2013 Western U.S. Loop

We are a week early for "Elvis Week" and I am not saying that is a bad thing. I love Elvis but not sure I want to be here when all those Elvis Wannabe's converge to honor the 35th anniversary, yes, that is 35 years since Elvis went to that great Gracelan' in the sky. After about a 5 hour drive, we arrived at the Hernando Point COE park where we would stay for the next 3 nites. Bob did another great job selecting the best site in the park, #19.

Since we have been to Memphis a few times in the past, we skipped all the Elvis "stuff". Once every 20 years is enough. We did a "drive around" tour of Memphis on our own and stopped by the Visitor's Center to see if there was any happenings going on that we would want to be sure and see.
BB King Elvis, of course
Drove by the infamous Gus' Fried Chicken but the line was too long to stop. There was someone who had come by limo for fried chicken, only in the south.

We ended up on Beale St where we spent the afternoon listening to some good music. I think our favorite venue was Mr. Handy's Blues Hall and Juke Joint. Reminds me of the little joint in NOLA that we love so much. In fact, one of the guys in the band was telling us he plays Frenchman Street quite often in NOLA. We will have to remember to check to see if he is there next time.

Sunday morning, we got up to a beautiful morning and spent some quiet time sitting on the lake front. Nothing like it! It was actually the coolest morning we have had; I guess a little cold front moved in and dropped the temps to high 70's and with a little breeze off the water, it was perfect. We spent most of the day just relaxing and enjoying the weather with plans to meet up with a friend, SIL, from 40 years ago. We met for dinner in Tunica with a little gambling thrown in. Wow, so good to see Susan after all those years and of course, we have pledged to keep in touch and get together in the not to distant future. We will definitely follow through!

Ok, time to pack up and move forward. We are headed to Hot Springs/Little Rock today and Bob tells me it is only 3 hours. Hmmm, he has told me that each time and we have yet to travel ONLY 3 hours. I am excited because we are now getting into virgin territory for us, something new to discover!

To quote Elvis, "Thank you very much" for checking in with us and come back soon.

Left Leesburg on schedule, kind of. Bob discovered the electric outlet for sprinklers was not working the night before we were to leave so he had to get up, go to Lowe's and repair that before we pulled out. For those of you who know Bob (those who don't, he does not do electric well), he accomplished that even without my help! On the road by 8:30 and arrived at the Gunter HIll Core of Engineer Park outside Montgomery around 4:30, "their" time. We hit some rain on the way and thought we had way overloaded the trailer because whenever we would try to stop, the trailer would slide the truck forward. Very scary and made us wonder how in the heck we were going to go up and down mountains with that happening. Well, about half way here, Bob happened to notice the lights weren't on, on the side of the rv, meaning, the connection wasn't good on cord between rv and truck-----no brake lights and no brakes!!! It was a relief to know that was why the brakes weren't stopping the truck but scary thinking we were driving with no brake lights or brakes that whole way! We ALWAYS check those lights before we leave. Okay, always except for this one time when we got in a hurry....lesson learned.

What can I say about Montgomery? The COE park was very nice as are all the COE parks are we have stayed in and at $11/night, can't beat it! Note to self, we were in site #27 which was on the river and very long and level with full hookup. This is important to know if we ever decide to come back which would only be as it is now, just passing through.
site #27view from back of rv

We checked out some of the more interesting sites in and around Montgomery. We did not make it to the Civil Rights Museum which is too bad since that is really mostly what this area is known for. We did visit "Old Alabama Town" which was a lot of old business buildings, houses,carriage houses and churches brought in from around Alabama to preserve the history.

First Whitehouse of the Confederacy
Capitol Building

We will be moving on to Memphis today looking for some blues, BBQ and beer. As they say in Alabama, ya'll come back now.

So, we have been trying to do this trip for 3 years and every year, gas prices would sky rocket when we would start getting into the planning mode and we would postpone it. We decided this year, to heck with it, we are going.

The next step is planning on where we are actually going, the stops we will make, what we will do there and how much time we will be there. Actually, we wanted to go without any reservations so we could kind of plan it as we went but, with the crowds at the National Parks, especially, Glacier and Yellowstone, we decided to make reservations as far Yellowstone to be sure we will have a place to camp at Glacier and Yellowstone. From that point on, we will have several campgrounds at each destination that we will choose from providing they have availability.

Next, we started looking at the different things to do at each stop, making notes of the the things we wanted to be sure to see, making maps if there were sightseeing road trips we wanted to see at any particular area. There are more hiking trails that look wonderful then we will ever be able to do although, we have selected several we really want to give a shot. Ok, I know we are flatlanders living at sea level and most of these hikes are in the mountains (real mountains, not the Smokies), but, we are going to give it a shot. Our backpacks are ready: bear spray, bug spray, bear spray, water, bear spray....you get the idea. (Wonder if we should be taking oxygen, these mountains look really high!) I'm hoping we get up there and discover all this talk online about bears is way overrated. But, we will be prepared. Oh yeah, we need to remember, if it's a grizzly, fall down and cover your head with your arms, if it's a black bear, scream and yell and wave your arms. Are grizzly's black? Just wondering how I will tell the difference. Honestly, I don't think I could stand in one place unless I was just frozen in place and I probably wouldn't scream because I would be "speechless".

With a week to go before we leave, we have the camper just about ready to go. It is amazing how you can fit a 4br house into a 30 foot camper. lol. Well, almost. It is really difficult getting all the winter clothes packed, jeans, sweatshirts, heavy coats, etc., when it is 90 degrees + outside. As I haul clothes out to the camper, I am afraid I am not taking enough winter clothes because it is so hot here, so, I double up on the winter stuff. Now, I'm thinking about the "hot" places we will be, Little Rock in early August, the desert out west, Texas, and I'm afraid I don't have enough "cool" clothes, so I add more. As usual, I will have way too many clothes but I get comfort from the fact that Bob is taking more then me.

So, the trip is now MOSTLY planned as far as where we are actually going. Not including sightseeing road trips from each destination, we will log over 8,000 miles. Hmmm, I'm tired of riding already! We will leave in 6 days, July 31st and plan on being back home before Thanksgiving. We will have Rob check our mail every week and I am depending on him to water the few houseplants I have, We will see how that works! Got the lawn service setup to mow once a week and hopefully, anyone sending us a BILL will do it via email now. They will if they want to get paid.

The 31st better hurry up and get here. Can't stuff anymore in that camper!