12/23/06 Saturday- heading to Mississippi

Pictures: 1-7rest area; 8-15 Tombigbee State Park; 16-28 Evlis's childhood home

Hi Everyone,

It was cold and raining when I left Alabama. After driving for a few hours I arrived at the Mississippi state line. The sun was out and it was a bit warmer. The rest area I stopped at the so nice. I had never seen a rest area like this so I took pictures of it. It was very home-like looking! I got a lot of info about places to see here. Then I was back on the road heading towards Tupelo - this is where Elvis grew up.

I arrived at the Tombigbee State Park located just outside of Tupelo. In a town called Plantersville. It was around 4pm. I first went to the tent sites. It was very isolated and far from bath houses & there were no other tenters out here and there also was no electric hook ups, so I went back to the office to see if I could camp where the RV's were. At least there the bath house was right there and there were water & electric hook ups...and a few RV's. It ended up not being a problem just cost a bit more- but not much. There were two sites that didn't have sewerage hook ups and seeing I didn't need that anyways (LOL) I took one of those sites- it was cheaper than regular RV sites.

I got set up and took a ride to Walmart to get some food items- as I was going to spend the next 3 days here. I got back and had dinner, made a nice campfire and went online to chat with everyone.

The next day was Sunday. The weather was going to be turning bad here too. A large weather front was causing all kinds of problems in the south. I decided to take a trip into Tupelo to check things out. It was still a fairly small town, much to my surprise. I found the house that Elvis grew up in. They have a small museum there too. The wall near fountain has plaques with quoted memories from childhood friends and family about Elvis. Near the house is a statue that was made in Elvis's honor. It is suppose to reflect what he looked like as a young teen. There was also a walkway around the house. Each block of the walkway had a bronze plaque in it of a year. Each block represented a year in the life of Elvis from the time he was born until he left with his family to Memphis,Tennesse.

I drove around for a bit then head back to campsite. Made some dinner and another cozy fire!! The next day was Christmas...I was going to run up to Memphis for the day and check out Graceland. But plans changed....while online I found out the weather was going to get much worse. They were now predicting a lot of rain changing into snow!!! Not a lot of snow by homes standards (1-2 inches), but not being familiar with the way they handle snow down here.....I decided to stay put on the 25th. It wasn't worth the risk of having an accident. I found out later speaking with the Park Ranger that it was probably a good idea not to travel as they don't plow or sand down there. They basically just stay home!! LOL It started raining around 7pm so I headed for my tent. I had visitors around 8pm that night- it was dark and raining and I could hear two women saying hello...hello in the tent! LOL So I opened up the tent a bit and there were two women standing there. They had stated that they lived nearby and were friends with the man, two RV's down from me. He was worried about me being all right- being alone and he wanted to make sure it didn't need food or anything else. I thanked them and reassured them that I was fine, and that I was warm enough and had food!! They were satisfied, but said if I needed anything to go see their friend and he's get in touch with them. I thanked them again, and they went back to report their findings LOL.

The next day the 25th was miserable!!! It poured!! I was stuck in my little tent all day! LOL I went online, and watched a dvd I had with me. I also took naps, but was basically very bored! I also wasn't looking forward to packing up the next morning- having a wet tent! It rained hard most of the night. Around 11pm I noticed the rain had stopped I went up to bath house while the getting was good!! LOL I wasn't sure when the snow was coming, but it sure was cold enough for snow!!! The winds were wild that night. I didn't sleep much- waiting for one of the trees to fall over it was so windy!! (I found out the next day they had a tornado in Florida from the same storm I had)

Well when I got up the next morning I was dreading looking out my tent!! LOL But much to my surprise the rain had stopped and there was NO SNOW. It was still very cold though...but the very best thing was all the wind we had during the night had thoroughly dried my tent off!!! What a blessing!! So I wasted no time, even before I got dressed I packed up everything...for fear if I took the time to shower first the rains or snow would come and I'd have a mess to deal with! So after packing up I got cleaned up and off I was again- this time heading more south!!! I was off to Louisiana.

Take Care- will be in touch soon!!- Love Donna

SEE PICTURES IN ALBUM #55:http://picasaweb.google.com/Pandadmd5880

Tags: MISSISSIPPI