"Life Part 2" or "Our Life Living on the Road": Kentucky, Shiloh and Memphis

I've decided to summarize our adventures by stop. So this post will be about our 5 day stay in Kentucky, and week long stay in Memphis. (We are currently in North Little Rock AR, but more about that in a week or two.) We were staying at Murphys Outback RV Park. It's a nice park. Mostly seasonal people there, but it's more on the quiet side and very clean. So I'd give it 8 stars out of 10.

While we were there we met our neighbors Rick and Lenore. No last name to protect the innocent. They have been full timing for about 2 1/2 years now. They also have a blog about all of their adventures at crosscountrydancing.blogspot.com. You should check it out. We got along so well we are getting together for Thanksgiving down in New Orleans.

Our first trip was up to Henderson, KYand the John James Audubon State Park. The park has a great museum about Audubon and a great collection of his prints. Very interesting. They also have some nice hiking trails. Here are some pictures.

I keep telling you Lynn is tiny.

One of my favorite pictures.

The next trip was to Paducah. What a fabulous waterfront. A town rich in history from the great flood in 37' and it's roll during the civil war. While there we stopped at the Market House Theatre. They are celebrating their 50th anniversary and have two great spaces. We ran into the Executive Director Michael Cochran. A great guy who not only took the time to talk to us but gave us a tour. And (for our friends back in Sheboygan) he knows Ralph. Go figure. Theater is a small world.

The flood wall downtown has been painted with murals depicting the history of the city. Here are some pictures of the wall and other parts of the downtown area.

The flood wall in Puducah.

Ed this one is for you. Scout troop #1 From Puducah.

After our stay in Kentucky it was on to Memphis TN. Actually we stayed in Southaven MS. just south of Memphis. My summary of our time here is easy, we will be back. Everything about the week we were here was great. Except the RV park. It was ok. But as we did not spend a lot of time there it didn't matter.

Where to start. During our stay we decided to go over to the Shiloh National Battlefield Park. Yes the Government got back to work. As most of you know Lynn and I love all things History. Especially about the Civil War. So you will be see a lot of posts about our visits.

The park was beautiful. They have a movie at the main building that summarizes the battle. It really brings everything into perspective once you're out there looking around. If you go, allow plenty of time. The place is huge. Plus near the end of the driving tour there are some Indian burial mounds. Our time was running short so we really couldn't spend much time visiting them. Here are some of our favorite pictures of our visit.

The National Cemetery. The square blocks are unknown soldiers.

A Confederate memorial. If you look close you will see more soldier reliefs on the right side the the left depicting the boys marching to battle and the ones marching home.

The tree line is the Hornets Nest.

Some of the 60 cannon that the confederates gathered at Hornets Nest to drive Grant and the union army back to the Tennessee river.

After Shiloh we retreated like the Rebs to Corinth MS, and ate at a great rib joint called the Rib Shack in Corinth Mississippi. This is a definite stop for anyone that is in the area. We had the ribs and they were finger licking good. Literally.

The next major attraction was Graceland. Going into this I was expecting, well schmaltz. For you youngsters out there schmaltz is defined in the Urban dictionary as "a work of art that is excessively sentimental, sappy or cheesy." For those of you who know me, I don't like schmaltz. Unless of course it is my own schmaltz. But the point of all of this is that Graceland was not like that at all. The mansion is a look back at the 70's. Not my favorite era but a nice look back. The various rooms of the house were interesting to say the least.

Here is the living room that is in the front of the house. The stained glass on either side of the door to the piano room was stunning.

Here is the fireplace. You can see the 16' long couch in the mirror.

Mom's bedroom.

The formal dinning room.

The kitchen which is really no different then most of that era. Except for the size. Photos do not do any of the rooms justice.

His media room with 3 TV's and not shown was part of his record collection.

Ah the billiard room. Note that the walls and ceiling are covered in material. This was sort of a theme running through the house with carpeting on walls and ceiling as well. Ahh the 70's

This is the jungle room. It's a crappy picture because
the light in the room was bad and you can't use a flash. But I wanted it in anyway because the furniture
was fabulous.

After the tour of the house you tour the grounds Which include his dad's office, the stables, a racquetball, court, and finally his grave. I'm not going to post photos of all of that because it's like the old home movies. No one really cares except the people who were there. Here are two pictures of his grave though.

After Graceland there are several other stops to look at across the street from the mansion. Our favorite were the airplanes. The others are nice but you start going into Elvis overload after 4 hours. Oh and we saw the Graceland RV park. It looked nicer then the one we were at. Go figure. One final pic from Graceland. One of my favorites.

Our next stop was the Memphis Botanical Garden. Very cool. A good stop if your in the area. Here's a few pictures.

I need to apologize because I didn't keep up with our posts I am rushing through some of the things we did. Mainly because I am sitting on a beautiful river in downtown North Little Rock and want to get out and see the city, but also because this is new for me. I don't know what or how much you want to read about. So so feedback might be nice. Otherwise I will just keep fumbling along. Come to think of it that describes my life.

After the garden we ventured downtown and we hit Beale St. This is a must stop. Now it was midweek when we visited so it wasn't that crowded but the energy and vibe was still there. We hit Hard Rock, BB Kings, Coyote Ugly, Gibson Guitar and too many more to mention. I loved this sign outside of Coyote Ugly.

We found an out side bar and restaurant with live music. Kids tumbling in the street and a great mix of personalities walking around. We will definitely go back.

The next day we hit Mud Island and Confederate Park. The park is nice but small. A nice view of the Mississippi. Mud Island on the other hard was great. They have a replica of the Mississippi on the island. The scale is one foot equals one mile. It was huge.

It shows all of the flood plains and the major cities along the way. There

are signs that talk about the history of what happened where. Very cool.

Lynn is in Louisiana and Arkansas!

Mississippi Riverboat

Barges on the Mississippi.

Another great stop was the Memphis Zoo. It was dressed up for Halloween which you can see in the pictures and we would not want to be there when all the kids were. Yes we are old farts. But is was one of our favorites so far.