archives bldg on the rear of the property
where everything in the collection is catalogued and filed away. You see a
video of his concerts and then board the bus to return to the visitor’s
center. We went to the auto museum and
decided we needed to eat so we returned to the campground. We would go back after dinner. We left and went down the road to Marlowe’s,
another bbq joint. It was very good. While close, we went to Walmart and then
headed home. Turns out we were too late
as they close everything at 5:00pm. We will
try to go tomorrow before we head out to Little
Rock .
.
Sat. 6/20… (
Once we had done those two things we were officially ‘Elvis’ed out’ and ready to leave
They don’t take reservations so we were a little leery about getting in. Rick checked the day before and they said there were spaces but they fill quickly. We did the ‘wife swap’ again so we could get on the base but we were told they needed 100% id check and any visitor needed to register at the visitor’s center. No problem except where to park two 40’ rigs in their parking lot. We maneuvered in and found spots and they were very nice and we got in with no problems (after they made traffic wait so we could enter the gate!). They are still on high alert as it was only 5 days ago that a wacko nutjob who must have gone off his meds went berserk and tried to crash the gates with his vehicle. The guards opened fire and stopped him before he could get in (he died later from his wounds). The base went into lockdown for several hours so needless to say they were a little on edge and packing full automatic rifles. Once we got in we found our way to the campground and luckily there were four spaces open and there were only two that we could have fit in so we were happy. Later, Janie fixed a casserole (potato, hamburger, veggie recipe
Sun. 6/21… (Little Rock ,
AR ) Happy
Father’s Day! We found out the Clinton
Presidential Library was open on Sundays (website says 12:00 noon) so we
decided to sleep in, go out to breakfast, then work our way there for the
tour. Breakfast was at the local Waffle
House (still very good!) and then we went into downtown area to locate the
library. Found it no problem but we
still had some time to kill so we drove around the area. Rick was born here but the family moved when
he was very young so he doesn’t remember too much. We thought he had family to visit but we
learned he had no plans to do any of that while here. Tomorrow or the next day we will go looking
for his grandfather’s burial site (in a confederate cemetery) if he can piece
things together enough to help us locate it. We’ll see. We got back to the library only to learn that
they don’t open until 1:00pm! We needed
to find a restroom so we set out and finally settled on the Marriott Hotel down
by the recently renovated riverfront street adjacent to the Arkansas River . That done we finally got
back to the library and finally got in.
Since it was a Sunday, plus it was Father’s Day, plus they have a new
temporary ‘Living Dinosaurs’ exhibition in the same building, it was kind of
crowded. But not so bad we didn’t go
in. The Clinton Presidential Library
(admission for seniors was $5.ea) is very interesting. It’s not the biggest or best we have seen but
I ranked it up with those I liked. Love him or hate him, President Clinton can
take credit for many positive things that happened during his two terms in
office. But he will always be remembered
for a couple of rough times that he dealt with (Lewinsky scandal plus income
earned while in office). I especially
made a point of taking pictures of his desk in the Oval Office replica. Nope, didn’t see anything unusual!!! We did like the fact that everything on the
two floors is well laid out and you could take your time and see as much or as
little as you wanted. Afterward we
walked through the dinosaur exhibit.
They have large (probably half scale) dinosaurs that are animated. Lydia
especially liked teasing the t-rex to bite her.
After
that, we left and drove back to the base to walk the dogs and rest a bit before
going back out to dinner. We decided on
Chuey’s for Mexican food. We had noticed
when driving by that the parking lot was always full so we gave it a try. I think it was the best Mexican food we have
had on this trip! Very good! On the way
home we stopped at Sam’s Club so Janie could get some things and then went to
Lowe’s for a water filter for their refrigerator before heading home for the
night.
Mon. 6/22… (Little Rock , AR ) Happy Anniversary to us! 47 years! We didn’t have any
plans today as this was Rick’s time for family. He had found a confederate
cemetery in Pine Bluff
and wanted to check it out. He was
looking for his grandfather’s gravesite.
He had been here with his aunt several years ago but couldn’t remember
where it was. He also found an
interesting train museum in Pine Bluff
but before we left he went off to the base pharmacy to try to get a prescription
filled. That in work, off we went. We
drove the 30 some miles to Pine Bluff and found the address. The museum was
really cool. It was actually a
manufacturing facility that built trains as early as the late 1800’s. They had
examples of all of the types of equipment used in the day and they were all
open to go into! We met the docent who
(besides being a redneck bigot) was very interesting and knowledgeable and took
me behind the scenes to show me how they moved all of the equipment around in
the plant. The tour was free with a
donation which we gladly made. After
that we drove to the cemetery just outside of town. Turned out it was not the
one. Since it was getting past 2:00pm we
decided to try to find a place for linner.
We searched the gps but found when we got to a place it would be closed
or shut down. So we headed back to Little Rock and went to Red Lobster and had a great
meal. After coming back and resting a
bit we went to Walmart and picked up a few things then sat out a bit before
coming in to watch TV.
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