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Our trip back to Arkansas from North Carolina, via Tennessee and Mississippi, was uneventful. We crossed into Tennessee on Sunday, November 12 and spent a couple of days in the Tri-Cities region of eastern Tennessee which encompasses Bristol, Johnson City, and Kingsport. It is a beautiful area but not an area that appealed to us for retirement. We did enjoy Jonesborough, a very historical town near Johnson City.

We tried to connect with one of my childhood friends, Vicki Joy Purifoy and her husband John, in Knoxville but were not successful. We hated to miss them – they are two of our favorite folks! But the weather had turned bad – lots of rain and storms – so we decided it was time to head for home. By the time we reached Nashville, it was really nasty – so nasty that we didn’t even stop long enough to see my nephew, Brian, and his family. In spite of the weather, we decided to follow the Natchez Trace from its beginnings in Nashville all the way to Tupelo, Mississippi. We knew it would be slower than the interstate, but much, much less stressful. It was a beautiful drive, in spite of being a dreary winter day. In fact, Jerry dubbed it the "prettiest road I ever did see!" There were few cars on The Trace and, with a speed limit of 50 miles per hour, it was meant to be enjoyed. It was nice to slow down a bit.

The Natchez Trace is 444 miles in length stretching all the way from Nashville to Natchez, MS. Along the way, there are no signs other than those with historical information about The Trace, no billboards, no fences, no trash, no telephone poles, no electric lines . . . it is pristine.

Once we reached Tupelo, we set up camp at the Tom Bigby State Park. It was a beautiful park with huge old trees and in striking distance of Elvis’ birthplace and Oxford, MS, both sites we wanted to see. We visited Elvis’ Birthplace where we loved walking in the footsteps of The King. Standing in the very room where Elvis and his twin, Jesse Garon, were born at 4:35 a.m. on January 8, 1935 was pretty awesome. The house where he was born is still in its original location. It was built by Elvis’ father, a sharecropper, with money borrowed from his landlord. It consisted of two rooms, a bedroom and a kitchen, totaling only 450 square feet. It had a fireplace for heat and a wood cook stove. There was no electricity and no indoor plumbing. Unfortunately, the home was eventually repossessed when Vernon Presley was unable to make the payments. The furnishings are not original as they had to sell all their furniture to have a little money when they moved to Memphis in 1948.

The timeline depicting Elvis’ life was most interesting. We learned that the home and family survived a devastating tornado in 1936; they began attending the First Assembly of God Church in Tupelo in 1937; in 1938, Gladys and Elvis received government commodities while Vernon was in prison; in 1939, their home and car were repossessed and Vernon was released from prison; in 1941, Elvis entered the first grade in Tupelo; in 1944, Elvis began singing in church; in 1945, he sang "Old Shep" at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show; in 1946, Elvis received his first guitar for his 11th birthday; in 1948, the family moved to Memphis and the rest is history. Unfortunately, the museum was closed for renovation so we missed a lot of memorabilia.

Of course, we all remember the awful day when we learned that Elvis was dead – August 16, 1977, the year Jerry and I were married. It was truly a sad day for our generation as we had grown up with Elvis, and learned to dance to his music.

On Saturday, November 18, we drove to Starkville for the Arkansas – Mississippi State football game. Luckily, we beat the Bulldogs 28 – 14 and had a great time at the game. We do believe that the Bully Bells should be outlawed as we were almost deaf by the end of the game. In fact, during the 4th quarter, Jerry offered one of the MSU fans $100 if he would NOT ring his bell anymore. It worked . . . his wife made him quit ringing it and we all had a good laugh. We finished the evening with a not-so-memorable dinner at Logan’s Roadhouse.

We pulled out of the campground on Sunday morning. Jerry’s gambling finger was itching so we made a detour through Tunica on the way to Arkansas. It took only minutes of losing in Sam’s Town for Jerry to decide it was time to head for home so off we went.

Want to know how we feel about our home state? When we crossed the Arkansas state line, we rolled down the windows just to breathe the air. It was sweet, even if it was in West Memphis.

We spent a week at Maumelle Park in Little Rock before storing Bubba in Morrilton and heading for our cabin in the Ozarks for Thanksgiving and Christmas – what a wonderful place! Early in December, our dear friends, Bill and Diane Pharis of Fayetteville, joined us at the cabin for a weekend of four-wheeling and relaxation. We always love spending time with them.

Our time at the cabin, however, was cut short when we learned that Jerry’s uncle, Dan, was coming back to Arkansas (he had been traveling in Mexico) to recuperate from viral meningitis and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. We moved his furniture from storage back into his former place of residence near Toad Suck and began our efforts to nurse him back to health. After several days of driving from the cabin (120 miles round trip), we were pretty tired so we decided to locate Bubba at Toad Suck Park, near Conway, and only 4 miles from Dan. We spent the next 3+ weeks taking care of Dan until we felt that he was strong enough for us to leave him. We did make our annual trip to Devil’s Den State Park with our dear friends, Bill and Diane Pharis, the weekend of January 12. It was wonderful, as always, to spend time in that beautiful place with such special friends. It rained all weekend with threats of dropping temperatures and ice. We decided on Saturday to check out of our cabin and go to Bill and Diane’s home in Fayetteville, just in case the threats came true. They didn’t but, while in Fayetteville, we attended the Property Owners Association meeting for the Bois D’Arc subdivision, where we own a lot. It was nice to meet the folks who might someday be our neighbors.

On Sunday, we headed back to Toad Suck for a few more days of TLC for Dan. On Wednesday night, we met my brother and sister-in-law, Mack and Carolyn, in Brinkley, AR for a bon voyage dinner at Gene’s Restaurant and Barbecue. What a hoot! By this time, we felt that Dan was strong enough for us to head for Texas and our 29 day tour into Mexico so off we went with a little side trip through Big Bend and the surrounding area. More on that later.

Happy trails to you . . . til we meet again!

Church sign near Nashville: It is unlikely there will be reduction in the wages of sin.